dirac

Paul Dirac was a British theoretical physicist whose work helped establish the foundations of quantum mechanics and quantum field theory. Born in Bristol in 1902, he spent most of his career at the University of Cambridge, holding the Lucasian Chair of Mathematics from 1932 to 1969. He later lived in the United States and died in 1984 in Tallahassee, Florida.

Dirac formulated the Dirac equation, a relativistic wave equation for spin-1/2 particles that unified quantum mechanics with special relativity and predicted the existence of antimatter. The equation introduced four-component spinors and gamma matrices, and it laid the groundwork for quantum field theory. Dirac also developed a concise operator formalism known as Dirac notation (bras and kets) and contributed to the relativistic description of electrons. He proposed the Dirac sea concept to explain negative-energy states, a view that influenced early quantum field theory.

In mathematics and physics, Dirac is also associated with the Dirac delta function, a generalized function used to model idealized point sources.

Dirac shared the 1933 Nobel Prize in Physics with Erwin Schrödinger for discovery of new productive forms of atomic theory. His work remains central to theoretical physics, and his equations and notational conventions continue to shape quantum mechanics and high-energy physics.