Table of Contents

Preface1Introduction32The Old Quantum Theory93Quantum Mechanics314Quantum Electrodynamics595Statistical Mechanics, Solid-State Physics, and Low-Temperature Physics676The Kramers Problem and Polymer Physics937Miscellaneous Topics109AOn the Scattering of Radiation by Atoms121BSome Remarks on Heisenberg's Quantum Mechanics145CWave Mechanics and Half-Odd-Integral Quantisation151DThe Scattering of Light by Atoms163EGeneral Theory of Paramagnetic Rotation in Crystals173FClassical Relativistic Spin-Theory and Its Quantization187GOn the Eigenvalue Problem in a One-Dimensional Field of Force195HThe Use of Charge-Conjugated Wavefunctions in the Hole Theory of the Electron203IBrownian Motion in a Field of Force and the Diffusion Model of Chemical Reactions213JStatistics of the Two-Dimensional Ferromagnet231KFundamental Difficulties of a Theory of Particles249LThe Behavior of Macromolecules in Inhomogeneous Flow257References273Publications of H. A. Kramers277Index283

About the Author

D. ter Haar is Emeritus Fellow of Magdalen College, Oxford and the author of numerous books about physics, including Elements of Statistical Mechanics.

Reviews

"Ter Haar, who studied with Kramers, has a unique approach to scientific biography: He makes us read the original papers [along with] discussion of the published work and an eludication of these papers... On quantum electrodynamics] and the other subjects on which he touches, [ter Haar] has written a stimulating book that brings Kramers's history-making work even more into focus..."--Physics Today