History of quantum field theory
Encyclopedia
The history of quantum field theory starts with its creation by Paul Dirac
, when he attempted to quantize
the electromagnetic field
in the late 1920s
. Major advances in the theory were made in the 1950s, and led to the introduction of quantum electrodynamics
(QED). QED was so successful and "natural" that efforts were made to use the same basic concepts to the other forces of nature. These efforts were successful in the application of gauge theory
to the strong nuclear force and weak nuclear force, producing the modern standard model
of particle physics
. Efforts to describe gravity using the same techniques have, to date, failed. The study of quantum field theory is alive and flourishing, as are applications of this method to many physical problems. It remains one of the most vital areas of theoretical physics
today, providing a common language to many branches of physics
.
, Bethe, Tomonaga
, Schwinger
, Feynman
, and Dyson
. This phase of development culminated with the construction of the theory of quantum electrodynamics
in the 1950s
.
was formulated and quantized
, leading to the unification of forces embodied in the standard model
of particle physics
. This effort started in the 1950s
with the work of Yang and Mills
, was carried on by Martinus Veltman and a host of others during the 1960s
and completed by the 1970s
through the work of Gerard 't Hooft, Frank Wilczek
, David Gross
and David Politzer.
led to the study of the renormalization group
. This in turn led to the grand synthesis of theoretical physics which unified theories of particle and condensed matter physics through quantum field theory. This involved the work of Michael Fisher
and Leo Kadanoff
in the 1970s
which led to the seminal reformulation of quantum field theory by Kenneth G. Wilson
.
Paul Dirac
Paul Adrien Maurice Dirac, OM, FRS was an English theoretical physicist who made fundamental contributions to the early development of both quantum mechanics and quantum electrodynamics...
, when he attempted to quantize
Quantization (physics)
In physics, quantization is the process of explaining a classical understanding of physical phenomena in terms of a newer understanding known as "quantum mechanics". It is a procedure for constructing a quantum field theory starting from a classical field theory. This is a generalization of the...
the electromagnetic field
Electromagnetic field
An electromagnetic field is a physical field produced by moving electrically charged objects. It affects the behavior of charged objects in the vicinity of the field. The electromagnetic field extends indefinitely throughout space and describes the electromagnetic interaction...
in the late 1920s
1920s
File:1920s decade montage.png|From left, clockwise: Third Tipperary Brigade Flying Column No. 2 under Sean Hogan during the Irish Civil War; Prohibition agents destroying barrels of alcohol in accordance to the 18th amendment, which made alcoholic beverages illegal throughout the entire decade; In...
. Major advances in the theory were made in the 1950s, and led to the introduction of quantum electrodynamics
Quantum electrodynamics
Quantum electrodynamics is the relativistic quantum field theory of electrodynamics. In essence, it describes how light and matter interact and is the first theory where full agreement between quantum mechanics and special relativity is achieved...
(QED). QED was so successful and "natural" that efforts were made to use the same basic concepts to the other forces of nature. These efforts were successful in the application of gauge theory
Gauge theory
In physics, gauge invariance is the property of a field theory in which different configurations of the underlying fundamental but unobservable fields result in identical observable quantities. A theory with such a property is called a gauge theory...
to the strong nuclear force and weak nuclear force, producing the modern standard model
Standard Model
The Standard Model of particle physics is a theory concerning the electromagnetic, weak, and strong nuclear interactions, which mediate the dynamics of the known subatomic particles. Developed throughout the mid to late 20th century, the current formulation was finalized in the mid 1970s upon...
of particle physics
Particle physics
Particle physics is a branch of physics that studies the existence and interactions of particles that are the constituents of what is usually referred to as matter or radiation. In current understanding, particles are excitations of quantum fields and interact following their dynamics...
. Efforts to describe gravity using the same techniques have, to date, failed. The study of quantum field theory is alive and flourishing, as are applications of this method to many physical problems. It remains one of the most vital areas of theoretical physics
Theoretical physics
Theoretical physics is a branch of physics which employs mathematical models and abstractions of physics to rationalize, explain and predict natural phenomena...
today, providing a common language to many branches of physics
Physics
Physics is a natural science that involves the study of matter and its motion through spacetime, along with related concepts such as energy and force. More broadly, it is the general analysis of nature, conducted in order to understand how the universe behaves.Physics is one of the oldest academic...
.
Foundations
The early development of the field involved Fock, Pauli, HeisenbergWerner Heisenberg
Werner Karl Heisenberg was a German theoretical physicist who made foundational contributions to quantum mechanics and is best known for asserting the uncertainty principle of quantum theory...
, Bethe, Tomonaga
Sin-Itiro Tomonaga
was a Japanese physicist, influential in the development of quantum electrodynamics, work for which he was jointly awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1965 along with Richard Feynman and Julian Schwinger.-Biography:...
, Schwinger
Julian Schwinger
Julian Seymour Schwinger was an American theoretical physicist. He is best known for his work on the theory of quantum electrodynamics, in particular for developing a relativistically invariant perturbation theory, and for renormalizing QED to one loop order.Schwinger is recognized as one of the...
, Feynman
Richard Feynman
Richard Phillips Feynman was an American physicist known for his work in the path integral formulation of quantum mechanics, the theory of quantum electrodynamics and the physics of the superfluidity of supercooled liquid helium, as well as in particle physics...
, and Dyson
Freeman Dyson
Freeman John Dyson FRS is a British-born American theoretical physicist and mathematician, famous for his work in quantum field theory, solid-state physics, astronomy and nuclear engineering. Dyson is a member of the Board of Sponsors of the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists...
. This phase of development culminated with the construction of the theory of quantum electrodynamics
Quantum electrodynamics
Quantum electrodynamics is the relativistic quantum field theory of electrodynamics. In essence, it describes how light and matter interact and is the first theory where full agreement between quantum mechanics and special relativity is achieved...
in the 1950s
1950s
The 1950s or The Fifties was the decade that began on January 1, 1950 and ended on December 31, 1959. The decade was the sixth decade of the 20th century...
.
Gauge theory
Gauge theoryGauge theory
In physics, gauge invariance is the property of a field theory in which different configurations of the underlying fundamental but unobservable fields result in identical observable quantities. A theory with such a property is called a gauge theory...
was formulated and quantized
Quantization (physics)
In physics, quantization is the process of explaining a classical understanding of physical phenomena in terms of a newer understanding known as "quantum mechanics". It is a procedure for constructing a quantum field theory starting from a classical field theory. This is a generalization of the...
, leading to the unification of forces embodied in the standard model
Standard Model
The Standard Model of particle physics is a theory concerning the electromagnetic, weak, and strong nuclear interactions, which mediate the dynamics of the known subatomic particles. Developed throughout the mid to late 20th century, the current formulation was finalized in the mid 1970s upon...
of particle physics
Particle physics
Particle physics is a branch of physics that studies the existence and interactions of particles that are the constituents of what is usually referred to as matter or radiation. In current understanding, particles are excitations of quantum fields and interact following their dynamics...
. This effort started in the 1950s
1950s
The 1950s or The Fifties was the decade that began on January 1, 1950 and ended on December 31, 1959. The decade was the sixth decade of the 20th century...
with the work of Yang and Mills
Robert Mills (physicist)
Robert L. Mills was a physicist, specializing in quantum field theory, the theory of alloys, and many-body theory. While sharing an office at Brookhaven National Laboratory, in 1954, Chen Ning Yang and Mills proposed a tensor equation for what are now called Yang-Mills fields...
, was carried on by Martinus Veltman and a host of others during the 1960s
1960s
The 1960s was the decade that started on January 1, 1960, and ended on December 31, 1969. It was the seventh decade of the 20th century.The 1960s term also refers to an era more often called The Sixties, denoting the complex of inter-related cultural and political trends across the globe...
and completed by the 1970s
1970s
File:1970s decade montage.png|From left, clockwise: US President Richard Nixon doing the V for Victory sign after his resignation from office after the Watergate scandal in 1974; Refugees aboard a US naval boat after the Fall of Saigon, leading to the end of the Vietnam War in 1975; The 1973 oil...
through the work of Gerard 't Hooft, Frank Wilczek
Frank Wilczek
Frank Anthony Wilczek is a theoretical physicist from the United States and a Nobel laureate. He is currently the Herman Feshbach Professor of Physics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology ....
, David Gross
David Gross
David Jonathan Gross is an American particle physicist and string theorist. Along with Frank Wilczek and David Politzer, he was awarded the 2004 Nobel Prize in Physics for their discovery of asymptotic freedom. He is currently the director and holder of the Frederick W...
and David Politzer.
Grand synthesis
Parallel developments in the understanding of phase transitions in condensed matter physicsCondensed matter physics
Condensed matter physics deals with the physical properties of condensed phases of matter. These properties appear when a number of atoms at the supramolecular and macromolecular scale interact strongly and adhere to each other or are otherwise highly concentrated in a system. The most familiar...
led to the study of the renormalization group
Renormalization group
In theoretical physics, the renormalization group refers to a mathematical apparatus that allows systematic investigation of the changes of a physical system as viewed at different distance scales...
. This in turn led to the grand synthesis of theoretical physics which unified theories of particle and condensed matter physics through quantum field theory. This involved the work of Michael Fisher
Michael Fisher
Michael Ellis Fisher is an English physicist, as well as chemist and mathematician, known for his many seminal contributions...
and Leo Kadanoff
Leo Kadanoff
Leo Philip Kadanoff is an American physicist. He is a professor of physics at the University of Chicago and a former President of the American Physical Society . He has contributed to the fields of statistical physics, chaos theory, and theoretical condensed matter physics.-Biography:Kadanoff...
in the 1970s
1970s
File:1970s decade montage.png|From left, clockwise: US President Richard Nixon doing the V for Victory sign after his resignation from office after the Watergate scandal in 1974; Refugees aboard a US naval boat after the Fall of Saigon, leading to the end of the Vietnam War in 1975; The 1973 oil...
which led to the seminal reformulation of quantum field theory by Kenneth G. Wilson
Kenneth G. Wilson
Kenneth Geddes Wilson is an American theoretical physicist and Nobel Prize winner.As an undergraduate at Harvard, he was a Putnam Fellow. He earned his PhD from Caltech in 1961, studying under Murray Gell-Mann....
.
Modern developments
- Topological quantum field theoryTopological quantum field theoryA topological quantum field theory is a quantum field theory which computes topological invariants....
(TQFT) - Axiomatic quantum field theoryAxiomatic quantum field theoryAxiomatic quantum field theory is a mathematical discipline which aims to describe quantum field theory in terms of rigorous axioms. It is strongly associated with functional analysis and operator algebras, but has also been studied in recent years from a more geometric and functorial...
- Local quantum field theoryLocal quantum field theoryThe Haag-Kastler axiomatic framework for quantum field theory, named after Rudolf Haag and Daniel Kastler, is an application to local quantum physics of C*-algebra theory. It is therefore also known as Algebraic Quantum Field Theory...
- Algebraic quantum field theory
- Quantum algebraQuantum algebraQuantum algebra is one of the top-level mathematics categories used by the arXiv.Subjects include:*Quantum groups*Skein theories*Operadic algebra*Diagrammatic algebra*Quantum field theory-External links:**R. Jagannathan,...
Suggested further reading
- Pais, Abraham ; Inward Bound - Of Matter & Forces in the Physical World, Oxford University Press (1986) [ISBN 0-19-851997-4] Written by a former Einstein assistant at Princeton, this is a beautiful detailed history of modern fundamental physics, from 1895 (discovery of X-rays) to 1983 (discovery of vectors bosons at C.E.R.N.).
- Richard Feynman; Lecture Notes in Physics. Princeton University Press: Princeton, (1986).
- Richard Feynman; QED. Princeton University Press: Princeton, (1982).
- Weinberg, Steven ; The Quantum Theory of Fields - Foundations (vol. I), Cambridge University Press (1995) [ISBN 0-521-55001-7] The first chapter (pp. 1-40) of Weinberg's monumental treatise gives a brief history of Q.F.T., pp.608.
- Weinberg, Steven; The Quantum Theory of Fields - Modern Applications (vol. II), Cambridge University Press:Cambridge, U.K. (1996) [ISBN 0-521-55001-7], pp.489.
- Weinberg, Steven; The Quantum Theory of Fields - Supersymmetry (vol. III), Cambridge University Press:Cambridge, U.K. (2000) [ISBN 0-521-55002-5], pp.419.
- Schweber, Silvian S. ; Q.E.D. and the men who made it: Dyson, Feynman, Schwinger, and Tomonaga, Princeton University Press (1994) [ISBN 0-691-03327-7]
- Yndurain, Francisco Jose ; Quantum Chromodynamics: An Introduction to the Theory of Quarks and Gluons, Springer Verlag, New York, 1983. [ISBN 0-387-11752-0]
- Miller, Arthur I. ; Early Quantum Electrodynamics : A Sourcebook, Cambridge University Press (1995) [ISBN 0-521-56891-9]
- Schwinger, Julian ; Selected Papers on Quantum Electrodynamics, Dover Publications, Inc. (1958) [ISBN 0-486-60444-6]
- O'Raifeartaigh, Lochlainn ; The Dawning of Gauge Theory, Princeton University Press (May 5, 1997) [ISBN 0-691-02977-6]
- Cao, Tian Yu ; Conceptual Developments of 20th Century Field Theories, Cambridge University Press (1997) [ISBN 0-521-63420-2]
- Darrigol, Olivier ; La genèse du concept de champ quantique, Annales de Physique (France) 9 (1984) pp. 433-501. Text in French, adapted from the author's Ph.D. thesis.
See also
- History of physicsHistory of physicsAs forms of science historically developed out of philosophy, physics was originally referred to as natural philosophy, a term describing a field of study concerned with "the workings of nature".-Early history:...
- Electrodynamics
- History of quantum mechanicsHistory of quantum mechanicsThe history of quantum mechanics, as it interlaces with the history of quantum chemistry, began essentially with a number of different scientific discoveries: the 1838 discovery of cathode rays by Michael Faraday; the 1859-1860 winter statement of the black body radiation problem by Gustav...
- Quantum electrodynamicsQuantum electrodynamicsQuantum electrodynamics is the relativistic quantum field theory of electrodynamics. In essence, it describes how light and matter interact and is the first theory where full agreement between quantum mechanics and special relativity is achieved...
-QED - Quantum field theoryQuantum field theoryQuantum field theory provides a theoretical framework for constructing quantum mechanical models of systems classically parametrized by an infinite number of dynamical degrees of freedom, that is, fields and many-body systems. It is the natural and quantitative language of particle physics and...