Paul Dirac

Paul Adrien Maurice Dirac, OM (August 8, 1902 in Bristol – October 20, 1984 in Tallahassee) was an English physicist.

Paul Dirac OM FRS
Dirac, photographed in 1933
Born	Paul Adrien Maurice Dirac (1902-08-08)8 August 1902 Bristol, England
Died	20 October 1984(1984-10-20) (aged 82) Tallahassee, Florida, US
Nationality	Swiss (1902–19) British (1919–84)
Alma mater	University of Bristol University of Cambridge
Known for	Dirac adjoint Dirac algebra Dirac bracket Dirac comb Dirac–Coulomb–Breit Equation Dirac constant Dirac delta function Dirac equation Dirac fermion Dirac field Dirac gauge Dirac hole theory Dirac large numbers hypothesis Dirac matrices Dirac measure Dirac monopole Dirac notation Dirac operator Dirac picture Dirac sea Dirac spectrum Dirac spinor Dirac string Dirac's theorem on cycles in k-connected graphs Dirac's theorem on Hamiltonian cycles Dirac–von Neumann axioms Abraham–Lorentz–Dirac force Canonical quantisation Canonical quantum gravity Exchange interaction First class constraint Fermi–Dirac integral Complete Fermi–Dirac integral Einstein–Maxwell–Dirac equations Fermi–Dirac statistics Kapitsa–Dirac effect Mathematical formulation of quantum mechanics Negative probability Path integral formulation Primary constraint Quantum electrodynamics Spin magnetic moment Virtual particle List of things named after Paul Dirac
Awards	Nobel Prize in Physics (1933) Royal Medal (1939) Copley Medal (1952) Max Planck Medal (1952) Fellow of the Royal Society (1930)[1]
Scientific career
Fields	Theoretical physics
Institutions	University of Cambridge University of Miami Florida State University
Doctoral advisor	Ralph Fowler
Doctoral students	Homi J. Bhabha[2] Harish Chandra Mehta Dennis Sciama Fred Hoyle[3] Behram Kurşunoğlu John Polkinghorne[4]
Influences	John Stuart Mill[5][6]

Dirac's father came from the French-speaking part of Switzerland.

Dirac worked out a formulation of quantum mechanics, which includes Erwin Schrödinger's wave mechanics and Werner Heisenberg's matrix mechanics in 1926. In 1928 he found the Dirac equation and he found out that spin in quantum mechanics is an effect of relativity. The Dirac equation allowed Dirac to predict the existence of antimatter, which is the opposite of matter.

In 1933 he won the Nobel Prize in Physics.

Dirac was the Lucasian Professor of Mathematics chair at Cambridge University from 1932 until his retirement in 1969. He was Professor of Physics at Florida State University from 1972 until his death in 1984.^[7]

Antimatter

Overview

Annihilation

Devices Particle accelerator Penning trap

Antiparticles Positron Antiproton Antineutron

Uses PET Fuel Weaponry

Bodies ALPHA Collaboration ATHENA ATRAP CERN

People Paul Dirac Carl Anderson edit

References

1. "Nobel Bio". Nobelprize.org. Retrieved 27 January 2014.
2. Bhabha, Homi Jehangir (1935). On cosmic radiation and the creation and annihilation of positrons and electrons. repository.cam.ac.uk (PhD thesis). University of Cambridge. EThOS uk.bl.ethos.727546.
3. Paul Dirac at the Mathematics Genealogy Project
4. Polkinghorne, John Charlton (1955). Contributions to quantum field theory. lib.cam.ac.uk (PhD thesis). University of Cambridge. EThOS uk.bl.ethos.727138.
5. Farmelo, Graham (2009). The Strangest Man: The Hidden Life of Paul Dirac, Quantum Genius. Faber and Faber. ISBN 978-0-571-22278-0.
6. Cassidy, David C. (2010). "Graham Farmelo. The Strangest Man: The Hidden Life of Paul Dirac, Mystic of the Atom". Isis. 101. University of Chicago Press: 661. doi:10.1086/657209. Farmelo also discusses, across several chapters, the influences of John Stuart Mill...
7. "DigiTool Results Full". Retrieved January 30, 2012.^{[permanent dead link]}

Related pages

• Dirac delta function

Other websites

• Dirac Medal Archived 2007-02-08 at the Wayback Machine of the International Centre for Theoretical Physics
• Dirac Medal of the World Association of Theoretically Oriented Chemists (WATOC)
• Photographs of Dirac Archived 2005-05-11 at the Wayback Machine
• The Paul Dirac Collection at Florida State University^{[permanent dead link]}
• The Paul A. M. Dirac Collection Finding Aid at Florida State University Archived 2007-04-02 at the Wayback Machine
• Photocopies of Dirac's papers from the Florida State University collection Archived 2009-11-16 at the Wayback Machine, held under Dirac's name in the Archive Centre of Churchill College, Cambridge, UK
• Letters from Dirac (1932-36) and other papers Archived 2009-11-16 at the Wayback Machine, held in the Personal Papers archives of St John's College, Cambridge, UK
• Annotated bibliography for Paul Dirac from the Alsos Digital Library for Nuclear Issues Archived 2019-05-02 at the Wayback Machine