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Portrait of Paul Dirac

Science · Physics

Paul Dirac

1902–1984 · British

Quantum mechanics; theoretical physics

Paul Dirac was the Bristol-born theoretical physicist whose 1928 relativistic equation for the electron combined quantum mechanics with special relativity and predicted the existence of antimatter. His book The Principles of Quantum Mechanics (1930) became a standard text, and he shared the 1933 Nobel Prize in Physics with Erwin Schrödinger. Famously taciturn, he is regarded as one of the greatest British physicists since Newton.

How to spot them

  • ▸The Dirac equation (1928) and the prediction of the positron, the first antiparticle
  • ▸Bra-ket notation and the Dirac delta function
  • ▸Legendary taciturnity; subject of Graham Farmelo's biography The Strangest Man
  • ▸Shared the 1933 Nobel Prize with Schrödinger; commemorated in Westminster Abbey

Key discoveries & works

Relativistic wave equation for the electron (1928)

Explained electron spin naturally and implied negative-energy states

Prediction of antimatter (the anti-electron) (1931)

The positron was found by Carl Anderson in 1932

The Principles of Quantum Mechanics (1930)

Classic textbook that introduced much of the modern notation

Bra-ket notation (1939)

The ⟨bra| and |ket⟩ notation for quantum states

Magnetic monopole and charge quantisation argument (1931)

Showed that a single magnetic monopole anywhere would explain why electric charge is quantised

Key ideas

  • Physical laws should have mathematical beauty
  • Every particle has an antiparticle of equal mass and opposite charge
  • Large Numbers Hypothesis: huge dimensionless ratios in physics may be related

Quick-fire facts

  • •Nobel Prize in Physics 1933, shared with Erwin Schrödinger, 'for the discovery of new productive forms of atomic theory'
  • •Born in Bristol; first studied electrical engineering at the University of Bristol before turning to mathematics and physics at Cambridge
  • •Long associated with St John's College, Cambridge
  • •Declined a knighthood but accepted the Order of Merit (1973)
  • •Married Margit (Manci) Wigner, sister of the physicist Eugene Wigner
  • •Spent his last years at Florida State University and died in Tallahassee in 1984
  • •A memorial stone to him was placed in Westminster Abbey in 1995, near Isaac Newton's grave

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Sources