The Paul A M Dirac papers at Florida State University: a search for informal mathematical investigations

Abstract

The research discussed in this article is an archival study of pages of mathematical work produced by the physicist Paul A M Dirac. The pages, referred to as the ‘shoebox papers’, are thought to date back at least to Dirac's time as a student at the University of Cambridge in the 1920s. Florida State University, where the research was conducted and where Dirac worked for the last fourteen years of his life, received the entirety of his papers after his death in 1984. The research so far has identified major themes that recur throughout the collection of papers, including an interest in combinatorics and their relation to algebra problems. Due to Dirac's importance as a physicist and a possible relation to combinatorics work by Leibniz, the collection may have significant implications for the history of mathematics.

Acknowledgements

We are indebted to the helpful and supportive administration and staff members of the Florida State University Libraries, including Dean Julie Zimmerman, Associate Dean Katie McCormick, Susan Contente, Stuart Rochford, and Krystal Thomas. We are also grateful to the History of Mathematics Special Interest Group of the Mathematical Association of America (HOMSIGMAA) for supporting our work of preserving and digitizing the Dirac ‘shoebox papers’ with grant funds.

Notes

¹ https://fsu.digital.flvc.org/islandora/search/?type=edismax&collection=fsu%3Adiraccol

² The Dirac Papers collection was re-processed in 2015 and consequently the box numbers reported here may reflect the old numbering and not the current. The current online finding aid reflects both the old and new box numbers and can be accessed from http://fsuarchon.fcla.edu/index.php?p=collections/findingaid&id=3622.