= Paul Dirac
{c}
{tag=Physicist}
{title2=1902-1984}
{wiki}
= Paul Adrien Maurice Dirac
{c}
{synonym}
= Paul A. M. Dirac
{c}
{synonym}
<Paul Dirac> sought a <relativistic quantum mechanics> whose evolution equation remained first order in both time and spatial derivatives. A free-particle <Hamiltonian> $H=c\boldsymbol\alpha\cdot\mathbf p+\beta mc^2$ reproduces the relativistic relation $H^2=c^2\mathbf p^2+m^2c^4$ when its coefficient <matrices> satisfy suitable <anticommutator> identities. The required multi-component <wave function> incorporates electron <spin> within the relativistic dynamics. His 1928 paper used this construction to address the doubling of atomic states that earlier theories had treated by adding spin separately.<The Quantum Theory of the Electron by Paul Dirac>[Introduction and construction of four coefficient matrices; modern notation used here]{ref}
A <physicist> who developed a relativistic theory of the <electron>. He shared the <Nobel Prize in Physics in 1933> with <Erwin Schrödinger>.<Paul A.M. Dirac, Facts by Nobel Prize Outreach>[Facts: life dates, joint prize and the 1928 relativistic electron theory]{ref}
\Image[https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Special:Redirect/file/Paul_Dirac,_1933.jpg?width=240]
{title=Portrait of <Paul Dirac> in 1933}
{description=Nobel Foundation, 1933, via Wikimedia Commons. The linked file supplies the original Nobel source and marks the anonymous photograph public domain under its stated term of protection.}
{source=https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Paul_Dirac,_1933.jpg}
{width=240}
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