International Journal of Theoretical Physics, Vol. 21, Nos.

8//9, 1982
Pr e t t y Ma t h e ma t i c s 1
P. A. M. Di r ac
Florida State University, Tallahassee, Florida
Received July 10, 1981
Mathematical beaut y is i mport ant i n particle theories, two of which are de-
scribed.
A good deal of my research wor k i n physi cs has consi st ed in not set t i ng
out t o sol ve some par t i cul ar pr obl em, but si mpl y exami ni ng ma t he ma t i c a l
quant i t i es of a ki nd t hat physi ci st s use and t ryi ng t o fit t hem t oget her i n an
i nt erest i ng way regardl ess of any appl i cat i on t hat the wor k may have. I t is
si mpl y a search for pr et t y mat hemat i cs. I t ma y t urn out l at er t hat t he wor k
does have an appl i cat i on. Then one has had good luck.
I can give a good exampl e of this procedure. At one time, in 1927, I
was pl ayi ng ar ound wi t h t hree 2)< 2 mat ri ces whose squares are equal t o
uni t y and whi ch ant i commut e wi t h one anot her. Cal l i ng t hem al , 02, 0"3, I
not i ced t hat i f one mul t i pl i ed t hem i nt o t he three component s of a mo me n -
t um so as to f or m al pt +a2P2+a3p3, one obt ai ned a quant i t y whose
squar e was j ust pl 2 + P~ + p32. Thi s was an exciting result, but what use
coul d one make of it?
One coul d use oxp z + a2p 2 + a3p 3 as the Hami l t oni an in a SchriSdinger
wave equat i on, giving t he wave f unct i on t wo component s so t hat t he a
mat r i ces can be appl i ed t o it. One t hen had a relativistic wave equat i on. But
it appl i ed onl y to a part i cl e of zero rest mass. To get a t heor y for a par t i cl e
wi t h nonzer o rest mass one woul d need f our o mat ri ces ant i commut i ng wi t h
one anot her, and such mat ri ces di d not exist. So my wor k was of no use f or
t he el ect ron, which was what I was mai nl y i nt erest ed in. I t her ef or e had t o
a ba ndon it.
I t was not unt i l some weeks l at er t hat I realized t here is no need t o
rest ri ct onesel f to 2 2 mat ri ces. One coul d go on t o 4 4 mat ri ces, and t he
~Presented at the Dirac Symposium, Loyola University, New Orleans, May 1981.
603
0020-7748/82/0800-0603503.00/0 1982 Plenum Publishing Corporation
604 Dirac
probl em is t hen easily soluble. In retrospect, it seems strange t hat o n e can
be so much held up over such an elementary point.
The resulting wave equation for the electron t urned out to be very
successful. It led to correct val ues for the spin and the magnetic monnent .
This was quite unexpected. The work all followed from a st udy of pxet t y
mat hemat i cs, wi t hout any t hought being given to these physical pr oper t i es
of the electron.
Anot her example of pretty mat hemat i cs led to the idea of the mag~netic
monopol e. When I did this work I was hoping to find some expl anat i on of
the fine-structure const ant h c / e 2. But this failed. The mat hemat i cs led
i nexorabl y to the monopole.
Fr om the theoretical point of view one would t hi nk t hat monopol e s
shoul d exist, because of the prettiness of the mathematics. Many a t t e mpt s to
fi nd t hem have been made, but all have been unsuccessful. One s houl d
concl ude t hat pret t y mathematics by itself is not an adequate r e a s on for
nat ur e to have made use of a theory. We still have much to learn in s eeki ng
for the basic principles of nature.
I would like to discuss a furt her development of pret t y mat hemat i cs
t hat is provided by a relativistic t heory of a particle t hat I put f or wa r d in
1970. Here the wave function has onl y one component , instead of the us ua l
four, but the particle has internal degrees of freedom, consisting o f two
harmoni c oscillators. Call the coordinates of these oscillators ql, q2, a n d the
conjugate moment a q3, q4, so the four q' s satisfy the commut at i on r el at i ons
(with h = 1)
qaqb - qbq,~ =/3~b, a, b = 1,2, 3, 4
where/ 3 is the mat ri x
3 =
0 0 1 0
0 0 0 - 1
- 1 0 0 0
0 1 0 0
Not e t hat / 3 is skew and/32 = _ 1.
We t hen consider the four q' s as a col umn matrix, so t hat q appear s as
a col umn mat ri x with four elements. We set up the wave equat i on
{ 0 a 0 + f l ) q ~ = 0
- ~ + rOx----;
(1)
where the a' s are 4)<4 matrices whose squares are uni t y and whi c h
ant i commut e with one anot her and with ft. Also the a' s must be chos en to
have onl y real dement s. This wave equat i on is formal l y very similar t o the
Pretty Mathematics 605
usual electron wave equation, wi t h the difference t hat we have the col umn
mat ri x q4', with j ust one 4', replacing the four component s of the usual 4'-
There are four equations in (1), corresponding to the four component s
of q4'. Of these, it turns out t hat onl y three are i ndependent . For one
funct i on 4' to satisfy three i ndependent equations it is necessary t hat certain
consistency conditions shall be fulfilled. One finds that they are fulfilled,
provi ded 4' satisfies the de Broglie equat i on (with.m = 1) for all values of the
i nt ernal coordinates. One finds also t hat the equat i on is relativistic, and t hat
the mass has to be positive. These are pret t y results, and lead one t o wonder
if the t heory can describe any particle in nature.
One cannot assign a charge to the particle and let it interact wi t h the
electromagnetic field in the usual way, by maki ng
ih a~-~ -~ ih a~--~ + e A # (2)
because then the equations cease to be consistent. The consi st ency condi-
tions are so restrictive t hat there is very little one can do with t he theory,
and I did not fi nd any way of developing it so as to lead to a hope of
appl yi ng it.
Recently, an extension of the t heory has been made by Sudarshan and
his co-workers. They extend the internal degrees of freedom of t he particle
by replacing
q a - " E ~ ;
F
for each of the four values of a. For each r the ~ are like the ori gi nal qa
describing two harmoni c oscillators, but the ~ for one value of r ant i com-
mut e with those for anot her value of r. Under these conditions Sudarshan
shows t hat the equations are still consistent and still provide a reasonabl e
relativistic theory.
This is truly a remarkable result. It makes the theory much more
flexible. It becomes possible to i nt roduce i nt eract i on with the electromag-
netic field in the usual way, according to the procedure (2). It renews hope
t hat the t heory will have an application to some particle in nat ure, but a
good deal more work will first have to be done on it.
Wi t h an approach like this to a new theory, there is a chance of new
features appearing which one coul d never find by j ust maki ng straightfor-
ward developments of the old theories.
REFERENCES
Dirac, P. A. M. (1971). Proceedings of the Royal Society of London Series A, 322, 435.
Sudarshan, E. C. G. et al. (1982). Proceedings of the Royal Society of London Series A, 379, 103.