J. Mehra – författare

Quantum Theory, together with the principles of special and general relativity, constitute a scientific revolution that has profoundly influenced the way in which we think about the universe and the fundamental forces that govern it. The Historical Development of Quantum Theory is a definitive historical study of that scientific work and the human struggles that accompanied it from the beginning. Drawing upon such materials as the resources of the Archives for the History of Quantum Physics, the Niels Bohr Archives, and the archives and scientific correspondence of the principal quantum physicists, as well as Jagdish Mehra's personal discussions over many years with most of the architects of quantum theory, the authors have written a rigorous scientific history of quantum theory in a deeply human context. This multivolume work presents a rich account of an intellectual triumph: a unique analysis of the creative scientific process. The Historical Development of Quantum Theory is science, history, and biography, all wrapped in the story of a great human enterprise. Its lessons will be an aid to those working in the sciences and humanities alike.

This collection of essays is intended as a tribute to Josef Maria Jauch on his sixtieth birthd~. Through his scientific work Jauch has justly earned an honored name in the community of theo­ retical physicists. Through his teaching and a long line of dis­ tinguished collaborators he has put an imprint on modern mathema­ tical physics. A number of Jauch''s scientific collaborators, friends and admirers have contributed to this collection, and these essays reflect to some extent Jauch''s own wide interests in the vast do­ main of theoretical physics. Josef Maria Jauch was born on 20 September 1914, the son of Josef Alois and Emma (nee Conti) Jauch, in Lucerne, Switzerland. Love of science was aroused in him early in his youth. At the age of twelve he came upon a popular book on astronomy, and an exam­ ple treated in this book mystified him. It was stated that if a planet travels around a centre of Newtonian attraction with a pe­ riod T, and if that planet were stopped and left to fall into the centre from any point of the circular orbit, it would arrive at the centre in the time T/I32. Young Josef puzzled about this for several months until he made his first scientific discovery : that this result could be derived from Kepler''s third law in a quite elementary way.