Pauli on Källén’s Sharp Tongue and “Nasty Theorems”

Abstract

This is what Pauli had to say about Källén’s sharp tongue, in a letter to him ([1984] in the Pauli Collection) dated 21 January 1955 (translated from German):

Your mischievous remarks are quite good, but my own, when I was at your current age, were probably better – and sharper.

Once Ehrenfest had written a letter full of viciousness to Einstein – it was about the Bose-Einstein statistics, especially on the condensed phase. Einstein replied: Your jokes are great, your arguments weak!

The above statements were delivered by Pauli after Källén had written the draft of their joint paper and subsequently had bluntly objected to some of Pauli’s critical remarks on the manuscript. Otherwise, in his letters to Pauli, Källén was usually objective and concentrated on purely scientific issues. There is relatively little “gossip” in the letters and if there is, it is not so unkind.