Pascual jordan y paul dirac biography

Jordan was Max Born’s assistant when Heisenberg produced his first account of modern quantum mechanics, and Jordan and Born constructed the full theory, Heisenberg also taking part once he had assimilated matrix algebra.

Jordan later made major contributions to quantum field theory.

Although he had close contacts with many Jewish physicists, Jordan joined the Nazi Party in 1933, and also became a storm trooper, and during the war he worked on the development of rockets for Hitler.

As a result, after the war he had to be declared ‘rehabilitated’. Once he had achieved this, he regained his academic status and indeed he entered Parliament, where his advocacy of nuclear weapons caused fresh friction with his former physicist friends.

Fig.

5.3 Pascual Jordan [courtesy of Professor Jtirgen Ehlers]

Paul Adrien Maurice Dirac (1902-84)

Fig. 5.4 Paul Dirac (right) pictured with Pauli in 1938 [courtesy of CERN Pauli archive]

Dirac was a research student