How Feynman Diagrams Almost Saved Space

[hunter]

By Frank Wilczek
July 5, 2016

Richard Feynman looked tired when he wandered into my office. It was the end of a long, exhausting day in Santa Barbara, sometime around 1982. Events had included a seminar that was also a performance, lunchtime grilling by eager postdocs, and lively discussions with senior researchers. The life of a celebrated physicist is always intense. But our visitor still wanted to talk physics. We had a couple of hours to fill before dinner.

--more--

https://www.quantamagazine.org/20160705-feynman-diagrams-nature-of-empty-space/

My times!

[longship]

1. I love Frank Wilczek.

His book, The Lightness of Being (Sorry, no Wiki link) is a really great read about the cutting edge quantum field theories of the 20th century, of which Wilczek was an integral part. (He won a Nobel Prize for his work on QCD, Quantum Chromodynamics, the last part of the Standard Model to be solved.)

I have read his book multiple times. Even though my education is in physics, it is still a complex read. Fortunately it has a rather complete glossary and some detailed Appendices to help. The latter will be more helpful to advanced students, which is why Wilczek put them in appendices.

Highly recommended.

Also, Ginger Campbell interviewed Wilczek on two of her podcasts where he talks at length on these subjects.

1: http://www.virginiacampbellmd.com/blog/2008/11/2/interview-with-nobel-physicist-frank-wilczek-bi-23.html

2: http://www.virginiacampbellmd.com/blog/2008/12/23/follow-up-interview-with-frank-wilczek-bi-24.html

Highly recommended interviews.

A great OP. R&K