Quantum Electrodynamics and Meson Theories; High Energy Phenomena and Meson Theories; Quantum Electrodynamics.

[Pasadena, California: , 1950-51-53]. Some of the earliest printed records of the great educator's teaching methods First editions of three scarce mimeographed lectures, the notes made by students of Feynman very early in his academic career, preceding the famous Lectures on Physics by over a decade. The present set has an excellent provenance, being from the library of Feynman's colleague Dr Charles Hewitt Dix (1905-1984), professor of geophysics at Caltech from 1948 to 1973, who clearly attended the lectures. The trio are appropriately preserved in two contemporary spring binders and bound with a large quantity of meticulous handwritten notes and problem sets, presumably by Dix. Together they offer unique insight into the reception of Feynman's teaching and provide crucial documentation of the completion of his theory of quantum electrodynamics, his emerging interest in particle physics, and the evolution of Feynman diagrams. Dix attended Caltech for his undergraduate and Rice University for his graduate degrees, and taught mathematics for three years at the latter. He subsequently served in a series of research positions in the oil industry, focussing on day-to-day geophysical operations and field problems. His final post before returning to his alma mater was as chief seismologist and vice-president of United Geophysical Corporation from 1941 to 1947. Dix rejoined the Caltech community a year later as professor of geophysics. During his 25 years there, he spent one year as a Fulbright Fellow at the University of Tokyo and several months lecturing in France and Chile under the sponsorship of the US State Department. Dix's publications provide a sound base for the study of exploration geophysics, and his 1952 book, Seismic Prospecting for Oil, remains a classic reference work. He retired from Caltech in 1973 as Professor Emeritus and a few years later was awarded the SEG Maurice Ewing Medal for outstanding contributions to his field. Caltech's special collections include the C. Hewitt Dix Papers. After leaving the Manhattan Project, Feynman's first teaching position was at Cornell, but he soon chafed at the atmosphere of the university. "He seemed to think that Cornell was alternately too large and too small - an isolated village with only a diffuse interest in science outside the confines of its physics department" (Gleick, p. 277). When Robert Bacher, a colleague from the Manhattan Project, was appointed the administrator of Caltech's physics department, he sought Feynman for a position. Feynman visited during February and March 1950, possibly as part of the recruitment process, and presented the lecture series Quantum Electrodynamics and Meson Theories. He officially began his tenure as Caltech's Richard Chase Tolman Professor of Theoretical Physics at the beginning of 1951, and between January and March of that year he presented High Energy Phenomena and Meson Theories. Said series focussed on particle physics, particularly the search for mesons, and was aimed at an advanced audience of graduate students and fellow professors. Of particular interest is the frequent use of Feynman diagrams, the famous notational system that Feynman developed for quantum electrodynamics, and that he had first presented publicly only a few years before at the 1948 Pocono Conference. Though Feynman diagrams would eventually redefine physics, they were not yet fully accepted by the wider community. Despite this, they began to be adopted by fields distinct from quantum electrodynamics, including high energy physics. The graduate students who compiled and published the mimeographed notes were Carl W. Helstrom (1925-2013), a pioneer of quantum information theory; Malvin A. Ruderman (b. 1927), now on the faculty of Columbia University, where he specialises in "collapsed objects in astrophysics, especially neutron stars" (Columbia faculty bio); and William Karzas (1889-1963), who later worked with Murray Gell-Mann at the RAND Corporation. Dr Ruderman has confirmed that he and his colleagues were asked specifically by the department to make notes on "several connected lectures by Feynman", because of his growing prominence in the physics community. Copies of these lecture series, and indeed any recorded notes from Feynman's early career, are uncommon. He had not yet won the Nobel Prize nor published a work of popular science; few were aware of his growing reputation. Such notes were printed in very small numbers for distribution among students and colleagues, and it is widely accepted that many were discarded later. We know of only one lecture series published earlier than Quantum Electrodynamics and Meson Theories: Quantum Electrodynamics, delivered at Cornell in autumn 1949, with notes prepared by H. L. Brode. No copies are listed by WorldCat or Library Hub, none are recorded at auction, and one copy has been traced in private hands ("copy in the possession of Sam Schweber", the American theoretical physicist; Kaiser, Ito, & Hall, p. 915). The first spring binder contains: 1) Quantum Electrodynamics and Meson Theories. Notes on the Lectures by Professor Richard P. Feynman, Cornell University. Given at the California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, California, February 6 to March 2, 1950. Prepared by Carl W. Helstrom and Malvin A. Ruderman. [Pasadena, California: California Institute of Technology, 1950]. Ff. [2], 81. No copies are listed by WorldCat or Library Hub, none are recorded at auction, and we have seen two others in trade. 2) High Energy Phenomena and Meson Theories. Notes on Course Given by Professor Richard P. Feynman at the California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, California, January to March 1951. Prepared by Carl W. Helstrom, Malvin A. Ruderman and William Karzas. [Pasadena, California: California Institute of Technology, 1951]. Ff. [1], 84. WorldCat locates copies at Stanford, UCLA, and Caltech (with Library Hub adding none further), and just one copy has appeared at auction, described as "a variant issue, without page numbers and running titles", from the library of Nobel Prize-winning physicist Yoichiro Nambu. Kaiser, Ito, & Hall records copies of both the latter series as also in the possession of Sam Schweber. The second spring binder contains: 3) Quantum Electrodynamics. [Pasadena, California: California Institute of Technology, 1953]. Ff. 142 - p. 64 is a blank, and p. 65 opens mid-sentence, suggesting a printing error. These are "notes on the third of a three-semester course in Quantum Mechanics, given at the California Institute of Technology in 1953 by Professor Richard P. Feynman (course 205c). Actually, some questions involving the interaction of light and matter were discussed during the preceding semester. These are also included as the first six lectures. The Relativistic Theory begins in Lecture 7" (introduction). Kaiser, Ito, & Hall give the general title for this autumn 1953 series as Quantum Mechanics III (p. 915) and record the compiler as Albert Roach Hibbs (1924-2003), a physicist affiliated with the Jet Propulsion Laboratory whose thesis advisor was Feynman. Kaiser (2005) goes on to say: "these notes formed the basis for Feynman, Quantum Electrodynamics (1961). Unfortunately, problem sets and students' notebooks from this early period are only very rarely extant today" (Kaiser, p. 271). Caltech's guide to the Feynman papers in their collection records material for "Quantum Electrodynamics 1953 (at CIT)" in Box 7, Folder 9. We cannot trace copies of these lecture notes institutionally or commercially, under either title. Bound preceding Quantum Electrodynamics are 76 leaves of neat holograph notes and problem sets, presumably by Dix (written rectos only), followed by pages 107-142 of Quantum Electrodynamics (Lecture XXV) in duplicate, and then seven more holograph leaves before the third lecture begins in full. The notes, handwritten in pencil and in ink, are typically foliated separately by lecture and some are annotated in the format "Feynman 6th Lect.". The first page of notes provide a brief overview of the planned coverage per term and summative comments such as "Q.M. expl. everything except Nuclear & Mesons / Gravity / Superconductivity / Superfluidity / Evaluation of Universe". "Superconductivity" and "Superfluidity" are further bracketed together as "Try to compute but fail". At the beginning of a later lecture, Dix comments, likely echoing Feynman's own phrasing, that "he is now going to talk about 'real' things!". Three mimeographed lectures and 83 leaves of holograph notes in the hand of Charles Hewitt Dix, bound together in two volumes, quarto. Near-uniform contemporary black leatherette spring binders, unlettered. With figures and diagrams in the text. Ownership signature of Charles Hewitt Dix on title pages of first two lectures and on p. 78 of third, Quantum Electrodynamics with annotations on ff. 20v-21v and 53r, and smaller yellow ruled sheet of notes bound in before its title page. Binders worn at extremities, joints of the second binder splitting at ends but remaining firm, endpapers a little torn and creased at extremities, contents lightly toned and generally clean: overall in very good condition. James Gleick, Genius: The Life and Science of Richard Feynman, 1992; David Kaiser, Kenji Ito, & Karl Hall, "Spreading the Tools of Theory: Feynman Diagrams in the USA, Japan and the Soviet Union", Social Studies of Science, December 2004; David Kaiser, Drawing Theories Apart: The Dispersion of Feynman Diagrams in Postwar Physics, 2005.