Part 4/10:
Dirac's Groundbreaking Contribution
Paul Dirac addressed these shortcomings with the introduction of the Dirac equation, which successfully intertwined quantum mechanics and relativity. However, a significant leap was needed to accurately describe light's interaction with matter. Here, Dirac proposed a revolutionary notion: instead of tracking individual particles, one should quantize the electromagnetic field itself. This approach explains how particles can be created and annihilated while efficiently avoiding redundancies in calculations, which plagued earlier theories.