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This title in other editionseBook editionsDrawing Theories Apart: The Dispersion of Feynman Diagrams in Postwar Physicsby David Kaiser
Synopses & ReviewsPublisher Comments: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. Drawing on rich archival materials, interviews, and more than five hundred scientific articles from the period, Drawing Theories Apart 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, David Kaiser frames his story around the crafting and stabilizing of the basic tools in the physicist's kit, thus offering the first book to follow the diagrams once they left Feynman's hands and entered the physics vernacular. About the AuthorDavid Kaiser is associate professor in the Program in Science, Technology, and Society and lecturer in the Department of Physics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Table of ContentsPreface and Acknowledgments Abbreviations Chapter 1. Introduction: Pedagogy and the Institutions of Theory Richard Feynman and His Diagrams Paper Tools and the Practice of Theory Pedagogy and Postwar Physics Overview: The Two Meanings of "Dispersion" PART I. DISPERSING THE DIAGRAMS, 1948-54 Chapter 2. An Introduction in the Poconos Quantum Electrodynamics and the Problem of Infinities Initial Reception and Lingering Confusion Evidence of Dispersion Chapter 3. Freeman Dyson and the Postdoc Cascade The Rise of Postdoctoral Training Dyson as Diagrammatic Ambassador Life and Physics at the Institute for Advanced Study The Postdoc Cascade A Pedagogical Field Theory Chapter 4. International Dispersion The Diagrams' Diaspora Feynman Diagrams in Great Britain Feynman Diagrams in Japan Feynman Diagrams in the Soviet Union Tacit and Explicit Knowledges PART II. DISPERSION IN FORM, USE, AND MEANING Chapter 5. Seeds of Dispersion The Feynman-Dyson Split Perturbative Methods Fail, Feynman Diagrams Flourish Chapter 6. Family Resemblances Kroll's Perturbative Bookkeepers Marshak's Meson Markers Climbing Bethe's Ladder: Feynman Diagrams and the Many-Body Problem Training Theorists for House and Field PART III. FEYNMAN DIAGRAMS IN AND OUT OF FIELD THEORY, 1955-70 Chapter 7. Teaching the Diagrams in an Age of Textbooks The Postwar Age of Textbooks The New Diagrammatic Textbooks Pedagogy and the Pictures' Place Chapter 8. Doodling toward a New "Theory" Dispersion Relations Crossing to a New Representation From Bookkeepers to Pole Finders: Polology and the Landau Rules Chew the Program Builder: Nuclear Democracy and the Bootstrap Diagrammatic Bootstrapping and the Emergence of New Theories Chapter 9. "Democratic" Diagrams in Berkeley and Princeton Geoffrey Chew: A Scientist's Politics of Democracy in 1950s America Pedagogical Reforms: "Secret Seminars" and "Wild Merrymaking" The View from Princeton Conditions of Diagrammatic Possibilities Chapter 10. Paper Tools and the Theorists' Way of Life Why Did the Diagrams Stick? Inculcation and Reification In Search of the Vanishing Scientific Theory Appendix A. Feynman Diagrams in the Physical Review, 1949-54 Appendix B. Feynman Diagrams in Proceedings of the Royal Society, 1950-54 Appendix C. Feynman Diagrams in Progress of Theoretical Physics, 1949-54 Appendix D. Feynman Diagrams in Soryushi-ron Kenkyu, 1949-52 Appendix E. Feynman Diagrams in Zhurnal eksperimental'noi i teoreticheskoi fiziki, 1952-59 Appendix F. Feynman Diagrams in Other Journals, 1950-54 Interviews Bibliography Index What Our Readers Are SayingBe the first to add a comment for a chance to win!Product Details
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