J. L. Synge – författare

It is by no means easy for the applied mathematician to decide how much importance he should attach to the more abstract and aesthetic side of his work and how much to the detailed applications to physics, astronomy, engineering or the design of instruments. To all appearances, Sir William Rowan Hamilton (1850-1865) attached little importance to the practical applications of his method, and it was only with the publication of his Mathematical Papers that it was possible to form a more correct and balanced judgement of Hamilton as an applied mathematician. Great indeed was the labour which he employed with a view to applying his method to the design of optical instruments, but for him the abstract wand aesthetic side of his work was of so much greater public importance than its practical use that the details of application remained unpublished till long after her death and long after other workers had discovered equivalent processes.

This book was first published in 1954. Its main focus, almost uniquely for its time, is the application of Hamilton's optical method to variational principles in space-time. Professor J. L. Synge here uses this method to generate a completely relativistic theory of de Broglie waves: a theory both simple and easily visualised in relation to space-time. Throughout this volume Professor Synge systematically develops this theory, engaging with readily accessible examples as well as more abstract concepts. His introduction helpfully contextualizes this study within the field of theoretical physics, whilst individual chapters focus upon the physics of rays and waves in space-time, the application of geometrical mechanics to free and changed particles, and the topic of primitive quantization. This book will be of interest to any physicists involved in the study of either de Broglie waves and Hamilton's optical method, or the work of Professor Synge himself.

Originally published in 1957, this book was written to provide physicists and engineers with a means of solving partial differential equations subject to boundary conditions. The text gives a systematic and unified approach to a wide class of problems, based on the fact that the solution may be viewed as a point in function-space, this point being the intersection of two linear subspaces orthogonal to one another. Using this method the solution is located on a hypercircle in function-space, and the approximation is improved by reducing the radius of the hypercircle. The complexities of calculation are illuminated throughout by simple, intuitive geometrical pictures. This book will be of value to anyone with an interest in solutions to boundary value problems in mathematical physics.