SCHRODINGER, ERWIN

Two letters. Comprising a typed letter signed and an autograph letter signed. Each on a single sheet, addressed to the physicist Behram Kurşunoğlu, Fitzwilliam House, Cambridge, both on Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies stationery, dated respectively 29th June 1951 and 15. X. 1951. The first 10 1/4 x 8 1/8 inches (26 x 20.5 cm); 18 lines (plus salutation and felicitation); the second 10 1/2 x 8 1/4 inches (26.5 x 20.75 cm); 25 lines (plus salutation and felicitation). Usual folds, both letters with tape restorations in the right-hand margins.

Two substantive letters on field theory from Schrodinger to Behram N. Kursunoglu, regarding Einstein's unified field theory and general relativity. Kursonoglu (d. 2003) was a noted theoretical physicist who, at the time of the receipt of this letter, was completing his doctoral degree in physics under Paul Dirac at Fitzwilliam House at the University of Cambridge. He worked with Einstein and Schrödinger on a form of Unified Field Theory known in the literature as "Einstein-Schrödinger-Kurşunoğlu theory." In 1958 he was appointed professor at the University of Miami and later founded the Center for Theoretical Studies and the Global Foundation Institute at the University.

Schrodinger is eminently quotable in these related letters. From the first "To modify a frequently quoted remark of Pauli's: If you do decide to join together what God has separated (viz. a symmetric and an anti-symmetric tensor) you should at least not have to divorce them again in order to get the fundamental equations." From the second "I advise you to check upon this very carefully, to see whether your astonishingly brief reasoning is really valid." This same letter also contains some interesting insights on Born's work and how it reflects on Kursonoglu's. Included in the lot is a retained copy of Kursonoglu's October 13 letter to Schrodinger.