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First edition, journal issue in original printed wrappers, of one of the most important papers in twentieth-century physics, Fermi's development of what would become known as 'Fermi-Dirac statistics.' "Fermi is one of the towering figures in twentieth-century physics. He made important contributions to both theoretical and experimental physics. In fact, being a theoretician essentially by self-training, he was awarded the Nobel Prize for experimental work. His first outstanding achievement was the discovery of another way of counting in statistical physics which, like the way of Bose and Einstein, was able to explain the third law of thermodynamics" (Brandt, Harvest of a Century, p. 173). "In 1925 Wolfgang Pauli discovered the exclusion principle, which in the language of the old quantum theory prevents more than one electron from occupying an orbit completely defined by its quantum numbers. This principle had far-reaching consequences in statistical mechanics . . . Peculiar phenomena, comprised under the technical name of 'degeneracy,' then appear: for instance, the specific heat of the gas vanishes. The problems of gas degeneracy had been known for many years. Bose and Einstein had shown in 1924 that they could be solved by a modification of classical statistical mechanics (Bose-Einstein statistics). Bose-Einstein statistics are applicable to light quanta and account for Planck's radiation formula. But Bose-Einstein statistics are not applicable to particles obeying Pauli's principle, for which one needs the new type of statistics discovered by Fermi early in 1926. Dirac independently found the same result a few months later and connected it to the new quantum mechanics. Fermi statistics, which are applicable to electrons, protons, neutrons, and all particles of half-integral spin, have a pervading importance in atomic and nuclear physics and in solid-state theory. The importance of Fermi statistics was immediately appreciated by physicists and established Fermi as a leader in the international community of theoreticians" (DSB). Fermi was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics 1938 "for his demonstrations of the existence of new radioactive elements produced by neutron irradiation, and for his related discovery of nuclear reactions brought about by slow neutrons." It is one of the great ironies of the history of physics that Fermi had not, in fact, discovered new radioactive elements as the Nobel citation states, but he had in the same experiments discovered nuclear fission several years before Hahn and Strassmann, although this was not recognized until after their discovery. Provenance: Ernest Franklin Barker (1886-1970), Department of Physics, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, 1922-56 (signature and date of acquisition 6/15/26 on upper wrapper). 8vo, pp. 803-951, [1, blank]. Original printed wrappers (covers a bit soiled, minor wear to spine ends, small repair to lower outer corner of front wrapper, nowhere near the printed area and not affecting the Fermi article).
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