[2 papers] "Coupling of Angular Momentum Vectors in Molecules." [with:]: BARDEEN, John (1908-1991). "Electron-Vibration Interactions and Superconductivity." In: Reviews of Modern Physics, Vol. 23, No. 3, July 1951, pp. 213-227; 261-270.

(Lancaster):: American Physical Society, 1951., 1951. Large 8vo. (266 x 205 mm). iii, 411 pp. Photos, figs., tables. Later green cloth, gilt-stamped spine title. Near fine. Two original papers in one collection by NOBEL PRIZE winners Van Vleck and Bardeen. Van Vleck received his award, which he shared with Philip W. Anderson and Nevill Mott, in 1977 "for their fundamental theoretical investigations of the electronic structure of magnetic and disordered systems." These breakthroughs held great importance for the chemistry of complex compounds, geology, and (truncated) later technology. [Wasson]. Van Vleck states in his notes that he contributed this article, a reconsideration and revisiting of his work with E.L. Hill during 1926-27 as a memorial to John Torrence Tate, who served as his editor-in-chief during this period. "As a subject becomes older, and better understood, it is usually possible to present its fundamentals in a simpler form than at the outset. This is true of the rotational distortion of molecular spectral terms. When [E.L.] Hill and I first investigated this problem, we were able to deduce certain rather recalcitrant matrix elements only by adaptation of the results of a somewhat abstruse paper of Dirac's on noncommutative algebra. Since that time, the advent of nuclear spins and quadrupole moments has added to the complexity of molecular coupling problems, and the techniques of microwave spectra reveal hyperfine structures far beyond the possibility of detection twenty-five years ago." [from the Introduction]. Bardeen is the one of a select few to have been awarded two Nobel prizes, one in 1956 and one in 1972. He is one of the originators of the transistor, and co-creator of the BCS theory of superconductivity. [Wasson]. Interestingly, Bardeen was a student of Van Vleck, who took great pride in having taught quantum mechanics to two of the three inventors of the transistor (the other being Walter Brattain). He remembers Bardeen as the star of the class and lamented that he cannot claim Bardeen as one of his Ph.D. students. [AIP]. Bardeen's paper is an address given to the Department of Physics at the University of Illinois, Urbana, concerning aspects of his work in superconductivity. Provenance: David Middleton (b. 1920), noted pioneer in the field of statistical communication theory (last name gilt-stamped on spine). Middleton served as Van Vleck's personal research assistant, and they authored several important papers together. [AIP]. Interview of John H. Van Vleck by Charles Wiener, 1973, Niels Bohr Library & Archives, AIP; Wasson, Nobel Prize Winners, p. 1088 (Van Vleck) and 55-59 (Bardeen). (Inventory #: S10342)