The Dispersion of Feynman Diagrams in Postwar Physics

项目摘要SES 0135615战后物理学中费曼图的离散大卫·凯撒麻省理工学院与理论物理学的历史和哲学的传统方法（被框定为知识史或概念史）不同，该项目研究了近代物理学的历史，重点关注计算技能、当地实践以及理论工具和技术。 特别是，这个项目追溯了一种理论工具的历史，这种工具几乎统治了现代物理学的每个分支：理查德·费曼 (Richard Feynman) 在 20 世纪 40 年代末推出的简单线条图。 最令人感兴趣的是，一代又一代的年轻理论家如何学会在描述亚原子物质的一系列相互竞争的理论框架之内和之外，用图表来构建他们的研究。这种基于技能的观点使历史学家能够从头开始解开战后理论物理学的历史，将其视为一个最终关于设计、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，凯撒的历史项目集中于研究实践和将这些实践付诸实践的科学实践者的同时制定。关注费曼图及其从 20 世纪 40 年代末到 1960 年代中期的分散，揭示了战后物理学中更大的转变，包括如何与满屋研究生合作的观念的变化；如何理解前所未有的大量实验数据；如何培养博士后阶段的青年物理学家；以及如何在油印的暑期学校讲义和预印本中传达新的研究技术。战后早期几十年对费曼图的相互竞争的使用和解释只能在这些制度和教学转型的背景下才能理解。 关键在于什么应该算作“理论物理学”，以及如何训练一个人成为“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致力于理论构建和选择的科学哲学家的兴趣。 预期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.