The genesis of Feynman diagrams / Adrian Wuthrich.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Wüthrich, Adrian.

Series:

Archimedes (Dordrecht, Netherlands) ; v. 26.

Archimedes : new studies in the history and philosophy of science and technology, 1385-0180 ; v. 26

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Feynman diagrams.

Quantum electrodynamics.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (218 p.)

Edition:

1st ed. 2011.

Place of Publication:

Dordrecht : Springer, 2010.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

In a detailed reconstruction of the genesis of Feynman diagrams the author reveals that their development was constantly driven by the attempt to resolve fundamental problems concerning the uninterpretable infinities that arose in quantum as well as classical theories of electrodynamic phenomena. Accordingly, as a comparison with the graphical representations that were in use before Feynman diagrams shows, the resulting theory of quantum electrodynamics, featuring Feynman diagrams, differed significantly from earlier versions of the theory in the way in which the relevant phenomena were conceptualized and modelled. The author traces the development of Feynman diagrams from Feynman's "struggle with the Dirac equation" in unpublished manuscripts to the two of Freeman Dyson's publications which put Feynman diagrams into a field theoretic context. The author brings to the fore that Feynman and Dyson not only created a powerful computational device but, above all, a new conceptual framework in which the uninterpretable infinities that had arisen in the old form of the theory could be precisely identified and subsequently removed in a justifiable manner.

Contents:

Contents

Acknowledgements

1. Origin, use and interpretation of Feynman diagrams

2. Quantum electrodynamics without Feynman diagrams

3. Quantum mechanics without a Hamiltonian operator

4. The Dirac equation: Feynman’s great struggle

5. Free propagation and successive scattering

6. The held theoretical systematization of Feynman’s theory

7. The development of a new means of representation

Appendix A Diagrammatic induction

Appendix B Synopsis of manuscripts and principal publications

List of figures

Bibliography.

Notes:

Description based upon print version of record.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

1-282-99563-4

9786612995637

90-481-9228-5

OCLC:

670291527