LUTTINGER J. M.: (1923-1997) American Physicist. T.L.S., J. M. Luttinger, with several ...

LUTTINGER J. M.: (1923-1997) American Physicist. T.L.S., J. M. Luttinger, with several holograph formulae within the body of the letter, one page, 4to, Zurich, 20th January 1949, to Dr. Abraham Pais of the Institute for Advanced Studies in Princeton. Luttinger explains that Wolfgang Pauli has asked him to write in regard to the calculations Pais has made on the ''self-stress'' problem and asks for a copy of the calculations using the Schwinger methods, remarking 'You point out that the evaluations of these expressions a la Schwinger gives a finite result, but it seems clear to us that the expressions for the self-stress must be essentially non-existant (sic) integrals. Pauli has been looking into the question of to what extent a consistant (sic) formalism can be built up, using D-functions which have been regularized. The conditions on the regularization are just given by the weakness in the Schwinger proofs; i.e. one must regularize so as to rigorously get gauge and lorentz (sic) invariance. We should like to look at your expressions to see if the regularization which has been used up till the present is also adequate there. The finite self-stress which you obtain is, at least in my opinion, the same sort of result as Wentzel's calculation of the self energy of the photon'. Luttinger also states that Pais' formula 'really shows that in a consistant (sic) theory the self-stress must be zero' and continues to give his reasoning for this, concluding 'Your results thus involve to a certain extent the cut off frequency (although no longer visably (sic)), and therefore their lorentz (sic) invariance is certainly questionable'. A letter of good scientific content and association. Written on onion skin paper and with a few small holes to the text, some creasing to the upper edge and two long, neat vertical splits to the central fold, almost separating the letter in two. FR

Abraham Pais (1918-2000) Dutch-American Physicist and Science Historian who worked alongside Albert Einstein at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton and had previously been an assistant to Niels Bohr. Wolfgang Pauli (1900-1958) Austrian Theoretical Physicist, one of the pioneers of quantum physics. Nobel Prize winner for Physics, 1945.