Paul Dirac, who died in 1984, was without question one of the greatest physicists of the twentieth century. His revolutionary contribution to modern quantum theory is remembered for its insight and creativity. He is especially famous for his prediction of the magnetic moment and spin of the electron and for the existence of antiparticles. He was awarded the Nobel Prize for physics in 1933 at the age of 31. In this memorial volume, 24 of Dirac's friends, colleagues and contemporaries remember him with affection. There are chapters describing Dirac's personality, and many anecdotes about the man with a reputation for silence. Other chapters describe Dirac's science and its impact on modern physics.

A unique insight into Dirac's life and work, by four internationally respected physicists.

Four concise, brilliant lectures on mathematical methods in quantum mechanics from Nobel Prize–winning quantum pioneer build on idea of visualizing quantum theory through the use of classical mechanics.

The first edition of this work appeared in 1930, and its originality won it immediate recognition as a classic of modern physical theory. The fourth edition has been bought out to meet a continued demand. Some improvements have been made, the main one being the complete rewriting of the chapter on quantum electrodymanics, to bring in electron-pair creation. This makes it suitable as an introduction to recent works on quantum field theories.

The first full length biography of Dirac, one of the most brilliant physicists of the twentieth century.

A comprehensive collection of the scientific papers of one of this century's most outstanding physicists.

'A monumental achievement - one of the great scientific biographies.' Michael Frayn The Strangest Man is the Costa Biography Award-winning account of Paul Dirac, the famous physicist sometimes called the British Einstein. He was one of the leading pioneers of the greatest revolution in twentieth-century science: quantum mechanics. The youngest theoretician ever to win the Nobel Prize for Physics, he was also pathologically reticent, strangely literal-minded and legendarily unable to communicate or empathize. Through his greatest period of productivity, his postcards home contained only remarks about the weather.Based on a previously undiscovered archive of family papers, Graham Farmelo celebrates Dirac's massive scientific achievement while drawing a compassionate portrait of his life and work. Farmelo shows a man who, while hopelessly socially inept, could manage to love and sustain close friendship.The Strangest Man is an extraordinary and moving human story, as well as a study of one of the most exciting times in scientific history. 'A wonderful book . . . Moving, sometimes comic, sometimes infinitely sad, and goes to the roots of what we mean by truth in science.' Lord Waldegrave, Daily Telegraph

Einstein's general theory of relativity requires a curved space for the description of the physical world. If one wishes to go beyond superficial discussions of the physical relations involved, one needs to set up precise equations for handling curved space. The well-established mathematical technique that accomplishes this is clearly described in this classic book by Nobel Laureate P.A.M. Dirac. Based on a series of lectures given by Dirac at Florida State University, and intended for the advanced undergraduate, General Theory of Relativity comprises thirty-five compact chapters that take the reader point-by-point through the necessary steps for understanding general relativity.

The first edition of this book was published in 1978 and a new Spanish e(,tition in 1989. When the first edition appeared, Professor A. Martin suggested that an English translation would meet with interest. Together with Professor A. S. Wightman, he tried to convince an American publisher to translate the book. Financial problems made this impossible. Later on, Professors E. H. Lieband W. Thirring proposed to entrust Springer-Verlag with the translation of our book, and Professor W. BeiglbOck accepted the plan. We are deeply grateful to all of them, since without their interest and enthusiasm this book would not have been translated. In the twelve years that have passed since the first edition was published, beautiful experiments confirming some of the basic principles of quantum me chanics have been carried out, and the theory has been enriched with new, im portant developments. Due reference to all of this has been paid in this English edition, which implies that modifications have been made to several parts of the book. Instances of these modifications are, on the one hand, the neutron interfer ometry experiments on wave-particle duality and the 27r rotation for fermions, and the crucial experiments of Aspect et al. with laser technology on Bell's inequalities, and, on the other hand, some recent results on level ordering in central potentials, new techniques in the analysis of anharmonic oscillators, and perturbative expansions for the Stark and Zeeman effects.

Atomic physics and its underlying quantum theory are the point of departure for many modern areas of physics, astrophysics, chemistry, biology, and even electrical engineering. This textbook provides a careful and eminently readable introduction to the results and methods of empirical atomic physics. The student will acquire the tools of quantum physics and at the same time learn about the interplay between experiment and theory. A chapter on the quantum theory of the chemical bond provides the reader with an introduction to molecular physics. Plenty of problems are given to elucidate the material. The authors also discuss laser physics and nonlinear spectroscopy, incorporating latest experimental results and showing their relevance to basic research. Extra items in the second edition include solutions to the exercises, derivations of the relativistic Klein-Gordon and Dirac equations, a detailed theoretical derivation of the Lamb shift, a discussion of new developments in the spectroscopy of inner shells, and new applications of NMR spectroscopy, for instance tomography.