Space-time approach to quantum electrodynamics" WITH "The Theory of Positrons" in: Physical Review, Vol. 76, No. 6, pp. 769-89 and 749-59, September 15, 1949 by Feynman, Richard

FIRST EDITION IN ORIGINAL WRAPS of Feynman's literal "reformation of quantum mechanics itself;" claiming "that he could not understand standard quantum theory and had to recreate it on his own, Feynman's famous diagrams, introduced and developed here for the first time, "elegantly rewrite quantum theory" (American National Biography; Peacock, The Quantum Revolution, 102). Of the three pivotal formulations of quantum mechanics, Feynman's was the third, following Heisenberg's matrix formulation and Schrodinger's wave equation formulation; Feynman's is the third formulation. Feynman's path integral formulation was "another way of thinking about QED that is probably as visualizable as any theory of quantum fields is ever going to be, and relatively easy to calculate with. The key idea was to represent every possible particle interaction with a space-time diagram. Photon wordlines (their trajectories through spacetime) are represented by wavy lines, while particles such as electrons and positrons are straight lines or curves" (Peacock, The Quantum Revolution, 102). "The dramatic discovery that Feynman made is that the space-time description of a positron moving forward in time is EXACTLY equivalent to the same mathematical description of an electron moving backward through time along the same track in the Feynman diagram. In addition, because photons are their own antiparticles, there is no difference in this description between a photon moving forward in time and one moving backward in time… An electron proceeding through space and time meets an energetic photon, absorbs it, and is scattered backward BACKWARD IN TIME until it emits an energetic photon and recoils in such a way that it moves forward in time again. Instead of three particles, two electrons, and a positron in a complicated dance, we have one particle, one electron that zigzags its way through space AND time, colliding with photons here and there along the way. Feynman (along with Tomonaga and Schwinger) won the 1965 Nobel Prize "for their fundamental work in quantum electrodynamics, with deep-ploughing consequences for the physics of elementary particles" (Nobel Foundation). CONDITION & DETAILS: Lancaster: American Institute of Physics. 4to. 10.5 x 7.75 inches (262 x 194mm). Bound in original wraps rebacked. Very faint library stamp on the front and rear wrap as well as the first page; literally the stamps are very difficult to even see. Otherwise fine condition in every way.