A short biography of Paul A. M. Dirac and historical development of Dirac delta function

Abstract

This paper deals with a short biography of Paul Dirac, his first celebrated work on quantum mechanics, his first formal systematic use of the Dirac delta function and his famous work on quantum electrodynamics and quantum statistics. Included are his first discovery of the Dirac relativistic wave equation, existence of positron and the intrinsic spin and helicity of electrons. Special attention is given to Dirac’s original visionary work on the existence of the magnetic monopole, and on his Large Number Hypothesis that led to the conclusion that physical quantities universally considered as constant of nature are not really constants, but they vary with cosmological time. Some concluding remarks with personal reminiscence are added in the end of the paper.

Keywords:

• quantum mechanics
• Dirac delta function
• Dirac equation
• positron
• Fermi–Dirac statistics
• Bose–Einstein statistics

AMS Subject Classification:

• 01A
• 35K05