Zur Quantentheorie der chemischen Kräfte. Offprint from: Zeitschrift für Physik, Vol. 64, 1930 [With:] Chemische Bindung und Quantenmechanik. Offprint from: Ergebnisse der exakten Naturwissenschaften, Vol. 10, 1931. THE QUANTUM THEORY OF CHEMICAL BONDS

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First edition, very rare offprints, of two of the foundation works of quantum chemistry. "Early in 1929, John Slater had listened carefully to Friedrich Hund's lectures on molecular structure at Harvard University, and had developed his own approach to the spectra of complex atoms involving the determinant method to describe the overall antisymmetric behaviour of many-electron wave functions . . . Before he could publish anything on molecules, however, Max Born noticed the possibility of using Slater's method for the purpose. In a note [the first offered paper], he showed how it might serve 'quite succinctly and in an elementary way to derive some further results of the quantum theory of the chemical bond, which have been derived by Heitler and London with considerable effort from group theory.' Max Born, who followed with great interest the flourishing work on molecular structure and the chemical implications being pursued in his Institute and elsewhere, also prepared an extended review for Ergebnisse der exakten Naturwissenschaften [the second offered paper], where he presented of course in detail the results of Heitler and collaborators. With this task in mind, he also attempted to popularise among the still hesitant theoreticians the principal theorems of group theory and invariant theory for treating molecular problems. Thus, he especially summarized the conclusions obtained since 1927 to explain the concepts of 'polar' and 'nonpolar' valences; in particular, he established in some detail the connection between the physical concept of electron spin and the chemical concept of valence, and then outlined the application of the Slater determinant method to atomic and molecular theory. In Section 6 on spin rotations, he explained Hermann Weyl's recent interpretation of valence with the help of spin invariants . . . At the end of his review, Born discussed the recent approach of Heitler, emphasizing the new bond-type emerging from a 'degenracy in direction' and referred to two more investigations of Linus Pauling and John Slater" (Mehra & Rechenberg, Historical Development of Quantum Theory, Vol. 5, pp. 563-4). 8vo, pp. 729 740; 387 444. Original printed wrappers. N° de ref. del artículo ABE-1677606387194

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