Paul Adrien Maurice Dirac: Reminiscences about a Great Physicist

by Behram N. Kursunoglu, Eugene Paul Wigner

Overview

In this memorial volume, twenty-four of Dirac's closest friends, colleagues and contemporaries remember him with affection. Dirac, who died in 1984, was unquestionably one of the greatest physicists of the twentieth century. The book describes his human side, with many anecdotes about the man with a reputation for silence. His immense influence on modern physics is surveyed in chapters written by eminent scientists. Dirac was awarded the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1933 at the age of thiry-one. His tremendous contributions to the field included his prediction of the magnetic moment and antiparticles as well as the spin of the electron. His formulations of the quantum field theory, statistics of particles and fields, his work on gravitational waves, and his prediction of magnetic monopoles stand as monuments to his originality and deep understanding of natural phenomena. This book will appeal to anyone interested in the development of quantum theory or in Paul Dirac.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780521386883
Publisher:	Cambridge University Press
Publication date:	04/26/1990
Pages:	316
Product dimensions:	5.98(w) x 8.98(h) x 0.75(d)

Table of Contents

Portrait R. Feyman; List of contributors; A memorial to P. A. M. Dirac B. N. Kursunoglu; Preface B. N. Kursunoglu and E. P. Wigner; Chronology; Part I. Human Side: 1. Thinking of my darling Paul M. Dirac; 2. Dirac in coral gables S. A. Kursunoglu; 3. Recollections of Paul Dirac at Florida State University J. E. Lannutti; 4. My association with Professor Dirac Harish-Chandra; 5. What Paul Dirac meant in my life N. Kemmer; 6. Dirac's way R. Peierls; 7. An experimenter's view of P. A. M. Dirac A. D. Krisch; 8. Dirac at the University of Miami H. K. Stanford; 9. Remembering Paul Dirac E. P. Wigner; Part II. More Scientific Ideas: 10. Another side to Paul Dirac R. H. Dalitz; 11. Playing with equations, the Dirac way A. Pais; 12. Paul Dirac and Werner Heisenberg - a partnership in science L. M. Brown and H. Rechenberg; 13. Dirac's magnetic monopole and the fine structure constant W. J. Marciano and M. Goldhaber; 14. Magnetic monopoles and the halos of galaxies F. Hoyle; 15. The inadequacies of quantum field theory P. A. M. Dirac; 16. Dirac and the foundation of quantum mechanics P. T. Matthews; Part III. Influenced and Inspired by Association: 17. At the feet of Dirac J. C. Polkinghorne; 18. Reminiscences of Paul Dirac N. Mott; 19. From relativistic quantum theory to the human brain H. J. Lipkin; 20. Dirac in 1962, weak and gravitational radiation interactions J. Weber; 21. Schrödinger's cat W. E. Lamb, Jr.; 22. Dirac and finite field theories A. Salam; 23. Dirac's influence on unified field theory B. N. Kursunoglu; Index.