Drawing Theories Apart - The Dispersion of Feynman Diagramms in Postwar Physics

David Kaiser

The University of Chicago Press

2005

490 páginas

16h 20m

ISBN-10: 0266422666

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. Drawing Theories Apart 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.