Hendrik Casimir (1909-2000)

Lot 57
09.12.2020 00:00UTC +00:00
Classic
Prix de départ
£ 2 000
AuctioneerCHRISTIE'S
Lieu de l'événementRoyaume-Uni, London
Commissionsee on Website%
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ID 470273
Lot 57 | Hendrik Casimir (1909-2000)
Valeur estimée
£ 2 000 – 3 000
Hendrik Casimir (1909-2000)

To Samuel A. Goudsmit. 27 September [19]30

CASIMIR, Hendrick (1909-2000). Autograph letter signed (‘Henk Casimir’) to [Samuel A. Goudsmit] (‘Beste Sam’), n.p. [Copenhagen], 27 September [19]30.



In Dutch and English. 7½ pages, 278 x 208mm, pages numbered in autograph at top right (staple hole at top left of each leaf, 1cm tear at the top right of the final leaf). Provenance: Plotnick Library, Christie's New York, 4 October 2002, lot 50 (part).



A long scientific letter from the Dutch theoretical physicist Hendrik Casimir on spectroscopy, electron spin and matrices, making reference to his work on the Dirac equation and to his life in Copenhagen working alongside Niels Bohr, George Gamow, Lev Landau, and Leon Rosenfeld. '... it has become clear to me, especially because of some remarks from [Lev Davidovich] Landau, that application of Dirac's or Pauli's theory to a light-emitting electron (although giving the right order of magnitude for the doublet splitting) just isn't very useful. It seems preferable to treat the problem by introducing a current for both orbit and spin. Thus both spin and orbit each give rise to a magnetic field. When writing down the equations one has to take into account that J is a diagonal matrix. But for coupling between s and l no assumption is made. This converges also for s states and then gives the well-known result. One can be sure that one simply has to get the same result as with the Dirac theory, if one neglects relativity effects...'. Casimir goes on to offer an entertaining account of an automobile trip in the eastern United States, as well as news about his fellow members at the Niels Bohr Institute in Copenhagen: 'Here we have Gamov[sic], Rosenfelt and Landau. Landau, a young Russian, is astoundingly smart. Grossly unmannered but not un-entertaining. Also Bohr likes him very much [...] Of course we have again some pain-in-the-neck assignments. A Faraday lecture which has to be written is the most urgent. Tomorrow [Niels] Bohr and I will escape and see if we can get it done'.

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