Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

In the 1930s, physics was in a crisis. There appeared to be no way to reconcile the new theory of quantum mechanics with Einstein's theory of relativity. Several approaches had been tried and had failed. In the post-World War II period, four eminent physicists rose to the challenge and developed a calculable version of quantum electrodynamics (QED), probably the most successful theory in physics. This formulation of QED was pioneered by Freeman Dyson, Richard Feynman, Julian Schwinger, and Sin-Itiro Tomonaga, three of whom won the Nobel Prize for their work. In this book, physicist and historian Silvan Schweber tells the story of these four physicists, blending discussions of their scientific work with fascinating biographical sketches.


Setting the achievements of these four men in context, Schweber begins with an account of the early work done by physicists such as Dirac and Jordan, and describes the gathering of eminent theorists at Shelter Island in 1947, the meeting that heralded the new era of QED. The rest of his narrative comprises individual biographies of the four physicists, discussions of their major contributions, and the story of the scientific community in which they worked. Throughout, Schweber draws on his technical expertise to offer a lively and lucid explanation of how this theory was finally established as the appropriate way to describe the atomic and subatomic realms.

Table of contents provided by Syndetics

• Preface (p. xi)
• Acknowledgments (p. xvi)
• Introduction (p. xxi)
• 1 The Birth of Quantum Field Theory (p. 1)
• 1.1 Introduction (p. 1)
• 1.2 Pascual Jordan (p. 5)
• 1.3 P.A.M. Dirac and the Birth of Quantum Electrodynamics (p. 11)
• 1.4 Jordan and the Quantization of Matter Waves (p. 33)
• 1.5 Heisenberg and Pauli: The Quantum Theory of Wave Fields (p. 39)
• 1.6 Hole Theory (p. 56)
• 1.7 Postscript: Dirac and Scientific Creativity (p. 70)
• 1.8 Fermi and the Regaining of Anschaulischkeit (p. 72)
• 2 The 1930s (p. 76)
• 2.1 Introduction (p. 76)
• 2.2 QED during the 1930s (p. 76)
• 2.3 The Warsaw Conference of 1939 (p. 93)
• 2.4 The Washington Conference of 1941 (p. 104)
• 2.5 The Divergences (p. 108)
• 3 The War and Its Aftermath (p. 130)
• 3.1 Introduction (p. 130)
• 3.2 The Community in 1941 (p. 132)
• 3.3 The MIT Radiation Laboratory (p. 136)
• 3.4 Training a New Generation of Physicists: Norman Kroll (p. 141)
• 3.5 The Universities: 1945-1947 (p. 144)
• 3.6 The Conferences (p. 146)
• 3.7 Physics in 1946 (p. 152)
• 4 Three Conferences: Shelter Island, Pocono, and Oldstone (p. 156)
• 4.1 Introduction (p. 156)
• 4.2 The Genesis of the Conferences (p. 157)
• 4.3 The Scientific Content of the Conference (p. 179)
• 4.4 The Later Developments (p. 194)
• 4.5 Conclusion (p. 205)
• 5 The Lamb Shift and the Magnetic Moment of the Electron (p. 206)
• 5.1 Introduction (p. 206)
• 5.2 The Experimental Situation during the 1930s (p. 208)
• 5.3 Willis Lamb (p. 212)
• 5.4 The Anomalous Magnetic Moment of the Electron (p. 219)
• 5.5 The Magnetic Resonance Experiments (p. 223)
• 5.6 Bethe's Calculation (p. 228)
• 5.7 Relativistic Lamb Shift Calculations: 1947-1948 (p. 232)
• 5.8 The French and Weisskopf Calculation (p. 237)
• 5.9 Radiative Correction to Scattering (p. 245)
• 6 Tomonaga and the Rebuilding of Japanese Physics (p. 248)
• 6.1 Introduction (p. 248)
• 6.2 Theoretical Physics in Japan (p. 249)
• 6.3 Tomonaga (p. 252)
• 6.4 The War Years (p. 260)
• 6.5 The Postwar Years (p. 265)
• 7 Julian Schwinger and the Formalization of Quantum Field Theory (p. 273)
• 7.1 Introduction (p. 273)
• 7.2 The Young Schwinger (p. 275)
• 7.3 The War Years (p. 293)
• 7.4 Shelter Island and Its Aftermath (p. 303)
• 7.5 The APS Meeting and the Pocono Conference (p. 318)
• 7.6 The Michigan Summer School (p. 335)
• 7.7 The Charles L. Mayer Nature of Light Award (p. 340)
• 7.8 Wentzel's and Pauli's Criticism (p. 345)
• 7.9 The Quantum Action Principle (p. 352)
• 7.10 Philosophical Outlook (p. 355)
• 7.11 Epilogue (p. 367)
• 8 Richard Feynman and the Visualization of Space-Time Processes (p. 373)
• 8.1 Background (p. 373)
• 8.2 Undergraduate Days: MIT (p. 374)
• 8.3 Graduate Days: Princeton (p. 380)
• 8.4 Ph.D. Dissertation (p. 389)
• 8.5 The War Years (p. 397)
• 8.6 Research, 1946 (p. 405)
• 8.7 Shelter Island and Its Aftermath (p. 411)
• 8.8 The Genesis of the Theory (p. 414)
• 8.9 Renormalization (p. 434)
• 8.10 The Pocono Conference: March 30-April 1, 1948 (p. 436)
• 8.11 Vacuum Polarization (p. 445)
• 8.12 Evaluating Integrals (p. 452)
• 8.13 The January 1949 American Physical Society Meeting (p. 454)
• 8.14 Retrospective (p. 457)
• 8.15 Style, Visualization, and All That (p. 462)
• 8.16 A Postscript: Schwinger and Feynman (p. 467)
• 9 Freeman Dyson and the Structure of Quantum Field Theory (p. 474)
• 9.1 Family Background (p. 474)
• 9.2 Early Education: Twyford and Winchester (p. 476)
• 9.3 Cambridge, 1941-1943 (p. 482)
• 9.4 Bomber Command (p. 488)
• 9.5 Imperial College and Cambridge University (p. 490)
• 9.6 Cornell University (p. 493)
• 9.7 The Michigan Symposium, Summer 1948 (p. 502)
• 9.8 Princeton: The Institute for Advanced Study (p. 505)
• 9.9 The "Radiation Theories" Paper (p. 508)
• 9.10 The Institute for Advanced Study: Oppenheimer (p. 518)
• 9.11 The S-Matrix in QED (p. 527)
• 9.12 The S-Matrix Paper: Retrospective (p. 544)
• 9.13 The S-Matrix Paper: Aftermath (p. 549)
• 9.14 Oldstone (p. 552)
• 9.15 Return to Europe (p. 554)
• 9.16 Heisenberg Operators (p. 556)
• 9.17 Divergence of Perturbative Series (p. 564)
• 9.18 Closure (p. 566)
• 9.19 Philosophy (p. 567)
• 9.20 Style (p. 569)
• 9.21 Epilogue (p. 571)
• 9.22 A Postscript: Tomonaga, Schwinger, Feynman, and Dyson (p. 572)
• 10 QED in Switzerland (p. 576)
• 10.1 Field Theory in Switzerland: Stueckelberg (p. 576)
• 10.2 Quantum Field Theory in Zurich: Pauli's Seminar, 1947-1950 (p. 582)
• Epilogue: Some Reflections on Renormalization Theory (p. 595)
• Notes and Abbreviations (p. 606)
• Bibliography (p. 672)
• Index (p. 725)

Author notes provided by Syndetics