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Paul Dirac

"Dirac" redirects here. For other uses, see Dirac (disambiguation).

Paul Dirac
OM FRS
Dirac in 1933
Born
Paul Adrien Maurice Dirac

(1902-08-08)8 August 1902
Bristol, England
Died20 October 1984(1984-10-20) (aged 82)
Tallahassee, Florida, U.S.
Alma mater
Known forDirac equation
Dirac delta function
Spouse
Margit Wigner
​
(m. 1937)​
Children2
Awards
Scientific career
FieldsTheoretical physics
Mathematical physics
Institutions
ThesisQuantum Mechanics (1926)
Doctoral advisorRalph H. Fowler
Doctoral students
Portrait of Paul Dirac by Clara Ewald (1939)

Paul Adrien Maurice Dirac OM FRS[6] (/dɪˈræk/; 8 August 1902 – 20 October 1984) was an English mathematical and theoretical physicist who is considered to be one of the founders of quantum mechanics.[7][8] Dirac laid the foundations for both quantum electrodynamics and quantum field theory.[9][10][11][12] He was the Lucasian Professor of Mathematics at the University of Cambridge, a professor of physics at Florida State University, and a 1933 Nobel Prize in Physics recipient.

Dirac graduated from the University of Bristol with a first class honours Bachelor of Science degree in electrical engineering in 1921, and a first class honours Bachelor of Arts degree in mathematics in 1923.[13] Dirac then graduated from the University of Cambridge with a PhD in physics in 1926, writing the first ever thesis on quantum mechanics.[14]

Dirac made fundamental contributions to the early development of both quantum mechanics and quantum electrodynamics, coining the latter term.[11] Among other discoveries, he formulated the Dirac equation in 1928, which describes the behaviour of fermions and predicted the existence of antimatter,[15] which is one of the most important equations in physics,[9] and is regarded by some physicists as the "real seed of modern physics".[16] He wrote a famous paper in 1931,[17] which further predicted the existence of antimatter.[18][19][15] Dirac shared the 1933 Nobel Prize in Physics with Erwin Schrödinger for "the discovery of new productive forms of atomic theory".[20] He was the youngest ever theoretician to win the prize until T. D. Lee in 1957.[21] Dirac also contributed greatly to the reconciliation of general relativity with quantum mechanics. His 1930 monograph, The Principles of Quantum Mechanics, is one of the most influential texts on quantum mechanics.[22]

Dirac's contributions were not restricted to quantum mechanics. He contributed to the Tube Alloys project, the British programme to research and construct atomic bombs during World War II.[23][24] Dirac made fundamental contributions to the process of uranium enrichment and the gas centrifuge,[25][26][27][24] and whose work was deemed to be "probably the most important theoretical result in centrifuge technology".[28] He also contributed to cosmology, putting forth his large numbers hypothesis.[29][30][31][32] Dirac also anticipated string theory well before its inception, with work such as the Dirac membrane and Dirac–Born–Infeld action, along with other contributions important to modern-day string and gauge theories.[33][34][35][36]

Dirac was regarded by his friends and colleagues as unusual in character. In a 1926 letter to Paul Ehrenfest, Albert Einstein wrote of a Dirac paper, "I am toiling over Dirac. This balancing on the dizzying path between genius and madness is awful." In another letter concerning the Compton effect he wrote, "I don't understand the details of Dirac at all."[37] In 1987, Abdus Salam declared that "Dirac was undoubtedly one of the greatest physicists of this or any century . . . No man except Einstein has had such a decisive influence, in so short a time, on the course of physics in this century."[38] In 1995, Stephen Hawking stated that "Dirac has done more than anyone this century, with the exception of Einstein, to advance physics and change our picture of the universe".[39] Antonino Zichichi asserted that Dirac had a greater impact on modern physics than Einstein,[16] while Stanley Deser remarked that "We all stand on Dirac's shoulders."[40] Dirac is widely considered to be on par with Sir Isaac Newton, James Clerk Maxwell, and Einstein.[41][42][43]

  1. ^ Bhabha, Homi Jehangir (1935). On cosmic radiation and the creation and annihilation of positrons and electrons (PhD thesis). University of Cambridge. EThOS uk.bl.ethos.727546.
  2. ^ Harish-Chandra, School of Mathematics and Statistics, University of St Andrews.
  3. ^ Cite error: The named reference mathgene was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  4. ^ DeWitt, C. M., & Rickles, D., eds., The Role of Gravitation in Physics: Report from the 1957 Chapel Hill Conference (Berlin: Edition Open Access, 2011), p. 30.
  5. ^ Polkinghorne, John Charlton (1955). Contributions to quantum field theory (PhD thesis). University of Cambridge. EThOS uk.bl.ethos.727138.
  6. ^ Dalitz, R. H.; Peierls, R. (1986). "Paul Adrien Maurice Dirac. 8 August 1902 – 20 October 1984". Biographical Memoirs of Fellows of the Royal Society. 32: 137–185. doi:10.1098/rsbm.1986.0006. JSTOR 770111.
  7. ^ Simmons, John (1997). The Scientific 100: A Ranking of the Most Influential Scientists, Past and Present. Secaucus, New Jersey: Carol Publishing Group. pp. 104–108. ISBN 978-0806517490.
  8. ^ Mukunda, N., Images of Twentieth Century Physics (Bangalore: Jawaharlal Nehru Centre for Advanced Scientific Research, 2000), p. 9.
  9. ^ a b Berry, Michael (1 February 1998). "Paul Dirac: the purest soul in physics". Physics World. Retrieved 16 October 2023.
  10. ^ Duck, Ian; Sudarshan, E.C.G. (1998). "Chapter 6: Dirac's Invention of Quantum Field Theory". Pauli and the Spin-Statistics Theorem. World Scientific Publishing. pp. 149–167. ISBN 978-9810231149.
  11. ^ a b "Quantum Field Theory > The History of QFT (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy)". plato.stanford.edu. Retrieved 22 October 2023.
  12. ^ Bhaumik, Mani L. (2022). "How Dirac's Seminal Contributions Pave the Way for Comprehending Nature's Deeper Designs". Quanta. 8 (1): 88–100. arXiv:2209.03937. doi:10.12743/quanta.v8i1.96. S2CID 212835814.
  13. ^ Schmitz, Kenneth S. (2018). Physical Chemistry: Multidisciplinary Applications in Society. Elsevier. p. 310. ISBN 978-0-12-800513-2.
  14. ^ Gordin, Michael D. (6 February 2017). "Dr. Strange". American Scientist. Retrieved 29 May 2024.
  15. ^ a b "Discovering the positron". timeline.web.cern.ch. Retrieved 23 October 2023.
  16. ^ a b Zichichi, Antonino (2 March 2000). "Dirac, Einstein and physics". Physics World. Retrieved 22 October 2023.
  17. ^ Dirac, Paul (1931). "Quantised singularities in the electromagnetic field". Proceedings of the Royal Society of London. Series A, Containing Papers of a Mathematical and Physical Character. 133 (821): 60–72. Bibcode:1931RSPSA.133...60D. doi:10.1098/rspa.1931.0130. ISSN 0950-1207.
  18. ^ Gottfried, Kurt (2011). "P. A. M. Dirac and the discovery of quantum mechanics". American Journal of Physics. 79 (3): 2, 10. arXiv:1006.4610. Bibcode:2011AmJPh..79..261G. doi:10.1119/1.3536639. S2CID 18229595.
  19. ^ Kragh, Helge (10 September 2013), "Paul Dirac and The Principles of Quantum Mechanics", Research and Pedagogy: A History of Quantum Physics through Its Textbooks, MPRL – Studies, Berlin: Max-Planck-Gesellschaft zur Förderung der Wissenschaften, ISBN 978-3-945561-24-9, retrieved 23 October 2023
  20. ^ "The Nobel Prize in Physics 1933". The Nobel Foundation. Retrieved 4 April 2013.
  21. ^ Farmelo, Graham (2008). "Paul Dirac: The Mozart of Science". www.ias.edu. Retrieved 8 May 2024.
  22. ^ Brown, Laurie M. (2006). "Paul A. M. Dirac's Principles of Quantum Mechanics" (PDF). Physics in Perspective. 8 (4): 381–407. Bibcode:2006PhP.....8..381B. doi:10.1007/s00016-006-0276-4. S2CID 120303937.
  23. ^ Cathcart, Brian (25 May 2006). "Tube Alloys directorate (act. 1941–1945)". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/93791. Retrieved 25 October 2023. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
  24. ^ a b Vrobel, Daniel P. (2020). Paul Dirac: The Atomic Centrifuge and the Tube Alloys Project (Master thesis). Florida State University.
  25. ^ McKie, Robin (31 January 2009). "Anti-matter and madness". amp.theguardian.com. Retrieved 24 October 2023.
  26. ^ Kemp, R. Scott (26 June 2009). "Gas Centrifuge Theory and Development: A Review of U.S. Programs". Science & Global Security. 17 (1): 1–19. Bibcode:2009S&GS...17....1K. doi:10.1080/08929880802335816. ISSN 0892-9882.
  27. ^ Gilinsky, Victor (2010). "Remembrances of Dirac". Physics Today. 63 (5): 59. Bibcode:2010PhT....63e..59G. doi:10.1063/1.3431338.
  28. ^ Kragh 1990, p. 158
  29. ^ Dirac, Paul Adrien Maurice (5 April 1938). "A new basis for cosmology". Proceedings of the Royal Society of London. Series A. Mathematical and Physical Sciences. 165 (921): 199–208. Bibcode:1938RSPSA.165..199D. doi:10.1098/rspa.1938.0053. ISSN 0080-4630. S2CID 121069801.
  30. ^ Kragh, Helge (2014). "Paul Dirac and the Magic of Large Numbers". Masters of the Universe: Conversations with Cosmologists of the Past: 217–237. doi:10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198722892.003.0012. ISBN 978-0-19-872289-2 – via Oxford Academic.
  31. ^ Saibal, Ray; Mukhopadhyay, Utpal; Ray, Soham; Bhattacharjee, Arjak (2019). "Dirac's large number hypothesis: A journey from concept to implication". International Journal of Modern Physics D. 28 (8): 1930014–1930096. Bibcode:2019IJMPD..2830014R. doi:10.1142/S0218271819300143. S2CID 127899548 – via World Scientific.
  32. ^ Dubois, Eve-Aline; Füzfa, André; Lambert, Dominique (2022). "The large numbers hypothesis in cosmology". The Fifteenth Marcel Grossmann Meeting. WORLD SCIENTIFIC: 1741–1744. Bibcode:2022mgm..conf.1741D. doi:10.1142/9789811258251_0259. ISBN 978-981-12-5824-4. S2CID 225097737.
  33. ^ Cite error: The named reference Kragh 1990-2 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  34. ^ Cite error: The named reference Sanyuk-2003 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  35. ^ Han, Xiaosen (1 April 2016). "The Born–Infeld vortices induced from a generalized Higgs mechanism". Proceedings of the Royal Society A: Mathematical, Physical and Engineering Sciences. 472 (2188): 20160012. doi:10.1098/rspa.2016.0012. ISSN 1364-5021. PMC 4892282. PMID 27274694.
  36. ^ "Biographical and Research Highlights". Department of Applied Mathematics and Theoretical Physics (DAMTP). Retrieved 21 June 2024.
  37. ^ Kragh 1990, p. 82] "Dirac verstehe ich im Einzelnen überhaupt nicht (Compton-Effekt)"
  38. ^ Kursunoglu, Behram N.; Wigner, Eugene P. (1987). Paul Adrien Maurice Dirac: Reminiscences about a Great Physicist. Cambridge University Press. p. 262. ISBN 9780521340137.
  39. ^ "The Strangest Man: The Hidden Life of Paul Dirac, Quantum Genius". CERN Courier. 25 August 2009. Retrieved 22 October 2023.
  40. ^ Deser, Stanley (2004). "P.A.M. Dirac and the Development of Modern General Relativity". International Journal of Modern Physics A. 19 (supp01): 99–105. doi:10.1142/S0217751X04018622. ISSN 0217-751X.
  41. ^ Hey, Tony; Walters, Patrick (1987). The Quantum Universe. Cambridge University Press. p. 124. ISBN 978-0521267441.
  42. ^ Close, Frank (20 May 2009). "Paul Dirac: a physicist of few words". Nature. 459 (7245): 326–327. Bibcode:2009Natur.459..326C. doi:10.1038/459326a. ISSN 1476-4687.
  43. ^ Kragh 1990, pp. ix, 12.

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