The development of the space‐time view of quantum electrodynamics

AUG 01, 1966

In efforts to rid quantum electrodynamics of its infinities, there were many false starts. But along the way the author learned many ways of formulating the theory especially with path integrals of actions. A new point of view developed, one of examining an interaction over all space and time rather than its detailed behavior as a function of time. The reformulation succeeded eight years after its enthusiastic beginning.

DOI: 10.1063/1.3048404

Richard P. Feynman

We have a habit in writing articles published in scientific journals to make the work as finished as possible, to cover up all the tracks, to not worry about the blind alleys or to describe how you had the wrong idea first, and so on. So there isn’t any place to publish, in a dignified manner, what you actually did in order to get to do the work although there has been in these days some interest in this kind of thing. Since winning the prize is a personal thing, I thought I could be excused in this particular situation if I were to talk personally about my relationship to quantum electrodynamics, rather than to discuss the subject itself in a refined and finished fashion. Furthermore, since there are three people who have won the prize in physics, if they are all going to be talking about quantum electrodynamics itself, one might become bored with the subject. So what I would like to tell you about today is the sequence of events, really the sequence of ideas, which occurred, and by which I finally came out the other end with an unsolved problem for which I ultimately received a prize.

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More about the Authors

Richard P. Feynman. California Institute of Technology.