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John Wheeler letter to Hugh Everett, 16-May-1957

John A. Wheeler

Published May 16, 1957• 0 citations
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Abstract

Hugh Everett's thesis was ultimately published in September 1957 in a special issue of Reviews of Modern Physics, guest edited by Bryce DeWitt. In mid-May, 1957, Everett's thesis was already finished and he had passed the oral examination. The paper was already scheduled for publication, but John Wheeler apparently had some last minute changes to recommend.

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John Wheeler letter to Hugh Everett, 21-September-1955

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Before writing the long thesis, Hugh Everett wrote three short papers on topics that would ultimately be discussed in the thesis. Here John Wheeler responds to those. Wheeler expresses his belief that one of the papers is essentially publishable already; a second, though, he thinks need to be toned down before he shows it to Bohr.

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Mailing list for Hugh Everett's preprint thesis, 10-March-1957

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Max Dresden letters to John Wheeler, 23 October 1957 and reply 30 October 1957, with note to Hugh Everett

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After the publication of Hugh Everett's thesis and John Wheeler's commentary in the September 1957 issue of Reviews of Modern Physics, several physicists wrote to Everett and Wheeler to discuss the papers. This one, from a physicist at Johns Hopkins named Max Dresden, seems to approve of Everett's contributions, and suggests that it might be related to a project he and a student worked on shortly before. Wheeler, at least at this point, seems interested in continuing to work on topics related to Everett's thesis, and also appears to believe that future publications on related topics are forthcoming. This letter is particularly interesting because it suggests that not only did Wheeler believe Everett could get an academic job at a top university, but that Robert Sachs, a prominent theoretical physicist at University of Wisconsin Madison, was actively attempting to recruit Everett. Everett, however, refused to follow any of these leads.

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John Wheeler letter to Hugh Everett, 23-July-1957

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Hugh Everett's thesis was ultimately published in September 1957 in a special issue of Reviews of Modern Physics, guest edited by Bryce DeWitt. This was Everett first and only journal publication on the topic. In July of that year, however, as the journal article was going to press, Wheeler spoke with mathematician and physicist Norbert Wiener about Everett's theory. Wiener argued about the importance of a measure in Everett's work. Everett, too, saw his derivation of a typicality measure as of central important, especially in the long thesis. But there is no evidence that Everett followed Wheeler's advice of writing a follow-up paper addressing the question of a measure on the space of branches more explicitly. Wheeler also, once again, encourages Everett to visit Bohr.

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As Hugh Everett's interpretation gained more notoriety in the wake of the DeWitt-Graham anthology, Wheeler began to distance himself from his former student. Here, DeWitt and Wheeler have reversed their earlier positions: DeWitt finds himself defending Everett's interpretation against Wheeler, who seems to have taken Bohr's side in a previous letter to DeWitt.

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John Wheeler letter to A.G. Shenstone 28-May-1956

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In spring of 1956, John Wheeler was in residence at the Lorentz Institute in Leiden, Netherlands. In April, 1956 a copy of the long version of Hugh Everett's thesis was sent to Niels Bohr's Institute; the next month, Wheeler traveled to Copenhagen to discuss the thesis with Bohr and others. This document is a letter Wheeler sent to A. G. Shenstone, another Princeton physicist, asking whether the department would object if Wheeler attended a conference in September, shortly before the beginning of the Fall semester. He mentions Everett's thesis and its reception in Copenhagen. Here he indicates that the thesis will need significant revisions, and that he hopes it will be publishable by the Danish Royal Academy.

•May 19, 2011•0 citations
Hugh Everett's thesis was ultimately published in September 1957 in a special issue of Reviews of Modern Physics, guest edited by Bryce DeWitt. In mid-May, 1957, Everett's thesis was already finished and he had passed the oral examination. The paper was already scheduled for publication, but John Wheeler apparently had some last minute changes to recommend.
By March of 1957, Hugh Everett and John Wheeler had already completed the extensive revisions that cut the long thesis down to the final, short version that was ultimately accepted. It was now time to distribute the preprint to various prominent physicists for their feedback before publication. This document is the form letter to accompany the preprints, which Wheeler asked Everett to send in a letter a few days later. Also included here is the list of physicists, with addresses, that Wheeler recommended Everett send the thesis and accompanying article to.
After the publication of Hugh Everett's thesis and John Wheeler's commentary in the September 1957 issue of Reviews of Modern Physics, several physicists wrote to Everett and Wheeler to discuss the papers. This one, from a physicist at Johns Hopkins named Max Dresden, seems to approve of Everett's contributions, and suggests that it might be related to a project he and a student worked on shortly before. Wheeler, at least at this point, seems interested in continuing to work on topics related to Everett's thesis, and also appears to believe that future publications on related topics are forthcoming. This letter is particularly interesting because it suggests that not only did Wheeler believe Everett could get an academic job at a top university, but that Robert Sachs, a prominent theoretical physicist at University of Wisconsin Madison, was actively attempting to recruit Everett. Everett, however, refused to follow any of these leads.
Hugh Everett's thesis was ultimately published in September 1957 in a special issue of Reviews of Modern Physics, guest edited by Bryce DeWitt. This was Everett first and only journal publication on the topic. In July of that year, however, as the journal article was going to press, Wheeler spoke with mathematician and physicist Norbert Wiener about Everett's theory. Wiener argued about the importance of a measure in Everett's work. Everett, too, saw his derivation of a typicality measure as of central important, especially in the long thesis. But there is no evidence that Everett followed Wheeler's advice of writing a follow-up paper addressing the question of a measure on the space of branches more explicitly. Wheeler also, once again, encourages Everett to visit Bohr.
In spring of 1956, John Wheeler was in residence at the Lorentz Institute in Leiden, Netherlands. In April, 1956 a copy of the long version of Hugh Everett's thesis was sent to Niels Bohr's Institute; the next month, Wheeler traveled to Copenhagen to discuss the thesis with Bohr and others. This document is a letter Wheeler sent to A. G. Shenstone, another Princeton physicist, asking whether the department would object if Wheeler attended a conference in September, shortly before the beginning of the Fall semester. He mentions Everett's thesis and its reception in Copenhagen. Here he indicates that the thesis will need significant revisions, and that he hopes it will be publishable by the Danish Royal Academy.