Wright, Aaron Sidney (Author)
This paper charts P.A.M. Dirac's development of his theory of the electron, and its radical picture of empty space as an almost-full plenum. Dirac's Quantum Electrodynamics famously accomplished more than the unification of special relativity and quantum mechanics. It also accounted for the ‘duplexity phenomena’ of spectral line splitting that we now attribute to electron spin. But the extra mathematical terms that allowed for spin were not alone, and this paper charts Dirac's struggle to ignore or account for them as a sea of strange, negative-energy, particles with positive ‘holes’. This work was not done in solitude, but rather in exchanges with Dirac's correspondence network. This social context for Dirac’s work contests his image as a lone genius, and documents a community wrestling with the ontological consequences of their work. Unification, consistency, causality, and community are common factors in explanations in the history of physics. This paper argues on the basis of materials in Dirac's archive that --- in addition --- mathematical beauty was an epistemological factor in the development of the electron and hole theory. In fact, if we believe that Dirac's beautiful mathematics captures something of the world, then there is both an epistemology and an ontology of mathematical beauty.
...More
Article
Frisch, Mathias;
(2002)
Non-Locality in Classical Electrodynamics
(/isis/citation/CBB000200158/)
Article
Berry, Michael;
Pollard, Brian;
(2008)
The Physical Tourist: Physics in Bristol
(/isis/citation/CBB000932043/)
Article
Aleksander Kessenikh;
(2021)
Spin Temperature and Dynamic Nuclear Polarization. From the History of Researches (1953-1983)
(/isis/citation/CBB295303237/)
Chapter
Marco Di Mauro;
Salvatore Esposito;
(2016)
Photon-electron scattering: some contributions by Ettore Majorana
(/isis/citation/CBB660464045/)
Article
David M. Rogers;
(2019)
Range separation: the divide between local structures and field theories
(/isis/citation/CBB974572915/)
Book
Navarro, Jaume;
(2012)
A History of the Electron: J. J. and G. P. Thomson
(/isis/citation/CBB001213217/)
Article
Holland, Peter;
Brown, Harvey R.;
(2003)
The Non-Relativistic Limits of the Maxwell and Dirac Equations: The Role of Galilean and Gauge Invariance
(/isis/citation/CBB000340843/)
Article
Pons, Josep M.;
(2005)
On Dirac's Incomplete Analysis of Gauge Transformations
(/isis/citation/CBB000771649/)
Article
Nugayev, Rinat M.;
(2000)
Einstein's Revolution: Reconciliation of Mechanics, Electrodynamics and Thermodynamics
(/isis/citation/CBB000111864/)
Book
Balashov, Yuri;
Vizgin, Vladimir;
(2002)
Einstein Studies in Russia
(/isis/citation/CBB000201774/)
Article
Brown, Laurie M.;
(2006)
Paul A. M. Dirac's The Principles of Quantum Mechanics
(/isis/citation/CBB000740754/)
Article
Rigden, John S.;
Stuewer, Roger H.;
(2012)
Understanding of Quantum Mechanics Eludes Physicists for Eighty-Six Years
(/isis/citation/CBB001221642/)
Article
Helge Kragh;
(2015)
Pascual Jordan, Varying Gravity, and the Expanding Earth
(/isis/citation/CBB080115210/)
Article
Kathleen M. Clark;
Emmet P. Harrington;
(2016)
The Paul A. M. Dirac Papers at Florida State University: A Search for Informal Mathematical Investigations
(/isis/citation/CBB029236391/)
Article
Bangu, Sorin;
(2006)
Pythagorean Heuristic in Physics
(/isis/citation/CBB000720089/)
Article
Jentschura, U. D.;
Nándori, I.;
(2014)
Attempts at a Determination of the Fine-Structure Constant from First Principles: A Brief Historical Overview
(/isis/citation/CBB001421684/)
Article
Bueno, Otávio;
(2005)
Dirac and the Dispensability of Mathematics
(/isis/citation/CBB000771648/)
Book
Farmelo, Graham;
(2009)
The Strangest Man: The Hidden Life of Paul Dirac, Mystic of the Atom
(/isis/citation/CBB001021272/)
Article
Fontes, Christopher J.;
Bostock, Christopher J.;
Bartschat, Klaus;
(2014)
Annotation of Hans Bethe's paper, Zeitschrift för Physik 76, 293 (1932), “Braking Formula for Electrons of Relativistic Speed”
(/isis/citation/CBB001451857/)
Book
Paul J. Nahin;
(2020)
Hot Molecules, Cold Electrons: From the Mathematics of Heat to the Development of the Trans-Atlantic Telegraph Cable
(/isis/citation/CBB042236017/)
Be the first to comment!