Archive of historical materials
Discussion on the theory of the positron
OU1935-B9 (21 pages) Date: None
In this note, Yukawa is critical about Dirac’s paper, “Discussion of the Infinite Distribution of Electrons in the Theory of the Positron” (Proc. Camb. Phil. Soc., vol 30, 150, 1934). Dirac believed that all electrons in the negative energy solutions of the Dirac equation were occupied and that the resulting holes (positive holes) behaved much like positrons. However, because an infinite number of electrons supposedly exist in space, even in vacuum, the above explanation caused many problems. Yukawa carefully read and understood Dirac’s paper, set the Hamiltonian for the positive energy solutions (electron) and negative energy solutions (positron), and attempted to solve the difficulties within the framework of quantum mechanics. This note contains detailed calculations. It is known today that the above problems can be solved by the quantization of field theory.
The above view was developed from “Idea: On the Theory of Positrons” (OU1934-B9) and led to the writing of the paper, “Density Matrix in the Theory of the Positron” (OU1936-C1, OU1936-C2), published in the spring of 1936. (Written by Yutaka Hosotani)
