Qed and the Men Who Made It: Dyson, Feynman, Schwinger, and Tomonaga

by Silvan S. Schweber

Book Overview

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.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0691036853
• ISBN13: 9780691036854
• Release Date: April 1994
• Publisher: Princeton University Press
• Length: 784 Pages
• Weight: 2.40 lbs.

Customer Reviews

Fills in the Gaps

I consider this the best biography of these four scientists going. It has the technical foundation that more popularized treatments lack but it has a great sense for the individual personality too. In particular, it has a through treatment of Freeman Dyson's work and background, something that gets slighted elsewhere. I think the insight into Feynman's personality is spot on and correctly assesses the forces that led him to behave as he did as well as achive what he achieved. Read it for the wonderful section on Dyson if nothing else but the whole book is great.

Good book, but too many math typos at least in beginning

Important book, but first part of least has too many typos in the equations! I have realized that the virtual photons really play an important role in the quantization of the Maxwell field - not surprising. Specifically p.p.39-40-41 the problem in the 1929 Heisenberg Pauli Feb & Sept papers "On the quantum dynamics of wave fields" that the conjugate momentum time like component vanished making a contradiction with the commutation rules. However, that was only for on-light-cone real photons, adding the off-light cone virtual photons where AI^,I =/= 0 solves the problem, no need for Heisenberg to take "epsilon" to zero on p.41. [...] Remember it's the virtual photons et-al that anti-gravitate as dark energy, and it's the virtual electron-positron pairs et-al that gravitate as dark matter.

Provides physical insight into the derivation of QED

While this is meant to be a historical account of the development of QED, it turns out to be much more than that. The actual physics described in the book - is well explained - and is typically viewed from the eyes of originator(s) of the theory. For e.g. how Dirac came up with the formulation of the relativistic wave equation or how Feynman originated his famous diagrams. That type of 'how did the theory's originator derive this..' provides a deeper understanding of the physics - than just reading the equation(s) in a textbook.

Superb overview of the development of QED...

This book is a superb overview of the development of QED. The slant is geared towards the major personalities involved in it's development. The key players of course were: Feynman, Schwinger, Dyson, and Tomonaga. The text is quite detailed and is directed towards the academic community and assumes a cursory knowledge of quantum mechanics. That being the case, I got lost in much of the math. However, I kept at it and got much out of the book. If you are a physics major then this book will be a jewel to own. What an experience to "see" the human mind come up with ideas which at first glance seem impossible but later turn out to be perfectly true. The writing is quite turgid as is the case with books put out by Princeton, but the material is just fantastic. If the math overwhelms you, as it did me, just get the main idea down and forge on. Later, if time and patience permits re-visit the portion that got you lost and try again. I did this but still am lost in many areas. Nevertheless, a great read!!

Thorough Coverage of the Pinaccle of 20th Century Physics

This is a very technical and historical review of the creation of the 20th Centuries most accurate of all physics, QED. The work is very complete and besides the mathematics, it provides excellant yet terse backgrounds of the 4 major players: Tomonaga, Schwinger, Feynman and Dyson. The backgounds of these personalities is weaved into their astounding developments leading to QED. This book should not only serve as a historical timepiece, but I beleive it could serve very well as an adjunct to even graduate level physics.