The Dispersion of Feynman Diagrams in Postwar Physics

项目摘要SES 0135615费曼图在战后物理学中的分散David Kaiser麻省理工学院与传统的理论物理学历史和哲学方法不同，传统的方法被框定为知识或概念史，这个项目考察了近代物理学的历史，重点是计算技能，当地实践，理论工具和技术。 特别是，这个项目追溯了一个理论工具的历史，这个工具后来几乎统治了现代物理学的每一个分支：理查德·费曼的简单线条画，在20世纪40年代末推出。 人们最感兴趣的是，几代年轻的理论家是如何学会根据图表来构建他们的研究的，在一系列描述亚原子物质的相互竞争的理论框架中进进出出。这样一种基于技能的观点使历史学家能够从头开始解读战后理论物理学的历史，最终将其视为一个关于设计、部署和争论支撑日常计算的工具的故事。作为对概念世界观或“范式”的早期研究的补充，凯泽的历史项目集中于研究实践和将其付诸实践的科学实践者的同时制作。从20世纪40年代末到20世纪60年代中期，费曼图及其分散性的关注阐明了战后物理学中更大的转变，包括如何与满屋子的研究生合作的观念的改变;如何理解前所未有的大量实验数据;如何在博士后阶段培养年轻的物理学家;以及如何在油印的暑期学校讲义和预印本中交流新的研究技术。在战后早期的几十年中，费曼图的竞争性使用和解释只能在这些制度和教学转型的背景下理解。 这其中的利害关系无非是什么应该算作“理论物理学”，以及如何培养一个人成为“理论家”。“因此，这个项目应该引起现代物理学的历史学家和社会学家以及从事理论构建和选择的科学哲学家的兴趣。 预期的成果是关于费曼图早期历史的书，以及会议演讲和发表的文章。

Project AbstractSES 0135615The Dispersion of Feynman Diagrams in Postwar PhysicsDavid KaiserMITUnlike traditional approaches to the history and philosophy of theoretical physics, which have been framed as intellectual or conceptual histories, this project examines the history of recent physics with a focus on calculational skills, local practices, and theoretical tools and techniques. In particular, this project traces the history of a theoretical tool which came to dominate nearly every branch of modern physics: RichardFeynman 's simple line-drawings, introduced in the late 1940s. Of central interest is how generations of young theorists learned to frame their research in terms of the diagrams, in and out of a series of competing theoretical frameworks for describing sub-atomic matter. Such a skills-based view allows historians to unpack the history of postwar theoretical physics from the ground up, as a story ultimately about designing, deploying, and disputing the tools which undergird everyday calculations. Complementing earlier studies of conceptual worldviews or "paradigms," Kaiser's historical project concentrates on the simultaneous crafting of research practices and of the scientific practitioners who put them to work. Focusing on Feynman diagrams and their dispersion from the late 1940s through the mid-1960s illuminates larger transitions within postwar physics, including changing notions of how to collaborate with roomfuls of graduate students; how to make sense of unprecedented reams of experimental data; how to train young physicists at the postdoctoral stage; and how to communicate new research techniques in mimeographed summer school lecture notes and preprints. The competing uses and interpretations of Feynman diagrams during the early postwar decades can only be understood within the context of these institutional and pedagogical transitions. At stake was nothing less than what should count as "theoretical physics," and how someone should be trained to become a "theorist." This project should therefore be of interest both to historians and sociologists of modern physics, as well as to philosophers of science who work on theory construction and selection. The expected outcome is book on the early history of Feynman diagrams, as well as conference presentations and published articles.