Research Catalog

Title

Early quantum electrodynamics : a source book / Arthur I. Miller ; translations from the German by Walter Grant.

Author

Miller, Arthur I.

Publication

Cambridge [England] ; New York : Cambridge, 1994.

Items in the Library & Off-site

Holdings

Details

Description

xix, 265 pages; 26 cm

Subject

• Quantum electrodynamics > History

Bibliography (note)

• Includes bibliographical references and index.

Contents

• I. Frame-setting essay. 1. From quantum mechanics toward quantum electrodynamics. 1.1. Niels Bohr's atomic theory, 1913-23. 1.2. The coupling mechanism. 1.3. Virtual oscillators. 1.4. Quantum mechanics versus wave mechanics. 1.5. Intrinsic symmetry. 1.6. Transformation theory and word meanings. 1.7. The uncertainty principle paper. 1.8. Complementarity. 2. Second quantization. 2.1. Jordan's 1926 results. 2.2. Dirac's quantization of the electromagnetic field. 2.3. Jordan's quantization of bosons and fermions. 2.4. Jordan and Pauli's relativistic quantization of charge-free electromagnetic fields. 3. Photons and relativistic electrons. 3.1. The Dirac equation. 3.2. Heisenberg and Pauli on quantum electrodynamics, 1929. 3.3. The electron's mass in classical and quantum electrodynamics. 3.4. From negative energy states to positrons. 4. Quantum electrodynamics. 4.1. Measurement problems in a quantum theory of the electromagnetic field. 4.2. Heisenberg's first attempt at a fundamental length.
• 4.3. An 'intuitive' time-dependent perturbation theory. 4.4. Multiple-time theory, hole theory and second quantization. 4.5. Dirac at Solvay in 1933: vacuum polarization. 4.6. The Heisenberg-Pauli collaboration on positron theory. 4.7. The subtraction physics. 4.8. Quantization of the Klein-Gordon equation: the Pauli-Weisskopf theory. 4.9. Toward a connection between spin and statistics. 4.10. The connection between spin and statistics. 4.11. Return to 1934. 4.12. Light-light scattering. 4.13. Weisskopf and vacuum polarization: a new statement about infinities. 4.14. Some other approaches to quantum electrodynamics: cosmic ray physics, nonlinear theories and the lattice world (Gitterwelt). 4.15. The fundamental length. 4.16. The infrared catastrophe. 5. Theories of the nuclear force in the 1930s. 5.1. Heisenberg invents exchange forces in nuclear physics: the metaphor of forces transmitted by particles. 5.2. Ettore Majorana's nuclear theory. 5.3. Discussion at Solvay in 1933.
• 5.4. Enrico Fermi's theory of [Beta]-decay. 5.5. [Beta]-Decay and the nuclear force. 5.6. Hideki Yukawa's theory of the nuclear force: metaphor becomes physical reality -- II. Selected papers. 1. The self-energy of the electron / W. Heisenberg. 2. Remarks on radiation theory / W. Heisenberg. 3. Theory of the positron / P. A. M. Dirac. 4. Discussion of the infinite distribution of electrons in the theory of the positron / P. A. M. Dirac. 5. The self-energy of the electron / V. Weisskopf. 6. Remarks on the Dirac theory of the positron / W. Heisenberg. 7. The quantization of the scalar relativistic wave equation / W. Pauli and V. Weisskopf. 8. The electrodynamics of the vacuum based on the quantum theory of the electron / V. Weisskopf. 9. Theory of the emission of long-wave light quanta / W. Pauli and M. Fierz. 10. The universal length appearing in the theory of elementary particles / W. Heisenberg. 11. The interaction between charged particles and the radiation field / H. A. Kramers.

ISBN

0521431697

LCCN

93012774

OCLC

ocm27810391

Owning Institutions

Columbia University Libraries