Self-consistent field, including exchange and super-position of configurations, with some results for oxygen OFFPRINT from Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London, Series A, Mathematical and Physical Sciences, Number 790, Volume 238, pp. 229-247, 24 July 1939

Hartree, D.R. [Douglas Rayner]; Hartree, W.; Swirles, Bertha

Published by Royal Society, London, 1939

About this Item

FIRST EDITION OFFPRINT OF DOUGLAS HARTREE'S DEVELOPMENT OF THE "SELF-CONSISTENT FIELD METHOD TO THE CALCULATION OF ATOMIC WAVE FUNCTIONS OF POLYELECTRONIC ATOMS" (Dictionary of Scientific Biography, VI, 147). "Hartree played a fundamental role in the field of twentieth-century numerical analysis and its application to theoretical physics" (ibid). "The mid- to late 1920s was a time of great change and excitement in theoretical physics, and Hartree was becoming a well-known figure in the field. When news of Erwin Schrödinger's work on wave mechanics reached Cambridge, Hartree was ideally placed to make a contribution.His experience of numerical integration of differential equations, gained during his ballistics work in World War I, was invaluable. Hartree was able to develop and apply numerical techniques to the solution of increasingly complex atomic structures" (ibid). By 1939 and with the publication of this paper, Hartree made "his chief contribution to science. his development of powerful methods of numerical mathematical analysis, which made it possible for him to apply successfully the so-called self-consistent field method to the calculation of atomic wave functions of polyelectronic atoms, that is, those which in the neutral condition have more than one electron surrounding the nucleus. These calculations involved the numerical solution of the partial differential equations of quantum mechanics for many-body systems subject to the usual boundary conditions. From the atomic wave functions it is possible to calculate the average distribution of negative electric charge as a function of distance from the nucleus. If the distribution has been correctly found for all the electrons in the atom under study, the electric field due to this distribution should lead to the original distribution, in which case the field is called self-consistent" (ibid). Note that one of the co-authors, Bertha Swirles, was a British physicist who carried out research on quantum theory, particularly in its early days. CONDITION & DETAILS: Complete. 4to. (12 x 9 inches, 300 x 225mm). Continuously paginated 229-247. Very light stamp of Yale Medical Library on the front wrap; armorial bookplate on rear of front wrap followed by a small paste on "Ex-Libris Harvey Cushing", the pioneering neurosurgeon for whom the library is named. Bound in original paper wraps with a bit of minor aging. Tightly bound. Pristine throughout. Very good.

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Bibliographic Details

• Title: Self-consistent field, including exchange and super-position of configurations, with some results for oxygen OFFPRINT from Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London, Series A, Mathematical and Physical Sciences, Number 790, Volume 238, pp. 229-247, 24 July 1939
• Publisher: Royal Society, London
• Publication Date: 1939
• Edition: 1st Edition.
• Seller catalogs:
  • Atomic & Particle Physics, & Quantum Theory