Arthur Schawlow and Charles Townes, “Infrared and Optical Masers” in Physical Review, American Physical Society, 112 No. 6 pp. 1940–1948, December 15, 1958. Original wrappers; there’s a little damage to the spine; name stamped on front cover. VG $350

First proposal for the construction of a Laser (“Light Amplification by Stimulated Emission of Radiation”).

“It wasn’t until the 1940s and 1950s that physicists found a use for the concept [stimulated by Einstein in 1917], even though all that was required to invent a laser was finding the right kind of atom, and adding reflecting mirrors to fortify the stimulated emission process by producing a chain reaction. Charles Townes had worked on radar systems during World War II. After the war ended, he turned his attention to molecular spectroscopy, a technique that studies the absorption of light by molecules. Just like radar, molecular spectroscopy bombards the surface of molecules with light and analyzes the scattered radiation to determine the molecule’s structure. But the technique was limited by the wavelength of the light produced: in this case, the microwave regime of the electromagnetic spectrum. Townes noticed that as the wavelength of the microwaves shortened, the more strongly the light interacted with the molecules, and the more one could learn about them. He thought it might be possible to develop a device that produced light at much shorter wavelengths. The best way to do this, he thought, would be to use molecules to generate the desired frequencies through stimulated emission. Townes mentioned the idea to a colleague (later his brother-in-law), Arthur Schawlow, who proposed that the prototype laser be fitted with a pair of mirrors, one at each end of the lasing cavity. Photons of specific wavelengths would then reflect off the mirrors and travel back and forth through the lasing medium. By doing so, they would in turn cause other electrons to relax back into their ground states, emitting even more photons in the same wavelength. So only photons in the selected wavelength and frequency range would be amplified. The two men wrote a paper [this paper] detailing their concept, published in the December 1958 issue of the Physical Review, although they had yet to build a working prototype. They received a patent for their design two years later–the same year that the first working laser was built by Theodore Maiman at Hughes Aircraft Company.”–”Einstein Predicts Stimulated Emission”, August-September 2005 (vol 14 #8), APS This Month in Physics History.

SALAM, Abdus and Clive Ward, “Electromagnetic and Weak Interactions” in Physics Letters 13, pp. 168-171, in the volume of 368p. Bound in a deep blue cloth; two stamps on the title page, otherwise this is a very fine copy. Nobel Prize in Physics for this work in 1979. $300

• First attempt at at a synthesis between electromagnetism and the weak interaction (1500+ citations].

[Reprinted in  “Selected papers of Abdus Salam”, editor A. Ali et al., p. 210-213;  “Gauge theory of weak and electromagnetic interactions”, editor C. H. Lai, p. 181-184.]

“One of the recurrent dreams in elementary particles physics is that of a possible fundamental synthesis between electromagnetism and weak interactions. The idea has its origin in the following shared characteristics: 1) Both forces affect equally all forms of matter-leptons as well as hadrons. 2) Both are vector in character. 3) Both (individually) possess universal coupling strengths. Since universality and vector character are features of a gauge-theory these shared characteristics suggest that weak forces just like the electromagnetic forces arise from a gauge principle…”–in “Chronology of Milestone Events in Particle Physics” (online).

“Beginning in the late 1950s, Salam’s group at Imperial had become perhaps the most active of the groups working in gauge theories during a period in which quantum field theories had been displaced by another approach, the S-matrix model. While many theorists were looking toward this latter method in the hopes of avoiding the seemingly intractable difficulties that had begun to arise with field-theoretic calculations, Salam believed that a more “fundamental” explanation would have to come from invoking the standard perturbation method for quantum field theory. This conviction, shared by his collaborators at Imperial, was transmitted to his students. In 1964 the group started a research program on gauge theories. The aim of this program was to find the mathematical group of transformations that left “invariant” the laws that rule an interaction: The question was whether or not the interaction depended on certain physical properties of the particles, such as electric charge or other “quantum numbers.”The aim was to find symmetry groups that showed that interactions that seem essentially different are just manifestations of a more general one, such as in the electromagnetic theory, in which Salam’s goal was to unify electromagnetic and weak interactions.” —Complete Dictionary of Scientific Biography online.

BJORKEN, J. and S. L. Glashow , “Elementary particles and SU(4)”, in Physics Letters 11 pp. 255–257, in the volume of 368pp, 1964. Bound in blue cloth. A lovely copy. $300

• Reprinted in  J. L. Rosner, New Particles. Selected Reprints, Stony Brook, Am. Ass. of Physics Teachers (1981) 15.
• “Proposal for the existence of a charmed fundamental fermion; First prediction of a Charmed Quark “ and

“Recently, models of strong interaction symmetry have been proposed involving four fundamental Fermion fields ψ>i and approximate symmetry under SU(4). Mesons are identified with bound states iψ>i and baryons with bound states i ψ>j ψ>k. In this note we examine a model of this kind whose principal achievements are these: a mass formula relating the masses of the nine vector mesons and predicting a ninth pseudoscalar meson at 950 MeV, a description of weak interactions including all selection rules except the nonleptonic Δ I = 1 / 2 rule, and a significant “baryon”-lepton symmetry. A new quantum number “charm” is violated only by the weak interactions, and the model predicts the existence of many “charmed” particles whose discovery is the crucial test of the idea. (Extracted from the introductory part of the paper.)–cited in “Chronology of Milestone Events in Particle Physics” (online).

LINDE, Andrei. “Eternally Existing Self-Reproducing Chaotic Inflationary Universe”, in Physics Letters B 175 pp. 395–400 in the volume of 502pp, 1986. With the front wrapper of each of the four issues bound in. $300

“Linde proposes “eternal chaotic inflation.” In 1983, Andrei Linde had demonstrated that quantum fluctuations could begin inflation without the highly unlikely condition of a high plateau in the energy potential hill, and he named the result “chaotic inflation.” In 1986, Linde extended his theory to include the notion of eternal inflation. When begun, “eternal chaotic inflation” would continue to grow in random (chaotic) ways through other quantum fluctuations, and thus be eternal. This theory remains the standard model of inflation more than 20 years after its conception.”–David Wenner, History of Physics Collection.

Abstract: “It is shown that the large-scale quantum fluctuations of the scalar field cp generated in the chaotic-inflation scenario lead to an infinite process of self-reproduction of inflationary mini-universes. A model of an eternally existing chaotic inflationary universe is suggested. “

AMALDI, Ugo with Wim de Boer and Hermann Furstenau: “Comparison of Grand Unified Theories with Electroweak and Strong Coupling Constants Measured at LEP”, in Physics Letters B 260 pp. 447–455, 1991, published by North Holland. Nicely bound in blue cloth, with two owner stamps on title page. A FINE copy. $225

• Abstract: “Using the renormalization group equations one can evolve the electroweak and strong coupling constants, as measured at LEP, to higher energies in order to test the ideas of grand unified theories, which predict that the three coupling constants become equal at a single unification point. With data from the DELPHI Collaboration we find that in the minimal non-supersymmetric standard model with one Higgs doublet a single unification point is excluded by more than 7 standard deviations. In contrast, the minimal supersymmetric standard model leads to good agreement with a single unification scale of 1016.0±0.3 GeV. Such a large scale is compatible with the present lower limits on the proton lifetime. The best fit is obtained for a SUSY scale around 1000 GeV and limits are derived as function of the strong coupling constant. The unification point is sensitive to the number of Higgs doublets and only the minimal SUSY model with two Higgs doublets is compatible with GUT unification, if one takes the present limits on the proton lifetime into account. “

This is a significant paper (cited over 2200 times) that showed that unification between strong, weak and electromagnetic forces can occur through suppersymmetry.

The paper begins: ““Since LEP–the powerful electron-positron collider at CERN, Europe’s laboratory for particle physics–has begun operating, physicists have got some hint that, indeed, all forces might have been unified during the very first moment of the creation of the universe, the Big Bang, when particles supposedly interacted with each other at energies well above 10-16 GeV…”

See also: Peter Rodgers, Super symmetry, on the Nature site, Nature’s “Milestone 13”, in Nature Physics 4, S13 (2009)

DALTON, John. Five papers in: Annalen der Physik, volume 15, 1803, Rengerschen Buchhandlung, 1803. (vi), 504pp, 4 folding plates. Cloth-backed marbled boards.  The full volume offered with the scarce original wrappers, bound-in.  Black cloth; dark marbled boards with cloth tips.  Ex-libris Deutsche Akademie der Luftfahrtforschung, then Wright Patterson Field Library (USAF), then Library of Congress.  Library markings:  small gilt-stamped “Akademie der Luftfahrtforschung”, page edges stamped “Wright Field Library/Dayton, Ohio” on top and bottom. Very good condition. $750

• “Versuche über die Expansivkraft der Dämpfe von Wasser und andern Flüssigkeiten, so wohl im luftleeren Raume als in der Luft”, p 1-24;
• “Versuche über die Verdünstung”, pp 121-143;
• “Meteorologische Beobachtungen angestellt zu Manchester”, pp 197-205
• “Versuche und Beobachtungen angestellt, und zu beurtheilen, ob die Menge von Wasser gleich ist, welches die Flüsse und die Verdünstung fortführen. Und etwas über den Ursprung der Quellen”, pp 249-277.

The four papers in two sections (9 & 10) of volume 15 of the Annalen, all translated from Dalton’s “Experimental Essays on the Constitution of mixed Gases on the Force of Steam or Vapour from Water and other Liquids in different Temperatures both in a Torricellian Vacuum and in Air on Evaporation and on the Expansion of Elastic Fluids by Heat” in Memoirs of the Literary and Philosophical Society of Manchester, volume 5/2). These are the first appearances on the Continent of this significant work. 

Also in this volume:

Dalton: “Versuche und Beobachtungen, angestellt, um zu beurtheilen, ob die Menge des fallenden Regens und Thaues der Menge von Wasser gleich ist, welches die Flüsse und die Verdünstung fortführen. Und etwas über den Ursprung der Quellen”, section 11, pp 249-277;

Chladni, “Chronologisches Verzeichnis der mit einem Feuermeteor niedergefallenen Stein- und Eisenmassen, nebst einigen Bermerkungen”, section11, pp 307-328 (a chronology of meteor falls inm support of his theory that meteorites were of cosmic rather than atmospheric origin).

AND:

Poisson, Simon Dennis. “Berechnung der Bewegung eines Körpers, der von der Oberfläche des Mondes fortgeschleudert wird”, pp 329-339. (One of Poisson’s first published papers.)