Bibliography

LOUIS DE BROGLIE. Einführung in die Wellenmechanik. Translated by R. Peierls. Akademische Verlagsgesellschaft, Leipzig, 1930. IV + 222 pp.

LOUIS DE BROGLIE. Introduction to Wave Mechanics.

Wave mechanics is four years old; it is therefore understandable that all the numerous books devoted to it are called “Introductions.” The monograph under review may also be called an introduction because it deals only with the fundamental questions of wave mechanics, and the exposition ends with a brief consideration of the theory of the hydrogen atom.

The book was written by the creator of the basic idea of wave mechanics—the idea of material waves and of the inseparable connection between the concept of a corpuscle and the concept of a wave. Naturally, therefore, the exposition has a wholly original character, essentially distinguishing this book from many others that have appeared in foreign literature in recent times. The idea of material waves is derived from the formulas of the Lorentz transformation and is then generalized into the form of Schrödinger’s. A separate chapter is devoted to the wave mechanics of light quanta, with some of the author’s earlier conclusions (for example, concerning the proper “rest” mass of the light quantum) being corrected.

The book begins with an exposition of the principles of classical mechanics and the theory of waves; then, in the indicated manner, a bridge is thrown from classical mechanics to wave mechanics; various interpretations of \(\psi\)-waves are given, in particular the Born–Heisenberg theory (the uncertainty principle); and finally special problems are considered: the wave mechanics of a system of points, the stability of periodic motions, and the simplest examples of quantization.

The exposition is very clear; the derivations do not require especially concentrated attention from the reader; the mathematical apparatus used will be entirely comprehensible to a student of physics and mathematics in the senior years.

C. Vavilov.