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Lot 453
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W. Pauli TLS to Fellow Physicist D. Bohm, Highly Important Collaboration!
W. Pauli TLS to Fellow Physicist D. Bohm, Highly Important Collaboration!
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W. Pauli TLS to Fellow Physicist D. Bohm, Highly Important Collaboration!

PAULI, WOLFGANG. Typed Letter Signed, "W. Pauli", 2pp on one sheet, on Physikalisches Institut letterhead, 8.25" x 11.5", Zurich, December 3, 1951. Expected folds, toning, else near Fine.  

The only known surviving letter from Nobelist Wolfgang Pauli (1900-1958) to David Bohm (1917-1992) in which Pauli critiques Bohm's yet-to-be-published breakthrough paper, "Suggested Interpretation of the Quantum Theory in Terms of Hidden Variables". Having just published a well-received textbook on classical Quantum Physics, Bohm almost immediately did an about-face and challenged the classical assertion “that the most complete possible specification of an individual system is in terms of a wave function that determines only probable results of actual measurement processes".

In his landmark paper, Bohm suggested that there are “hidden variables” that “are in practice averaged over in measurements of the types that can now be carried out”; and in developing his argument Bohm explicitly showed how, in non-relativistic wave mechanics, parameters could be selected that transformed the indeterministic description of a system into a deterministic one. Bohm achieved this result by revitalizing and modifying the concept of a “pilot wave” which De Broglie had unsuccessfully advanced at the 1927 Solvay Conference. Rather ironically, it was Pauli himself who effectively killed the acceptance of De Broglie’s pilot-wave theory at the 1927 Solvay Conference, and yet here he is, a generation later, effectively polishing and blessing Bohm’s revamped version of the theory!

The present letter is Pauli’s second letter to Bohm regarding his “Suggested Interpretation” article. Bohm had previously submitted an early draft of his paper to Pauli, which Pauli critiqued in a letter now lost. After incorporating Pauli’s edits and criticisms into a second draft, Bohm resubmitted his paper to Pauli. Pauli here indicates that he no longer sees “any logical contradiction as long as your results agree completely with those of the usual wave mechanics and as long as no means is given to measure the values of your hidden parameters both in the measuring apparatus and in the observed system". But Pauli cautions Bohm that "as far as the whole matter stands now, your 'extra wave-mechanical predictions' are still a check, which cannot be cashed" – Pauli then proceeding to a technical discussion about the Schrodinger equation and the psi-function, and pointing out the incompleteness of Bohm’s theory with respect to relativistic wave mechanics.

Pauli was a pioneer of quantum physics and winner of the Nobel Prize for his formulation of the Exclusion Principle (the principle that two particles of a specified type cannot be in the same place at the same time). In contrast to Bohm, Pauli held to an “old-time” view of nature and science that excluded the relevance of consciousness; and in apparent response to a statement Bohm made on the topic, Pauli here makes a highly significant statement of his own philosophy of physics, “Since Descartes it was the ideal of natural philosophy to conceive a system of laws in which an entirely loose and untied observer is looking from outside at a part of the world completely determined by these laws. For me, however, it is much more satisfactory if the laws of nature themselves exclude in principle the possibility even to conceive the disturbances in the observers own body and own brain connected with his own observations.”

Bohm’s revolutionary paper would ultimately transform the face of physics, though acceptance was slow in coming. Indeed, it was only with John Bell’s famous 1964 paper on quantum entanglement and the Einstein-Podolsky-Rosen paradox,  that Bohm’s views gained mainstream consideration. Bohm’s own work took an increasingly philosophical turn beginning in the mid-1950s, with Bohm successively investigating causality, wholeness, consciousness, and the ontological reality of an “implicate order” supporting the manifest (“explicate”) physical world. Bohm’s work and viewpoint are now at the cutting edge of the philosophy of physics.

Scientific letters by Pauli are rare, and the present is perhaps the finest ever to appear at auction.

This item comes with a Certificate from John Reznikoff, a premier authenticator for both major 3rd party authentication services, PSA and JSA (James Spence Authentications), as well as numerous auction houses.

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