Dirac
Dirac
$193.00
USDPaul 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 This book, which draws extensively from unpublished sources, including Dirac's correspondence with Bohr, Heisenberg, Pauli, Schrödinger, Gamow, and other physicists, is a history of modern physics as seen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.
Reviews & endorsements
"...a delightful and instructive evocation of a remarkable human being by way of a judicious and documented passage downstream following the flow of modern physics." Scientific American
"...an important, highly professional contribution to the history of quantum theory." Science
"The entire biography is harmonic and a very interesting work created from previously unpublished documents." Physics in Canada
"One of the valuable features of Kragh's fine if impersonal biography is that he dispels the myths surrounding Dirac and paints a portrait that clearly indicates Dirac's limitations without diminishing his greatness." Physics Today
"This `scientific biography' should be widely read by physicists." Walter J. Moore, American Historical Review
"The text has accounts of his life and extraordinary character with outlines of his achievements skilfully interwoven." N. Kemmer, Nature
"...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
Product details
March 1990Hardback
9780521380898
400 pages
243 × 162 × 30 mm
0.728kg
Available
Table of Contents
- 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.
