Toward the Dirac Viewpoint

Abstract

Paul Adrien Maurice Dirac, one of the greatest physicists of modern times, set forth a formulation of quantum theory that encompassed the versions of both Schrödinger and Heisenberg as different representations of a general mathematical structure, thus overriding the special philosophical biases of each. His theory encompassed in mathematical form the major features of the quantum world: the existence of quantum states, the complementary properties of quantum particles, and the significance of the noncommutativity of dynamical operators. And most importantly, he showed how to determine the properties of the operators representing the dynamical variables in terms of the classical relations between them.