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In the 2023 film Oppenheimer based on the 2005 biography American Prometheus by Kai Bird and Martin J. Sherwin, there seems to be two references to work by Oppenheimer on molecules:

RABI: I caught your lecture on molecules. Caught some of it.

and

HEISENBERG: I liked your paper on molecules.

I'm guessing this reference is related in some way to what we now call the Born–Oppenheimer approximation since (earlier?) Bohr had sent him to Göttingen to study with Born.

Question: What paper or papers about molecules did Heisenberg "like", and what has Heisenberg published or otherwise commented about it in a well-documented way?

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    $\begingroup$ Hmmmm… nothing on Facebook from Heisenberg about molecules… $\endgroup$
    – Jon Custer
    Commented Feb 17 at 19:16
  • $\begingroup$ Is that Heisenberg quote also in the book? $\endgroup$
    – Gerald Edgar
    Commented Feb 17 at 22:06
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    $\begingroup$ When did Heisenberg like it? The Wikipedia page you linked links to the Born-Oppenheimer 1927 paper, Zur Quantentheorie der Molekeln and cites Heisenberg-Oppenheimer 1924 paper on the same subject done under the old quantum mechanics. The work in the1927 paper was mostly done by Oppenheimer himself, Born was his advisor. See Paris, Oppenheimer’s science beyond the Manhattan Project for a general review of Oppenheimer’s work. $\endgroup$
    – Conifold
    Commented Feb 17 at 23:51
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    $\begingroup$ @Conifold sadly I have not read the book yet, so let this be the impetus - the neutron that triggers the release of enough energy to kick my butt to the library and get a copy today :-) $\endgroup$
    – uhoh
    Commented Feb 18 at 6:06

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