Dirac
A Scientific Biography

The first full length biography of Dirac, one of the most brilliant physicists of the twentieth century.

Helge Kragh (Author)

9780521380898, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 30 March 1990

400 pages
24.3 x 16.2 x 3 cm, 0.728 kg

"...will be most appreciated by those readers already acquainted with the relevant physics and, moreover, something of its historical development." Peter R. Law, Mathematical Reviews

Paul Adrien Maurice Dirac was undoubtedly one of the most brilliant and influential physicists of the twentieth century. Between 1925 and 1934, this Nobel Laureate revolutionized physics with his contributions to quantum theory. This book, the first full length biography of Dirac, offers a comprehensive account of his life and presents his physics in its historical context, including known areas such as cosmology and classical electron theory. The author examines Dirac's successes and failures, and pays particular attention to Dirac's opposition to modern quantum electrodynamics - an opposition based on aesthetic objections. This book, which draws extensively from unpublished sources, including Dirac's correspondence with Bohr, Heisenberg, Pauli, Schrödinger, Gamow, and other physicists, is a history of modern physics as seen through one scientist's career.

Preface
1. Early years
2. Discovery of quantum mechanics
3. Relativity and spinning electrons
4. Travels and thinking
5. The dream of philosophers
6. Quanta and fields
7. Fifty years of a physicist's life
8. 'The so-called quantum electrodynamics'
9. Electrons and ether
10. Just a disappointment
11. Adventures in cosmology
12. The purest soul
13. Philosophy in physics
14. The principle of mathematical beauty
Appendices
Bibliography of P. A. M. Dirac
Notes and references
General bibliography
Index of names
Index of subjects.

Subject Areas: Quantum physics [quantum mechanics & quantum field theory PHQ], Biography: general [BG]