Quarks, Bombs, and Bongos - A Biography Of Richard Feynmen by Harry Henderson

Author:Harry Henderson [Henderson, Harry]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2011-05-30T15:36:22+00:00

Writing the atomic Playbook

would converge (move toward a definite answer) or “blow up” into one of the dreaded infinities.

As Feynman discussed his new work with colleagues the reactions were mixed. For example Freeman J. Dyson recalled that Thirty-one years ago [1949], Dick Feynman told me about his

“sum over histories” version of quantum mechanics. “The electron does anything it likes,” he said. “It just goes in any direction at any speed, forward or backward in time, however it likes, and then you add up the amplitudes and it gives you the wave-function.” I said to him, “You’re crazy.” But he wasn’t.

YJulian schwinger:

noted american Theoretical Physicist

Julian Seymour Schwinger (1918–94) shared the 1965 Nobel Prize in physics with Richard Feynman and Sin-Itiro Tomonaga. Like Feynman, Schwinger grew up in New York, in a more urban setting than Feynman’s Far Rockaway. He attended Columbia University, receiving a B.A. in 1936 and a Ph.D. in 1939. He then worked at the University of California, Berkeley, under Robert Oppenheimer.

Instead of going to Los Alamos like Feynman, Schwinger worked at the radiation laboratory at MIT, where he worked on physics connected with the development of radar—a vital wartime project.

After the war, Schwinger went to Purdue, where he taught until 1974. Using mathematical tools from his radar work, Schwinger tackled quantum field theory. He ended up developing the same basic approach as Feynman was developing independently, which eliminated the infinite quantities from the equations. Schwinger’s work was While Feynman was using his unique diagrams as an aid to calculation, more comprehensive mathematical y than Feynman’s, though perhaps Julian Schwinger developed a powerful but more conventional approach to quantum electrodynamics. (SPL/Photo Researchers, Inc.) harder to visualize. Schwinger was able to generalize the approach to deal not only with electrons but many other particles as wel .

In his later years Schwinger defended controversial research on Schwinger’s later work included the identification of separate

“cold” (low energy) nuclear fusion and resigned from the American types of neutrinos, one associated with electrons and another with Physical Society when it refused to publish his papers on the topic.

their subatomic “cousins,” muons. In the 1960s, he did fundamental work in the development of a theory embracing both electromagne-As with Feynman, one of Schwinger’s most important legacies is tism and the weak nuclear force associated with radioactive decay.

as a teacher and mentor. He supervised the doctoral dissertations This work was further developed by Schwinger’s student Sheldon of more than 70 graduate students, four of whom went on to win Glasgow into the modern “electroweak” theory.

Nobel Prizes.

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