2
$\begingroup$

I read in Wiki they were together at the Solvay Conderence. There is also a note from 1926 letter to Paul Ehrenfest, Albert Einstein wrote of a Dirac paper, "I am toiling over Dirac. This balancing on the dizzying path between genius and madness is awful." In another letter concerning the Compton effect he wrote, "I don't understand the details of Dirac at all."

Dirac used special relativity in 1926 as part of the Dirac Equation.

I am scratching my head on the comment from the architect of general relativity arguably one of the crown jewels of human achivement. On the other hand the EPR paper requires deep insight into quantum mechanics to be able to predict the behavior of what entanglement would do well ahead of anyone else. Of course there were two other's who contributed along with Einstein but I rather imagine Einstein understood quantum mechanics. I was wondering if other than what I found above there is more to read?

Improve this question
$\endgroup$
4
  • 1
    $\begingroup$ No, see What did Einstein say about the Dirac equation? Einstein understood QM, but QFT was beyond him. $\endgroup$
    – Conifold
    Sep 16 at 0:32
  • 1
    $\begingroup$ Are you sure the Dirac paper cited is about the Dirac equation? A quick look suggests the Dirac equation first appeared in a 1928 paper. In 1926 Dirac did publish a paper on transformation theory in quantum mechanics, is it not possible this is the paper Einstein is referring to? $\endgroup$
    – cesaruliana
    Sep 16 at 12:36
  • $\begingroup$ Yes , thank you for pointing that out. You are right the Dirac Equation was in 1928 and the letter was sooner. I am not sure what Einstein was trying to read of Dirac's work in 1926. In 1932 antiparticles were discovered which supported the Dirac Equation but I have never read any comments Einstein made about this topic although it did make use of his theory of special relativity I believe. $\endgroup$
    – Sedumjoy
    Sep 16 at 14:16
  • $\begingroup$ @Conifold. Thank you. Awesome link. $\endgroup$
    – Sedumjoy
    Sep 16 at 14:19

0

Reset to default

Your Answer

By clicking “Post Your Answer”, you agree to our terms of service and acknowledge that you have read and understand our privacy policy and code of conduct.

Browse other questions tagged or ask your own question.