In a previous paper on steady rectilinear plastic flow of a Bingham solid (1), the point of view was adopted that the study of all possible velocity distributions was equivalent to a study of the geometry of velocity contours in a section normal to the flow. This led to an analysis of the differential geometry of velocity contours in rectilinear plastic flow under zero pressure gradient, and the problem of finding all possible velocity distributions was eventually reduced to the problem of finding the general integral of a single linear second-order partial differential equation with two independent variables. But the form of this differential equation (equation (25) of (1)) was such that only a very limited number of solutions could be found by standard methods. The particular solutions which were obtained corresponded to those flow patterns in which the velocity contours could be identified with a family of parametric curves in a curvilinear coordinate system obtainable by conformal transformation of a cartesian frame of reference. In effect, this means that the results so far achieved by using the new approach to the problem could have been obtained by more direct methods.

It is well known that a solution of the wave equation

for which u = ∂u/∂t = 0 initially outside a surface S0, vanishes at time t in the exterior of a surface St parallel to, and at normal distance ct from S0, so that the wave fronts of disturbances represented by the solutions of the wave equation obey the laws of geometrical optics. Analogous results hold for the solutions of any linear hyperbolic second-order partial differential equation with boundary value conditions of the ‘Cauchy’ type. But the wave fronts of solutions of problems in which some of the boundary conditions are of the type representing reflexion do not seem to have been treated, and in particular the case of diffraction, when there is a ‘shadow’, does not seem to have been considered at all.

An attempt is made to interpret quantum mechanics as a statistical theory, or more exactly as a form of non-deterministic statistical dynamics. The paper falls into three parts. In the first, the distribution functions of the complete set of dynamical variables specifying a mechanical system (phase-space distributions), which are fundamental in any form of statistical dynamics, are expressed in terms of the wave vectors of quantum theory. This is shown to be equivalent to specifying a theory of functions of non-commuting operators, and may hence be considered as an interpretation of quantum kinematics. In the second part, the laws governing the transformation with time of these phase-space distributions are derived from the equations of motion of quantum dynamics and found to be of the required form for a dynamical stochastic process. It is shown that these phase-space transformation equations can be used as an alternative to the Schrödinger equation in the solution of quantum mechanical problems, such as the evolution with time of wave packets, collision problems and the calculation of transition probabilities in perturbed systems; an approximation method is derived for this purpose. The third part, quantum statistics, deals with the phase-space distribution of members of large assemblies, with a view to applications of quantum mechanics to kinetic theories of matter. Finally, the limitations of the theory, its uniqueness and the possibilities of experimental verification are discussed.

1. In a recent paper (1) Hartree has given a systematic classification of iterative processes, and has shown how to construct processes of any order for the solution of equations of the form

where p is a positive or negative integer. It is the purpose of the present note to describe general methods of generating iterative processes, and in particular to show how to construct processes of any order for the solution of algebraic equations.

It is well known to computers that the approximate formula

yields a surprising degree of accuracy even for quite large values of the interval h; for example, if h = 1 the error is one unit in the fourth decimal.

1. When crystals of a metal are highly perfect, their elastic limit is low, plastic flow taking place when the applied shear stress is very small. The elastic limit reaches higher values as the perfect structure is progressively broken up by cold-work. A steady state is finally reached where further distortion of the metal does not increase the elastic limit. The stress at which a metal passes beyond the elastic limit and begins to yield is ill-defined, as in general the crystal begins to ‘creep’ appreciably near this point and the time element enters into the definition of the stress-strain curve. Nevertheless, there is a fairly well-defined stress beyond which a metal, which has been brought into a steady state by being saturated with cold-work, ceases to behave elastically and undergoes permanent deformation. An attempt is made in this paper to derive an expression for the ultimate elastic limit or yield stress of a cold-worked metal, in terms of its structure and elastic constants.

In this paper an investigation is made of the properties of material which is under isotropic stress p when in a strained state, and is such that the relation between the stress and the dilatation Δ is

where α is the density, assumed constant in the unstrained state, and c is the velocity of light. It is shown that in this material the waves of dilatation travel with the velocity of light and that a disk or cylinder composed of this kind of matter suffers no change in radius when it is made to rotate.

It is suggested that it is not unreasonable to attach the label incompressible to matter having these properties.

1. The forces acting on the two-dimensional aerofoil in a bounded uniform stream have been found for a variety of cases, and in the present paper an attempt is made to extend the theory to include linear shear-flow. The special case of the symmetrical Joukowsky aerofoil in unbounded shear-flow has been solved by Tsien (6) using real-variable theory. A more satisfactory method is using complex-variable technique indicated in § 3, and is applicable to a more general shaped aerofoil. The effect on the lift and moment when a plane boundary is present is then considered. When the aerofoil is not too near the boundary, the lift and moment can be expanded in powers of the ratio of a typical length in the aerofoil to the height of the aerofoil above the boundary, by following exactly the technique used by Green (1) in a recent paper dealing with the same problem but with a uniform fluid flow. In the last section the limiting case of the flat plate touching the boundary with its trailing edge is discussed.

The method of transforms (7), (2) is shown to be directly applicable to the case of axial symmetric stress distributions in hexagonal crystals. It is shown that solutions for problems of indentation of the hexagonal plane by rigid punches can be found for punches of arbitrary axial symmetric shape. Solutions are given in full for the cases of spherical, conical and circularly cylindrical punches.

The same method is used to find the solutions for a material containing disk-shaped cracks between hexagonal planes and the results for the isotropic case deduced from the general solution.

The simplest exact classical theory, of a particle possessing charge and dipole moment proportional to the spin leads to a wave equation with an explicit spin interaction with the field. This wave equation is used in this paper to calculate the scattering probability coefficient in the Compton effect by two methods. The first method uses the unquantized radiation field; the second uses Dirac's scheme of field quantization. The scattering probability coefficient is given in the general case in terms of the charge e, the constant of proportionality in the dipole moment C, and the quantities k, l specifying the spin. Some special results are considered for particles of spin ½ and 1. Formulae are given for the scattered intensity as a function of the angle of scattering, and the total scattering cross-section as a function of the energy of the unpolarized incident radiation. Graphs are given for these formulae when the magnetic part of the dipole moment takes the empirical values in the case of the electron, proton and neutron. In the case of the meson, normal and abnormal values of the dipole moment are used.

1. Compressible and incompressible flow. Small perturbations in an otherwise uniform stream of compressible fluid moving at supersonic speed are described by the approximate linearized equation for the velocity potential. When the stream flows in the z-direction, the equation assumes the form

where M is the Mach number of the flow and α2 is positive. In cylindrical polar coordinates (r, z), the equation may be written as

which is Laplace's equation in coordinates (iαr, z). We may therefore relate potentials of incompressible flow which are solutions of (1·2) to potentials of compressible flow which are solutions of (1·1).

1. This paper and an earlier paper (l) were written at the suggestion of W. L. Bragg in connexion with his theory of yield in metal crystals (2).

1. The method introduced by Dirac (1) in his classical theory of the interaction of an electron with an electromagnetic field has since been extended to the interaction of point particles with more general wave fields, such as occur in the neutral meson theory. Bhabha (2, 3) considered the scattering of neutral mesons by nucleons and gave arguments to show that typically quantum-mechanical effects should be unimportant if the energy of the incident meson is less than the rest energy of a nucleon, so that a classical theory with damping is appropriate to such problems. Now only the charged mesons are observable, and therefore a discussion of the classical theory of the interaction of a nucleon with a charge-bearing field is desirable. Apart from a paper by Fierz (4) which omits the dipole-like coupling terms, there is little published work on this subject.

Harding and Sneddon(3) and Sneddon(6) have shown that the systematic application of Hankel transforms to the problem of the indentation of the plane surface of a semi-infinite elastic solid by a rigid punch, reduces the problem essentially to one of solving a pair of integral equations belonging to a class which has been studied by Titchmarsh(8) and Busbridge(1). The same method has also been applied by Sneddon(7) to the problem of the distribution of stress in the neighbourhood of a circular crack in an elastic solid. In both types of problem the results are expressed in quite simple forms independent of Bessel functions and this suggests that there should be an alternative method of solution. It is now possible to supply such a method with the help of a recent paper by Copson(2) on the problem of the electrified disk. In addition, some generalization of the stress systems considered by Harding and Sneddon can be made since they confined their analysis to stresses which were symmetrical about an axis.

Investigations of reactions of the type

are of interest for their own sake, and also for the fact that, if is a radioactive nucleus, as it usually is, being a stable isobar, activation of a few different A nuclei in the same fast neutron flux will yield some information about the neutron spectrum. This follows from the fact that these (np) reactions (and the similar (nα) reactions) are nearly all endothermic, showing a threshold of neutron energy below which no activation takes place. Thus knowledge of the excitation functions of a few such reactions would enable the above-mentioned crude neutron spectroscopy to be realized. The detectors (A nuclei) would have a standard shape and size, and the induced β-activity would be measured with a standard counter in fixed geometrical conditions. Though exact spectroscopy would not be possible, any change in the relative activations of the detectors would be a quite sensitive indicator of a change in the incident neutron spectrum.

The relativistic Hamiltonian H for a particle in a field of potential energy V is given, in atomic units, by the formula

where any ρ commutes with any σ, any σ anticommutes with any other σ, ρ1 anticommutes with ρ3 and

Recent papers by Néel (8) and Lawton and Stewart (7) have provided an explanation of the process of magnetization in a single crystal, using the well-known ideas of the domain theory but bringing out the important role played by the demagnetizing field. These authors applied their ideas to two shapes of single crystals of iron, long rods and oblate spheroids, but in the latter case the only crystal orientation worked out in detail was that in which the equatorial plane was (100). The case of oblate spheroids of iron and iron-silicon where the equatorial plane is a (110) plane of the crystal, and the magnetic field is applied in this plane, are considered in detail in this paper. Calculations are made for In, the component of magnetization perpendicular to the applied field He, and comparison made with experimental measurements. This particular problem was considered by Bozorth and Williams (4) who calculated the torque per unit volume (i.e. the product InHe) experienced by the crystal in a magnetic field. Their calculations are, however, incomplete, because their picture of the magnetization process is not a valid one in moderate fields. Moreover, the demagnetizing field was taken into account only in assessing the size of the field H acting within the crystal, but not its direction.

A solution is given of a problem already solved by Inglis, a rectangular plate stressed by the uniform longitudinal relative displacement of two opposite edges, the other pair of sides remaining free. The method used here yields a more accurate solution with greater rapidity than did the previous paper. The general form of the solution is given for a plate of any dimensions, and a plate of sides in the ratio 2:1 is considered in more detail. An approximate solution is obtained by taking four terms of an infinite series, and the consequent errors discussed and compared with those of Inglis.

A modification of the MO method is described which leads to the same polynomial secular equation as does the LCAO method, but via a simpler secular determinant. The basic idea is to divide the whole molecule into parts, calculate the MO's for these by the usual method, and then use linear combinations of these MO's as trial eigen-functions in a variational treatment of the whole molecule.

Equations are developed for a number of cases, and it is shown that the computations of energy levels and MO's from them is often much simpler than from the corresponding LCAO equations.

Three formalisms have been considered for the ‘extraordinary’ field introduced by Podolsky in his generalized electrodynamics.

The c-representation (tildons) for negative energy particles (§ 3), leads to an unstable vacuum in electron hole theory and must be discarded (§ 7).

The d-representation suggested by Podolsky is a hole theory for bosons. This leads at once to inconsistencies and it is impossible to introduce a Fock representation (§ 6).

The least unsatisfactory is the b-representation (tilde photons) used by PKMG. Tilde photons can be created at high energies but decay immediately by pair creation. The introduction of tilde photons does not interfere with any agreement already established between experiment and ordinary quantum electrodynamics. Evidence might be obtained for the value of the constant a from consideration of the 2S level shift of the hydrogen atom and from the theory of showers where the deviation from the usual theory is greatest (§ 7).

However, the formalism involves the introduction of an indefinite metric for the tilde photon field and consequently ‘negative probabilities’ for states in which an odd number of tilde photons are present. Approximate results can be obtained by assuming that ‘negative probabilities’ in the theory are positive probabilities in the real world. This leads to a small but fundamental error and it does not seem possible that a theory in this form can have any deep seated validity (§ 5).

The same analysis applies to the extension of the Podolsky theory to the Proca field by Green (5). In order that the energy should be positive definite it is necessary to introduce an indefinite metric for one of the two superposed meson fields. Fundamentally the difficulties of interpretation are the same but in practice they will be more obvious because the coupling constants are greater.