Story of Operators Creation/Anihilation

  • Context: High School 
  • Thread starter Thread starter intrication
  • Start date Start date
  • Tags Tags
    Operators
Click For Summary

Discussion Overview

The discussion centers around the historical origins of creation and annihilation operators in quantum mechanics, exploring who first introduced these concepts and the context in which they were used. Participants inquire about the contributions of notable figures in physics and mathematics to this topic.

Discussion Character

  • Historical, Debate/contested

Main Points Raised

  • One participant suggests that Dirac was the first to introduce creation and annihilation operators.
  • Another participant references a quote from Ryder's book, indicating that Feynman introduced these operators, with Dyson commenting on the implications of the creation operator for electrons and charge conservation.
  • A different participant asserts that Dirac coined the terms and used them in his formulation regarding the positron, noting the significance of annihilation in his famous equation.

Areas of Agreement / Disagreement

Participants express differing views on the origins of creation and annihilation operators, with no consensus reached on who first introduced them or the context of their initial use.

Contextual Notes

The discussion highlights the complexity of historical attribution in scientific concepts, with references to specific figures and their contributions that may depend on interpretations of their work.

intrication
Messages
2
Reaction score
0
Hi everyone !

Could you tell me who is the inventor of these two operators (creation/anihilation) ?

Was he a mathematician ? A physicist ? or both ?

Who was the first to use them in Quantum Mechanics ?

It's hard to find this kind of information.

Thanks

Jonathan
 
Physics news on Phys.org
I think they were first introduced by Dirac.
 
There is quote in the book by Ryder in which I think Feynman intorduces annihilation/creation operators and then Dyson says to Feynman how the creation operator for the electron can create an electron out of the vacuum as that would violate charge conservation. :smile:

So, it seems to me that the use of ladder operators as creation/annihilation operators was not standard in the early days of QM.
 
Dirac coined them, i think. It was used in his formulation on the positron, which initially he believed was the proton. Annihilaton becomes important for obvious reasons under his famous equation, since it describes the annihilation of inertial mass into pure gamma energy.
 
Thank you for all these answers !
 

Similar threads

High School A Time Crystal Visible to the Human Eye
  • · Replies 5 ·
Replies
5
Views
1K
Undergrad Does a Quantum Field Creation Operator Create Particles at a Given Location?
  • · Replies 1 ·
Replies
1
Views
1K
Undergrad Dot product of two vector operators in unusual coordinates
  • · Replies 14 ·
Replies
14
Views
3K
Graduate Lorentz action on creation/annihilation operators
  • · Replies 12 ·
Replies
12
Views
4K
High School Can particles appear from "actual" nothing including no space?
  • · Replies 28 ·
Replies
28
Views
6K
High School Time travel in the quantum world
  • · Replies 10 ·
Replies
10
Views
2K
Undergrad Differentiated Sakharov Equation for Vacuum Fluctuations
  • · Replies 1 ·
Replies
1
Views
2K
Undergrad Understanding the scalar field quantization
  • · Replies 5 ·
Replies
5
Views
4K
High School Extremely elementary questions about QM
  • · Replies 24 ·
Replies
24
Views
3K
Graduate Is delayed choice remote entanglement of photons derived from TDSE?
  • · Replies 58 ·
2
Replies
58
Views
5K