Countess: Scientists Who Have Touched Our Lives: Paul Dirac

Paul Dirac

Web Resources

Paul Dirac
From the web site of the Nobel Prize.
Paul Adrien Maurice Dirac
Paul Dirac
Includes photographs and Dirac anecdotes.
The Net Advance of Physics: History and Philosophy: P. A. M. Dirac
A page on MITs web site with links to a few articles and information on the Dirac Equation and Fermi-Dirac Statistics.
Introduction to the Dirac Equation

Film/Video

Articles

Paul Dirac and the Einstein-Bohr Debate Although Dirac rarely participated in the interpretational debates over quantum theory, it is traditionally assumed that his views were aligned with Heisenberg and Bohr in the so-called Copenhagen-Göttingen camp. However, an unpublished--and apparently unknown--lecture of Dirac's reveals that this view is mistaken; in the famous debate between Einstein and Bohr, Dirac sided with Einstein. Surprisingly, Dirac believed that quantum mechanics was not complete, that the uncertainty principle would not survive in the future physics, and that a deterministic description of the microworld would be recovered. In this paper I show how we can make sense of this unpublished lecture in the context of Dirac's broader philosophy of quantum mechanics, and how our present understanding of Dirac's philosophical views must be revised.
Paul A.M. Dirac's The Principles of Quantum Mechanics Paul A.M. Dirac's book, The Principles of Quantum Mechanics, summarized the foundations of a new science, much of which was his own creation. It expressed the spirit of the new quantum mechanics, creating a descriptive language that we still use. I discuss the successive editions of Dirac's book and their critical reception, noting changes, especially in the formulation of the general theory and in its treatment of relativistic quantum theory and quantum electrodynamics. In the case of the later editions, I discuss Dirac's negative attitude toward renormalized quantum electrodynamics.
Dirac's Claim and the Chemists In 1929 Paul A. M. Dirac claimed that “the underlying physical laws necessary for the mathematical theory of ... the whole of chemistry are thus completely known, and the difficulty is only that the exact application of these laws leads to equations much too complicated to be soluble.” This sentence of Dirac's is cited frequently by historians and philosophers of chemistry in the context of discussions on the hypothetical reduction of chemistry to physics. But how did chemists themselves react to Dirac's claim? Did they feel threatened by physicists who felt they could do their job better than themselves? Did they feel indifferent, or did they simply not care? Was Dirac's paper often cited by chemists? Why was it cited? In this paper, I provide answers to these questions on the basis of an analysis of citations to Dirac's 1929 paper in the Science Citation Index.
Dirac's Prediction of the Positron: A Case Study for the Current Realism Debate Much debate has ensued regarding the challenge to scientific realism provided by consideration of certain problematic episodes of theory change in the history of science. This paper contends that there is an interesting case which has been overlooked in this debate, namely the prediction of the positron by Dirac from his 'hole' theory, and its subsequent replacement by a theory which failed to contain a central, and essential, theoretical posit: the 'Dirac sea' of negative energy electrons. Accounting for this case with the 'divide and conquer' strategy of contemporary scientific realism proves particularly troublesome, even for the structural realist.
Paul Dirac: the purest soul in physics
An article from PHYSICS WORLD - the member magazine of the Institute of Physics.
Physics + Dirac = poetry

Books

Paul Dirac: the man and his work by Abraham Pais; Maurice Jacob; David I. Olive; Michael F. Atiyah; Stephen W. Hawking (Contribution by) Paul Adrien Maurice Dirac was one of the founders of quantum theory. He is numbered alongside Newton, Maxwell and Einstein as one of the greatest physicists of all time. Together the lectures in this volume, originally presented on the occasion of the dedication ceremony for a plaque commemorating Dirac in Westminster Abbey, give a unique insight into the relationship between Dirac's character and his scientific achievements. The text begins with the dedication address given by Stephen Hawking at the ceremony. Then Abraham Pais describes Dirac as a person and his approach to his work. Maurice Jacob explains how Dirac was led to introduce the concept of antimatter, and its central role in modern particle physics and cosmology, followed by an account by David Olive of the origin and enduring influence of Dirac's work on magnetic monopoles. Finally, Sir Michael Atiyah explains the deep and widespread significance of the Dirac equation in mathematics.
ISBN: 9780521583824
Publication Date: 1998-02-12