The development of field theory in the last 50 years

NOV 01, 1981

After quantum electrodynamics came its offspring—quantum electro‐weak dynamics and chromodynamics

Victor F. Weisskopf

This article is devoted to the development of quantum field theory, a discipline that began with quantum electrodynamics, which was born in 1927 when P. A. M. Dirac published his famous paper “The Quantum Theory of the Emission and Absorption of Radiation.” Figure 1 reproduces the first page. Note that it was communicated by Niels Bohr himself. Also note the second and third sentences. The latter is an understatement indeed: Nothing had been done up to this time on quantum electrodynamics.

References

1. There exist two interesting studies about this subject: A. Pais, The Early History of the Electron 1897–1947 in Aspects of Quantum Theory, A. Salam, E. Wigner, eds., Cambridge University Press, 1972;
S. Weinberg, Notes for a History of Quantum Field Theory, Daedalus, Fall 1977.
2. P. A. M. Dirac, Proc. Roy. Soc. 109, 642 (1926);
P. A. M. Dirac, 114, 243 (1927).
3. W. Pauli, Phys. Z. 20, 457 (1919).
4. A. Einstein, Physica 5, 330 (1925).
5. A. Pais, Rev. Mod. Phys. 51, 861 (1979).https://doi.org/RMPHAT
6. E. Fermi, Zeits. f. Phys. 29, 315 (1924).
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V. F. Weisskopf, 90, 817 (1934).
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25. O. Klein in New Theories in Physics, Conf. Proc. (Warsaw, 1938),
Institut International de la Cooperation Intellectuelle, ed., M. Nijhoff, The Hague (1939), page 77.
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More about the Authors

Victor F. Weisskopf. MIT.