Abstract
No. 704 of Hermann's “Actualites” series is by Prof. Louis do Broglie, editor of the volumes on theoretical physics, and is entitled “Le Principe de Correspondence et les Interactions entre la Matière et le Rayonnement”. It extends to 170 pages (Paris: Hermann et Cie. 50 francs). The first 48 pages give an account of Maxwell's equations and their extension by Lorentz to cover electrons; the electromagnetic theory of dispersion; the theory of quanta; the correspondence principle introduced by Bohr in 1916; and Heisenberg's representation of the atom by a mitrix of quantities all of which are directly observable. Then the principlo of wave machanics is introduced according to which the movement of miterial corpuscles is based on a certain equation of waves developed from the Hamiltonian function of classical mechanics. It is then shown that wave mechanics includes the correspondence principle and leads to a theory of the interaction of radiation and mitter which, though not strictly logical, may ba regarded as a first approximation. Later sections deal with the diffusion of light energy by matter, first without change of wave-length, then with such changes as are illustrated by the Compton and the Raman effects. The volume concludes with a study of photo-electricity in which the light quantum passes completely to matter, that is, the photon is annihilated. As one would expect from the author, wave mechanics is treated with great clearness and there is no attempt to represent the theory as having resolved all difficulties; on the contrary, at each partial success its incomplete nature is commented on and the requirements of a more complete solution are specified.
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Matter and Radiation. Nature 144, 544–545 (1939). https://doi.org/10.1038/144544c0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/144544c0