Abstract
THE completed first volume of the Annales de l'Institut Henri Poincare (Paris: Institut Henri Poincare; Les Presses Universitaires de France) contains a highly interesting set of papers on theoretical physics and its mathematical borderland, of varying degrees of difficulty, several of which have been referred to in our columns on their appearance. The contributions verging on the purely mathematical include two on integral equations, by Kostitzin and Carleman, one by Brillouin, on a hyperbolic equation, and two, by Levy and Polya, on the calculus of probabilities. Relativity is represented by Einstein and de Donder, and quantum theory by Darwin, Fermi, Born, and Dirac. The other papers are by Brillouin, on fusion, and by L. Bloch, on band spectra. It will be evident that the list of authors is one of unusual authority, a feature continued in the first numbers of the second volume by the inclusion of Sommerfeld and Cabrera. Their respective papers also give in short the aim of all, which appears to be to comment on current problems, or to collect and criticise otherwise scattered work. The papers are based on lectures delivered under the auspices of the Institut Henri Poincare, and the only important change to be desired is that less time should be allowed to elapse between the delivery of the lecture and the time when it appears in print.
Article PDF
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Publications of the Institut Henri Poincar. Nature 130, 18 (1932). https://doi.org/10.1038/130018c0
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/130018c0