Yukawa, Hideki et al.

On the interaction of elementary particles II [- IV]. 3 parts

Publisher Information: 1937-38.

First Japanese Physicist to Win the Nobel Prize in Physics

Yukawa, Hideki (1907-81). (1) [with Shoichi Sakata] On the theory of the -disintegration and the allied phenomenon. Offprint from Proceedings of the Physico-Mathematical Society of Japan, 3rd series, 17 (1935). 467-479pp. Original printed wrappers. Presentation Copy, inscribed “With the compliments of the authors” on the front wrapper. (2) [with Sakata] On the theory of internal pair production. Offprint from Proceedings of the Physico-Mathematical Society of Japan, 3rd series, 17 (1835). 397-407pp. Original printed wrappers. Presentation Copy, inscribed “With the compliments of the authors” on the front wrapper. (3) On a possible interpretation of the penetrating component of the cosmic ray. Offprint from Proceedings of the Physico-Mathematical Society of Japan, 3rd series, 19 (1937). [1], 712-713pp. 271 x 195 mm. (4) [with Sakata, Taketani and Minoru Kobayasi] On the interaction of elementary particles II [-IV]. Parts II and IV are offprints from Proceedings of the Physico-Mathematical Society of Japan, 3rd series, 19 (1937) and 20 (1938); Part III is a mimeograph typescript bound similarly to the other two offprints. Original printed wrappers. Together 4 items in 6 parts. 260 x 188 mm. Spine of no. (4), Part III split at extremities, light vertical creasing. Light browning, but very good.

First Editions, Offprint Issues; First Separate Edition (?) of no. (3), Part III. In October 1934 Yukawa, then a lecturer in physics at Osaka Imperial University, proposed a unified theory of nuclear forces in which a set of hypothetical particles—now known as mesons—was responsible for the force binding positively charged protons and neutral neutrons together in atomic nuclei. The following year Yukawa published his paper “On the interaction of elementary particles” (not offered here), in which he set forth his meson theory, calculated the mass of the proposed particle (about 200 times that of the electron) and suggested that these particles might be present in cosmic rays. In 1936 Anderson and Neddermeyer reported anomalous cosmic-ray tracks made by particles intermediate in mass between the electron and proton; their observations were confirmed in early 1937 by several other cloud-chamber groups. In June 1937 Oppenheimer, Serber and Stueckelbert sent letters to the Physical Review calling attention to Yukawa’s meson theory, and from then on its success, and that of its author, was assured. In 1949 Yukawa received the Nobel Prize for physics for his prediction of the existence of the meson.

Despite its later success Yukawa’s meson theory attracted almost no attention in the two years following its announcement, largely because physicists were reluctant to accept the possibility of a new particle without direct observation confirmation. During this fallow period Yukawa published several joint papers with his student Shoichi Sakata on electromagnetic and nuclear phenomena. We are offering the first two of these joint papers in rare offprint form with even rarer presentation inscriptions. The paper on beta disintegration (no. [1] above]) is remarkable in that it contains the only other published reference to the meson prior to 1937. This paper includes “an important calculation of the inverse beta-decay process: the absorption of an orbital electron by a nucleus with the emission of a neutrino. [The paper] was noteworthy, not only because it was the first to call attention to a new effect but also because it was the first additional application of the meson theory [emphasis ours] and thus showed that Yukawa and Sakata had faith in it” (Dictionary of Scientific Biography [Supplement]).

In 1936, heartened by Anderson and Neddermeyer’s discovery of a new unidentified particle in cosmic rays, Yukawa returned to meson theory. (It should be noted that Anderson and Neddermeyer’s particle, although widely assumed at the time to be the one predicted by Yukawa, is in fact a decay product of the Yukawa particle; Yukawa’s particle, now called the pi-meson or pion, was discovered by Powell and Occhialini in 1947.) Yukawa wrote a letter to Nature that year calling attention to a possible connection between his postulated new particle and the puzzling cosmic-ray cloud chamber tracks observed by Anderson and Neddermeyer; unfortunately, Nature rejected Yukawa’s letter, but he was able to get a similar letter published the following year in Proceedings of the Physico-Mathematical Society of Japan (no. [3] above).

In 1937 and 1938 Yukawa and his students published three more fundamental papers on meson theory (no. [4] above). “On the interaction of elementary particles II” presents a scalar meson theory of nuclear forces based on the Pauli-Weisskopf method, and speculates on the possible existence of an additional electrically neutral “heavy quantum.” Part III introduces what is now called “vector meson theory”; the fourth and final part completes the pioneering work begun by Yukawa four years earlier.

Curiously, our copy of Part III is a mimeograph typescript bound in wrappers similar to those of Parts II and IV but omitting the journal imprint information (this information is supplied in manuscript below the wrapper title in our copy). The typescript has a mimeograph label inside the back wrapper with the undated imprint of Teidai Print in Tokyo. OCLC does not list any copies of the separate edition of Part III; we do not know if a typeset offprint version also exists. Magill, ed., The Nobel Prize Winners: Physics, pp. 561-69. Mehra & Rechenberg, The Historical Development of Quantum Theory, 6, pp. 831-836; 946-958. Twentieth Century Physics, 1, pp. 378-392. Weber, Pioneers of Science, pp. 133-34. 43268

Book Id: 43268

Price: $4,500.00