Dirac equation and the prediction of antimatter
Ecuación de Dirac y predicción de la antimateria
- Date
- 1928 · confidence high
- Place
- St John's College, Cambridge, England, United Kingdom
- Credited to
- Paul Dirac
- People
- 👤 Paul Dirac1902–1984
- Field
- Cosmos & Earth
What was discovered
A relativistic equation for the electron that produces spin automatically and whose negative-energy solutions imply the existence of antiparticles. It is the first step towards quantum field theory.
Dirac explicitly predicted the 'anti-electron' in 1931.
What it led to
- Discovery of the positron (1932)
- Quantum electrodynamics
- Quantum field theory
- Positron emission tomography