Drawing Theories Apart: The Dispersion of Feynman Diagrams in Postwar Physics
David Kaiser
Abstract
Feynman diagrams have revolutionized nearly every aspect of theoretical physics since the middle of the twentieth century. Introduced by the American physicist Richard Feynman (1918–88) soon after World War II as a means of simplifying lengthy calculations in quantum electrodynamics, they soon gained adherents in many branches of the discipline. Yet as new physicists adopted the tiny line drawings, they also adapted the diagrams and introduced their own interpretations. This book traces how generations of young theorists learned to frame their research in terms of the diagrams—and how both the ... More
Feynman diagrams have revolutionized nearly every aspect of theoretical physics since the middle of the twentieth century. Introduced by the American physicist Richard Feynman (1918–88) soon after World War II as a means of simplifying lengthy calculations in quantum electrodynamics, they soon gained adherents in many branches of the discipline. Yet as new physicists adopted the tiny line drawings, they also adapted the diagrams and introduced their own interpretations. This book traces how generations of young theorists learned to frame their research in terms of the diagrams—and how both the diagrams and their users were molded in the process. Drawing on rich archival materials, interviews, and more than five hundred scientific articles from the period, the book uses the Feynman diagrams as a means to explore the development of American postwar physics. By focusing on the ways young physicists learned new calculational skills, the book frames the story around the crafting and stabilizing of the basic tools in the physicist's kit—offering a book which follows the diagrams once they left Feynman's hands and entered the physics vernacular.
Keywords:
Feynman diagrams,
theoretical physics,
Richard Feynman,
quantum electrodynamics,
calculational skills,
line drawings
Bibliographic Information
| Print publication date: 2005 |
Print ISBN-13: 9780226422664 |
| Published to Chicago Scholarship Online: March 2013 |
DOI:10.7208/chicago/9780226422657.001.0001 |
