Early Quantum Electrodynamics: A Sourcebook Book

	Preface
	Notes to the Preface
	Acknowledgements
	Notes to the Reader
I	Frame-setting essay
1	From quantum mechanics toward quantum electrodynamics	3
1.1	Niels Bohr's atomic theory, 1913-23	4
1.2	The coupling mechanism	4
1.3	Virtual oscillators	6
1.4	Quantum mechanics versus wave mechanics	7
1.5	Intrinsic symmetry	9
1.6	Transformation theory and word meanings	12
1.7	The uncertainty principle paper	13
1.8	Complementarity	15
2	Second quantization	18
2.1	Jordan's 1926 results	18
2.2	Dirac's quantization of the electromagnetic field	20
2.3	Jordan's quantization of bosons and fermions	23
2.4	Jordan and Pauli's relativistic quantization of charge-free electromagnetic fields	25
3	Photons and relativistic electrons	29
3.1	The Dirac equation	29
3.2	Heisenberg and Pauli on quantum electrodynamics, 1929	31
3.3	The electron's mass in classical and quantum electrodynamics	35
3.4	From negative energy states to positrons	38
4	Quantum electrodynamics	41
4.1	Measurement problems in a quantum theory of the electromagnetic field	41
4.2	Heisenberg's first attempt at a fundamental length	43
4.3	An 'intuitive' time-dependent perturbation theory	45
4.4	Multiple-time theory, hole theory and second quantization	46
4.5	Dirac at Solvay in 1933: vacuum polarization	51
4.6	The Heisenberg-Pauli collaboration on positron theory	53
4.7	The subtraction physics	58
4.8	Quantization of the Klein-Gordon equation: the Pauli-Weisskopf theory	69
4.9	Toward a connection between spin and statistics	71
4.10	The connection between spin and statistics	72
4.11	Return to 1934	73
4.12	Light-light scattering	75
4.13	Weisskopf and vacuum polarization: a new statement about infinities	76
4.14	Some other approaches to quantum electrodynamics: cosmic ray physics, nonlinear theories and the lattice world (Gitterwelt)	77
4.15	The fundamental length	80
4.16	The infrared catastrophe	81
5	Theories of the nuclear force in the 1930s	84
5.1	Heisenberg invents exchange forces in nuclear physics: the metaphor of forces transmitted by particles	84
5.2	Ettore Majorana's nuclear theory	90
5.3	Discussion at Solvay in 1933	91
5.4	Enrico Fermi's theory of [Beta]-decay	92
5.5	[Beta]-Decay and the nuclear force	93
5.6	Hideki Yukawa's theory of the nuclear force: metaphor becomes physical reality	93
	Epilogue	97
	Notes	101
	References to the Frame-setting essay	111
II	Selected papers
1	The self-energy of the electron	121
2	Remarks on radiation theory	129
3	Theory of the positron	136
4	Discussion of the infinite distribution of electrons in the theory of the positron	145
5	The self-energy of the electron	157
6	Remarks on the Dirac theory of the positron	169
7	The quantization of the scalar relativistic wave equation	188
8	The electrodynamics of the vacuum based on the quantum theory of the electron	206
9	Theory of the emission of long-wave light quanta	227
10	The universal length appearing in the theory of elementary particles	244
11	The interaction between charged particles and the radiation field	254
	Index to Frame-setting essay	259