On the theory of stars. Offprint from: Physikalische Zeitschrift der Sowjetunion Vol. 1, No. 2, February 1932. NEUTRON STARS - BEFORE THE NEUTRON!

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First edition, very rare offprint, of this important paper in which Landau anticipates the existence of neutron stars the paper was written one year BEFORE Chadwick's discovery of the neutron. At the end of the paper, Landau states his conclusion that, "in stars with masses greater than 1.5 times the mass of the Sun, the density of matter becomes so great that atomic nuclei come into close contact, forming one giant nucleus." "In Zürich, in February 1931, one year before the discovery of the neutron, Landau wrote a remarkable paper [offered here]. In that paper he calculated the maximum mass of white dwarf stars (independently of, but later than, Chandrasekhar) and predicted the existence of dense stars which look like giant atomic nuclei (a valid description of neutron stars nowadays) (Yakovlev et al, p. 9). The first part of the paper is devoted to an incisive calculation of the maximum mass of a white dwarf. Landau next discusses more massive stars, speculating on the possible existence of stars more compact than white dwarfs, containing matter of nuclear density. At that time it was a problem to construct atomic nuclei from protons and electrons, because the Heisenberg uncertainty principle forbids the localization of electrons within nuclei. The only solution Landau could propose was to violate the laws of quantum mechanics: he suggested that all stars heavier than 1.5 [times the mass of the Sun] certainly possess regions in which the laws of quantum mechanics (and therefore of quantum statistics) are violated. This suggestion is now known to be incorrect; after the neutron had been discovered it was no longer necessary to postulate a violation of quantum mechanics. Landau's unorthodox suggestion may have prevented some readers from reading the article to the end, where he makes the statement quoted above. That quotation is a concise description of dense matter in neutron star interiors. In 1962 Landau suffered serious injuries in a car accident. Doctors managed to save his life, but he never recovered enough to return to work. He died of subsequent complications on 1 April 1968, just as the discovery of neutron stars as radio pulsars, announced in Nature on 24 February 1968, was being widely discussed. Yakovlev, Haensel, Baym & Pethick, Lev Landau and the concept of neutron stars, Physics-Uspekhi 56, 2013. 8vo, pp. 285-288. Two leaves forming a single sheet. N° de ref. del artículo ABE-1677954302977

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