Uber den Zusammenhang des Abschlusses der Elektronengruppen im Atom mit der Komplexstruktur der Spektrun. (On the Connexion between the Completion of Electron Groups in an Atom with the Complex Structure of Spectra) in Zeitschrift für Physik 31, pp. 765-783, 1925

Berlin: Julius Springer, 1925. 1st Edition. FIRST EDITION OF THE ANNOUNCEMENT OF PAULI'S EXCLUSION PRINCIPLE giving a criterion for the electronic structure of atoms, and explaining the periodic table and the combining properties of the elements. Specifically, the Pauli exclusion principle states that no two "fermions" (elementary particles with half-integer spin such as electrons, protons and neutrons) may occupy the same "quantum state" (i.e., the same unique set of the quantum numbers) within an atom. This is one of the most important principles in physics, because electrons occupy shells at increasing distance from the nucleus and there are limits to the number of electrons that may occupy a given shell (2n2 electrons in the nth shell). This gives an atom a physical size, and this underpins the stability of matter. The electron is now known to have four quantum numbers, three of which ("shell," "subshell" and "orbital") relate to the location of the electron within the atom and were known by Pauli before his development of his exclusion principle.

Pauli first formulated his exclusion principle in this paper in an attempt to explain the structure of the periodic table. By introducing an additional quantum number, namely the spin of an electron, to the already known three quantum numbers in Bohr's atom model, and by postulating that no two electrons can have the same four quantum numbers, Pauli was able to explain the number of electrons allowed in the outermost shell, e.g., explaining the varying lengths of successive periods in the table. The exclusion principle turned out to be applicable to all fermions, and thus plays a role in a variety of physical phenomena. For example it explains the formation of degenerate matter in white dwarfs and neutron stars. In 1945 Pauli received the Nobel Prize in physics "for the discovery of the Exclusion Principle, also called the Pauli Principle".

This volume also contains another important paper by Pauli: 'Uber den Einfluss der Geschwindigkeitsabhängigkeit der Elektronenmasse auf den Zeemaneffekt' (Zeeman-Effect and the Dependence of Electron-Mass on the Velocity)

Attempts to understand the cause of the anomalous Zeeman effect continued for 25 years until German physicist Wolfgang Pauli (1900-1958) explained it through the proposal of a fourth quantum number for the electron, an intrinsic (but indescribable in classic terms) two-valued property, subsequently shown to represent "electron spin."

Also included is Heisenberg: 'Uber eine Anwendung des Korrespondenzprinzips auf die Frage der Polarisation des Floureszenzlichtes' and A. Einstein: "Bemerkung zu P. Jordans Abhandlung "Zur Theorie der Quantenstrahlung." CONDITION & DETAILS: Berlin: Julius Springer. Full volume. Ex-libris bearing two stamps on the title page; no other markings whatsoever. (9 x 6.5 inches; 225 x 163mm). Recently rebound in dark grey cloth, gilt-lettered at the spine. Bright and clean inside and out. Fine.