counter-current centrifuge 1
Coward, Noël 1
Crimea, the 1, 2, 3, 4, 5
Crowther, Jim 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13n1, 14n17 Soviet Science 1
Cuban crisis (1962) 1
Cunningham, Ebenezer 1, 2, 3, 4n14 Hassé‘s letter supporting PD 1
PD asks to study relativity with him 1
on PD 1
Curie, Marie 1, 2, 3
Czechoslovakia 1, 2
Daily Express 1, 2
Daily Herald 1
Daily Mail 1
Daily Mirror 1, 2
Daily Telegraph 1
Daladier, Édouard 1
Dali, Salvador 1
Dalitz, Dick 1, 2, 3, 4
Dalyell, Tam 1, 2n11
Daniel, Glyn 1
Darwin, Charles 1, 2, 3 bottom-up thinking 1
compared with Dirac 1
theory of evolution 1
Darwin, Charles (grandson of the naturalist) 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6
Davisson, Clinton 1, 2, 3
de Broglie, Louis: wave theory of matter 1, 2
de Sitter, Wilhelm 1
de Valera, Éamon 1, 2 n20
Debye, Peter 1
∇2V Club 1
Delbrück, Max 1, 2
Delhi 1
Delta function 1, 2n20
Dent, Beryl 1
Department of Scientific and Industrial Research 1
Depression 1, 2, 3
Descartes, René 1
Deutsches Volkstrum (‘German Heritage’) 1
dialectical materialism 1
Dicke, Robert 1
Dickens, Charles 1
differential geometry 1n56
Dingle, Herbert 1, 2
Dirac, Betty (PD’s sister) 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 birth 1
names 1n16
childhood 1, 2, 3
education 1, 2
her father’s favourite child 1, 2, 3
personality 1, 2, 3
and Felix’s death 1
attends PD’s Ph. D. ceremony 1
lack of employment 1, 2, 3, 4
chauffeurs her father to and from work 1
forced to sell her car 1 family radio 2
and her parents’ marriage crisis 1
degree studies 1, 2, 3, 4, 5
goes to Lourdes with her father 1
supports her parents 1
moves to London to become a secretary 1, 2
in Budapest 1, 2
possible reason for her parents’ failed marriage 1, 2n11
marries Joe Teszler 1
lives in Amsterdam 1
birth of son 1
in the Second World War 1, 2, 3
stays in Cambridge 1
her suffering in Budapest 1
birth of daughter 1
relationship with Manci 1, 2
in Alicante 1
stroke 1
Dirac, Charente, France 1
Dirac, Charles (PD’s father) 1, 2, 3, 4 birth (in Monthey, Switzerland) 1
childhood 1
education 1
in London 1
teaches at Merchant Venturers’ Secondary School 1, 2, 3, 4, 5
settles in Bristol 1, 2
appearance 1, 2, 3, 4, 5
personality 1, 2, 3, 4, 5
meets Florence Holten 1, 2
and religion 1, 2, 3, 4, 5
marries Flo 1, 2
insistence on his children speaking French 1, 2, 3, 4, 5
champions Esperanto in Bristol 1
relationship with PD 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7
careful with money 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6
work ethic 1, 2, 3, 4
effects of his rigorous educational regime at home 1
tyranny of 1, 2, 3, 4, 5
his favourite child 1, 2, 3
forces Felix to study engineering instead of medicine 1, 2
deceptions by 1, 2
acquires British nationality 1, 2
efforts to send PD to Cambridge 1, 2, 3
helps PD financially 1, 2, 3, 4
interest in PD’s career 1, 2, 3, 4
family radio 1
deeply affected by the death of Felix 1, 2, 3, 4, 5
death of his mother 1
attends PD’s Ph.D. ceremony 1
letters to his ‘only son’ 115, 1
vegetarianism 1, 2
PD continues to feel intimidated by 1
and PD’s FRS election 1, 2
retirement 1, 2
infidelity 1, 2, 3
marriage crisis 1, 2, 3, 4
loses his grip on his family 1
continues to teach from home 1, 2
plans to visit Geneva 1
rediscovery of his childhood Catholicism 1
visits Geneva with Betty 1
Flo attacks in the Swedish press 1
tries to understand PD’s work 1, 2
goes to Lourdes 1
ill with pleurisy 1
serial tax evader 1
PD blames him for Felix’s suicide 1
‘loathed’ by PD 1, 2n45
death and funeral 1
his estate 1
gravestone 1
Dirac, Felix (PD’s brother) 1, 2 birth 1
names 1n16
appearance 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6n32
education 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 34, 9
childhood in Bristol 1, 2, 3, 4, 5
bullied by his father 1, 2
personality 1, 2, 3
rift with PD 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6
forced to study engineering instead of medicine 1
student apprenticeship in Rugby 1, 2
based near Wolverhampton 1, 2
a draughtsman 1
Buddhism and astrology 1
acquires a girlfriend 1
settles in Birmingham 1
volunteers for the Ambulance Corps 1
leaves his job at a machine-testing laboratory 1
personality 1, 2, 3
suicide 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9n7
the family’s response to his death 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6
memorial service and inquest 1
gravestone 1
Dirac, Florence (née Holten; PD’s mother) 1, 2, 3, 4 first meets Charles 1, 2
appearance 1, 2
personality 1, 2, 3
absent-minded 1, 2
and religion 1
correspondence with Charles 1, 2
marries Charles 1
birth of Felix 1
birth of Paul 1
poem about PD 1, 2n49
Paul as her favourite child 1, 2
and Charles’s deception 1
correspondence with PD 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9n29
fears competition for PD’s affections 1, 2, 3, 4, 5
asks PD for money 1, 2, 3
and the death of Felix 1
poetry 1, 2, 3n16, 4n34, 5n49, 6n15, 7n49
interest in politics 1, 2
attends PD’s Ph.D. ceremony 1
worried about PD’s emaciated appearance 1
evening classes 1, 2, 3, 4n17
admits her unhappiness 1, 2, 3
housework, dislike of 1, 2
PD pays for a diamond ring 1, 2
PD’s visits home 1, 2
visits PD in Cambridge 1
and PD’s visits to Russia 1, 2
opposes the idea of a woman prime minister 1
fussing over PD 1
and PD’s FRS election 1
dreads Charles’s retirement 1
the charade of her marriage 1, 2
affinity with the sea 1, 2;
see also Richard Holten (her father) marriage crisis 1, 2, 3, 4
Mediterranean cruises 1, 2, 3
at PD’s Nobel Prize ceremony 1, 2
at Bohr’s party in Copenhagen 1, 2
and Charles’s pleurisy 1
meets Manci 1
disputes with Manci 1, 2
in the Second World War 1, 2, 3, 4, 5
death and funeral
1
Dirac, Gabriel (PD’s step-son) 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13n26
Dirac, Gisela 1
Dirac, Judy (PD’s step-daughter) 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12
Dirac, Louis (PD’s paternal grandfather) 1, 2n10
Dirac, Margit (Manci; née Wigner; PD’s wife) 1, 2, 3, 4 meets PD 1
personality 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10
and PD’s talk of his unhappy childhood 1, 2
on her first marriage and divorce 1, 2
and religion 1, 2, 3
a keen follower of the arts 1, 2, 3
pursuit of PD 1, 2
PD visits her in Budapest 1, 2
Isabel Whitehead’s assessment 1
PD’s proposal of marriage 1
marriage and honeymoon 1
relationship with Betty 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6
‘Wigner’s sister’ appellation 1, 2n17
settles in Cambridge 1
in the Soviet Union 1
pregnancies 1, 2, 3, 4n10
as an alien in wartime England 1
and air raids on Cambridge 1
Flo helps with housework 1
orders Judy out of the house 1
and the Nazi concentration camps 1
complains about the exodus from Cambridge 1
scorns Heisenberg 1
in Princeton 1
and politics 1, 2
marriage under strain 1, 2, 3
a better wife than mother 1
and disappearance of Judy 1, 2
worsening arthritis 1, 2
and PD’s decision to move to Florida State
University 1
at Florida State 1, 2, 3
Jewish and occasionally anti-Semitic 1, 2n16
as a hostess 1, 2
fraught relationship with Halpern 1, 2, 3
PD’s death and funeral 1
lively and active for ten years after PD’s death 1
letter from Hillary Rodham Clinton 1
death 1
Dirac, Mary (PD’s daughter; later Colleraine, then Tilley) 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 birth 1
childhood 1, 2, 3
personality 1
education 1
emigration to the USA 1, 2
Dirac, Monica (PD’s daughter) 1, 2 birth 1
childhood 1, 2, 3, 4
personality 1
at PD’s commemoration 1
Dirac, Paul Adrien Maurice LIFE STORY
birth (8 August 1902) 1
appearance and dress sense 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28n32
digestive problems 1, 2, 3, 4, 5
foresees the existence of the positron 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6
childhood in Bristol 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7
relationship with his father 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26
nicknamed ‘Tiny’ 10, 1
school education 1, 2, 3
visits Switzerland 1, 2
Bristol accent 1, 2, 3, 4, 5n36
and technical drawing 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6n44
handwriting 1, 2, 3
his mother’s favourite 1, 2
rift with Felix 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6
engineering degree 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10
public impact of relativity theory 1
trainee engineer in Rugby 1, 2
applied maths degree studies 1
and projective geometry 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7
wins scholarships to St John’s College, Cambridge 1
supervision by Fowler 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8
Charles helps him financially 1
arrives at Cambridge 1
manner at the dinner table 1, 2
attends Eddington’s lectures 1
Blackett and Kapitza become his closest friends 1
and Soviet ideology 1, 2, 3
and his mother’s possessiveness 1
first academic papers 1, 2
Felix’s death 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6
first great epiphany 1
first paper on quantum mechanics 1, 2
Ph.D. thesis 1
combines logic and intuition 1, 2
as ‘the strangest man’ (Bohr) 1
successful period in Copenhagen 1, 2, 3
in Göttingen 1, 2, 3
friendship with Oppenheimer 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8
his visits home 1, 2, 3, 4
elected Fellow of St John’s College 1
his rooms in college 1
makes his most famous contribution to science 1
relationship with Isabel Whitehead 1
first visit to Russia 1
reductionism 1
first visit to US 1, 2
elected Fellow of the Royal Society 1, 2n10
buys his first car 1
represented in a special version of Faust 1, 2
Lucasian Chair 1, 2, 3, 4
Wittgenstein, opinion of 1
and moral philosophy 1
works with Kapitza in his laboratory 1, 2
last meeting with Ehrenfest 1
Nobel Prize for physics 1, 2, 3n20
first public comment on social and economic affairs 1
smitten with Rho Gamow 1, 2
first meets Manci 1
campaign for Kapitza’s release 1, 2, 3, 4
sends the Gamows a baby alligator 1, 2n43
guardian of Kapitza’s sons 1, 2
graduate supervisor 1
proposes to Manci 1
marriage and honeymoon 1
first love letter 1
wants his own children 1, 2n23
refuses Princeton’s job offer 1, 2n50
Scott lecture 1
offered war work 1
Baker Medal 1
and the death of his mother 1
refused a visa for the Soviet Union 1, 2n46
declines honours 1, 2
refused a US visa 1, 2
visits India 1
jaundice 1, 2n37
marriage under strain 1, 2
marginalised in Cambridge 1, 2, 3
emigration to US 1, 2, 3
Scientific American article (1963) 1, 2n10
Horizon interview (1965) 1, 2n11
quarks, likes concept of 1
decision to move to Florida State University 1
routine at Florida State 1
busts and paintings of PD 1
accepts the Order of Merit 1
visits CERN 1
flies on Concorde 1
sees his life as a failure 1
surgery on tubercular kidney 1
death (20 October 1984) 1, 2n17
funeral 1, 2n19
commemoration in Westminster Abbey 1
centenary of his birth 1, 2
possible autism 1
names 1n16
memorial stone 490n27
PERSONALITY
– aloofness 1, 2, 3
– confident 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6
– defensiveness 1, 2
– determination 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6
– diffidence 1, 2
– equability 1
– frugality 1
– inhibition 1
– lack of social sensitivity 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9
– literal-mindedness 1, 2, 3, 4, 5n44
– modesty 1, 2, 3, 4, 5
– narrow-mindedness 1
– objectivity 1
– obsession with taking long walks 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17n28, 18n46
– otherworldiness 1, 2, 3, 4
– passivity 1
– physical ineptitude 1, 2
– private enthusiasms 1, 2
– reticence 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8
– rigid pattern of activities 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8
– self-centredness 1, 2, 3
– shyness 1, 2, 3
– stubborness 1, 2, 3
– tacitur
nity 1, 2, 3, 4, 5
– top-down thinker 1, 2, 3
– verbal economy 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16
– work ethic 1, 2, 3, 4, 5
INTERESTS, APTITUDES AND OPINIONS
– beauty, mathematical, fascination with 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17
– board games and mathematical puzzles, enjoyment of 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9n6
– driver, skills as a 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6
– fondness for Mickey Mouse films 1, 2, 3, 4n5
– food, tastes and appetite 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14n6,
– gardening 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7n33
– Hamiltonian approach to mechanics, strong belief in 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8
– jokes, appreciation of 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7n10
– lecturer, skills as a 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16n11
– mountain-climbing 1, 2, 3, 4
– philosophy, opinion of 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8
– relativity, fascination with 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13
– religion, opinions about 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9n45,
– renormalisation, distaste for and dislike of 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9
– swimming 1, 2, 3
– team games and teams, aversion to participation in 1, 2, 3
– technology of space flight, interest in 1, 2, 3
– top-down thinking 1, 2, 3
– tree-climbing 1, 2, 3n17
CONTRIBUTIONS TO PHYSICS AND MATHEMATICS
– action principle in quantum mechanics 1, 2, 3, 4
– antimatter, foresees, see also positron and antiproton 1, 2, 3, 4, 5
– anti-electron predicts, see positron
– anti-proton, predicts 1
– blackbody radiation spectrum derived 1
– bra and ket notation 1
– classical theories of the electron 1, 2
– cosmology, thoughts on 1, 2, 3, 4
– density matrix 1
– delta function 1, 2n20
– Dirac equation 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17 n30,
– Dirac sea 1, 2
– dispersion theory 1
– ether, post-Einstein view of 1
– Fermi-Dirac statistics 1, 2, 3
– general relativity, Hamiltonian formulation of 1, 2, 3
– gravity, weakening of – postulates, see also large numbers hypothesis 1
– high-spin theory 1
– hole theory 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21n7
– indefinite metric 1
– jet-stream method of isotope separation 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6
– Kapitza-Dirac effect 1, 2, 3, 4, 5n27
The Strangest Man Page 77