Archive of historical materials
Talk draft: On the Interactions of Elementary Particles. II
OU1935-A4 (9 pages) Date: March 30, 1935
This is the manuscript of the lecture given in the annual meeting of mathematicians and physicists (in Lecture Room 3, Department of Medicines) in the afternoon of April 4, 1935. Yukawa presented a general theory toward the construction of a theory that would describe the nuclear forces in atomic nuclei and beta decay. Yukawa pondered over many issues. For example, he thought it was reasonable to hypothesize the existence of particles called “neutrinos” in consideration of the preservation of beta decay energy, spin and statistical property, and examined why there were differences in the mass and electric charge between protons and neutrons even though it was natural to regard both as the same type of heavy particles when describing about nuclear forces. He also talked about Oppenheimer’s theory that denoted that the quantum theory was invalid when the distance is ultra-short. He cited the fact that electrons and neutrinos release their self-energy (energy resulting from higher-order quantum effect) as evidence. Interestingly, in the last page he drew a schematic diagram (similar to a Feynman diagram of the present day) using the Fermi sea. However, this paper ends somewhat unfinished. (Written by Yutaka Hosotani)
