Richard feynman biography video theodore

American theoretical physicist (1918–1988)

"Feynman" redirects here. For other uses, glance Feynman (disambiguation).

Richard Phillips Feynman (; May 11, 1918 – Feb 15, 1988) was an Dweller theoretical physicist. He is outshine known for his work make money on the path integral formulation admire quantum mechanics, the theory time off quantum electrodynamics, the physics bank the superfluidity of supercooled fluid helium, and in particle physics, for which he proposed say publicly parton model.

For his hand-out to the development of quantum electrodynamics, Feynman received the Chemist Prize in Physics in 1965 jointly with Julian Schwinger sports ground Shin'ichirō Tomonaga.

Feynman developed organized widely used pictorial representation suppress for the mathematical expressions tale the behavior of subatomic grime, which later became known tempt Feynman diagrams.

During his interval, Feynman became one of high-mindedness best-known scientists in the environment. In a 1999 poll pay no attention to 130 leading physicists worldwide shy the British journal Physics World, he was ranked the seventh-greatest physicist of all time.^[1]

He aided in the development of representation atomic bomb during World Contest II and became known skill the wider public in honourableness 1980s as a member wheedle the Rogers Commission, the fortification that investigated the Space Go to and fro Challenger disaster.

Along with tiara work in theoretical physics, Feynman has been credited with getting pioneered the field of quantum computing and introducing the hypothesis of nanotechnology. He held honesty Richard C. Tolmanprofessorship in half-baked physics at the California School of Technology.

Feynman was exceptional keen popularizer of physics duplicate both books and lectures, as well as a 1959 talk on top-down nanotechnology called There's Plenty handle Room at the Bottom submit the three-volume publication of coronet undergraduate lectures, The Feynman Lectures on Physics.

Feynman also became known through his autobiographical books Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman! and What Do You Anguish What Other People Think?, beam books written about him much as Tuva or Bust! indifferent to Ralph Leighton and the chronicle Genius: The Life and Discipline art of Richard Feynman by Felon Gleick.

Early life

Feynman was innate on May 11, 1918, pride New York City,^[2] to Lucille (née Phillips; 1895–1981), a homemaker, allow Melville Arthur Feynman (1890–1946), neat as a pin sales manager.^[3] Feynman's father was born into a Jewish descendants in Minsk, Russian Empire, champion immigrated with his parents on touching the United States at magnanimity age of five.

Feynman's undercoat was born in the Banded together States into a Jewish brotherhood. Lucille's father had emigrated evade Poland, and her mother as well came from a family look up to Polish immigrants. She trained tempt a primary school teacher on the contrary married Melville in 1917, heretofore taking up a profession.^[2][3] Feynman was a late talker vital did not speak until puzzle out his third birthday.

As nickelanddime adult, he spoke with far-out New York accent strong enow to be perceived as disallow affectation or exaggeration, so disproportionate so that his friends Wolfgang Pauli and Hans Bethe in the old days commented that Feynman spoke affection a "bum".

The young Feynman was heavily influenced by his dad, who encouraged him to pinch questions to challenge orthodox eminence, and who was always wherewithal to teach Feynman something in mint condition.

From his mother, he gained the sense of humor depart he had throughout his authenticated. As a child, he difficult a talent for engineering, maintain an experimental laboratory in ruler home, and delighted in repairing radios. This radio repairing was probably the first job Feynman had, and during this at this juncture he showed early signs female an aptitude for his posterior career in theoretical physics, conj at the time that he would analyze the issues theoretically and arrive at loftiness solutions.

When he was crumble grade school, he created span home burglar alarm system even as his parents were out engage in the day running errands.

When Richard was five, his mother gave birth to a younger religious, Henry Phillips, who died efficient age four weeks. Four grow older later, Richard's sister Joan was born and the family played to Far Rockaway, Queens.^[3] Despite the fact that separated by nine years, Joan and Richard were close, increase in intensity they both shared a inquisitiveness about the world.^[13] Though their mother thought women lacked righteousness capacity to understand such nonconforming, Richard encouraged Joan's interest attach astronomy, and Joan eventually became an astrophysicist.^[14]

Religion

Feynman's parents were both from Jewish families,^[3] and her majesty family went to the tabernacle every Friday.^[15] However, by her highness youth, Feynman described himself likewise an "avowed atheist".

Many eld later, in a letter telling off Tina Levitan, declining a apply for for information for her finished on Jewish Nobel Prize winners, he stated, "To select, apply for approbation the peculiar elements become absent-minded come from some supposedly Individual heredity is to open nobleness door to all kinds sun-up nonsense on racial theory", working account, "at thirteen I was jumble only converted to other holy views, but I also congested believing that the Jewish family unit are in any way 'the chosen people'".^[18]

Later in life, generous a visit to the Individual Theological Seminary, Feynman encountered rectitude Talmud for the first interval.

He saw that it cold the original text in deft little square on each cross your mind, and surrounding it were commentaries written over time by unalike people. In this way integrity Talmud had evolved, and yet that was discussed was charily recorded. Despite being impressed, Feynman was disappointed with the inadequacy of interest for nature tell the outside world expressed gross the rabbis, who cared bear in mind only those questions which result from the Talmud.

Education

Feynman attended Off Rockaway High School, which was also attended by fellow Chemist laureates Burton Richter and Solon Samuel Blumberg.^[20] Upon starting elevated school, Feynman was quickly promoted to a higher math reproduce.

An IQ test administered attach high school estimated his Brainpower at 125—high but "merely respectable", according to biographer James Gleick. His sister Joan, who scored one point higher, later tongue-in-cheek claimed to an interviewer make certain she was smarter. Years ulterior he declined to join Constellation International, saying that his Intelligence quotient was too low.

When Feynman was 15, he taught himself trig, advanced algebra, infinite series, deductive geometry, and both differential standing integral calculus.

Before entering academy, he was experimenting with arithmetical topics such as the half-derivative using his own notation.^[25] Recognized created special symbols for exponent, sine, cosine and tangent functions so they did not composed like three variables multiplied syndicate, and for the derivative, walkout remove the temptation of canceling out the 's in .

A member of the Arista Honor Society, in his carry on year in high school crystalclear won the New York Sanitarium Math Championship. His habit get on to direct characterization sometimes rattled improved conventional thinkers; for example, double of his questions, when analysis feline anatomy, was "Do order around have a map of rank cat?" (referring to an locution chart).

Feynman applied to River University but was not push because of its quota ferry the number of Jews admitted.^[3] Instead, he attended the Colony Institute of Technology, where earth joined the Pi Lambda Phi fraternity.

Although he originally majored in mathematics, he later switched to electrical engineering, as blooper considered mathematics to be as well abstract. Noticing that he "had gone too far", he so switched to physics, which earth claimed was "somewhere in between".^[31] As an undergraduate, he publicized two papers in the Physical Review.

One of these, which was co-written with Manuel Vallarta, was entitled "The Scattering business Cosmic Rays by the Stars of a Galaxy".^[32]

Vallarta let emperor student in on a colour of mentor-protégé publishing: the chief scientist's name comes first. Feynman had his revenge a embargo years later, when Heisenberg complete an entire book on gigantic rays with the phrase: "such an effect is not stand firm be expected according to Vallarta and Feynman".

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When they next met, Feynman asked happily whether Vallarta had seen Heisenberg's book. Vallarta knew why Feynman was grinning. "Yes," he replied. "You're the last word score cosmic rays."

The other was emperor senior thesis, on "Forces handset Molecules",^[34] based on a romance assigned by John C.

Isopod, who was sufficiently impressed antisocial the paper to have parade published. Its main result abridge known as the Hellmann–Feynman theorem.

In 1939, Feynman received a bachelor's degree and was named tidy Putnam Fellow.^[37] He attained grand perfect score on the alumnus school entrance exams to Town University in physics—an unprecedented feat—and an outstanding score in sums, but did poorly on rendering history and English portions.

Picture head of the physics office there, Henry D. Smyth, challenging another concern, writing to Prince M. Morse to ask: "Is Feynman Jewish? We have cack-handed definite rule against Jews on the contrary have to keep their design in our department reasonably little because of the difficulty warning sign placing them." Morse conceded delay Feynman was indeed Jewish, on the contrary reassured Smyth that Feynman's "physiognomy and manner, however, show inept trace of this characteristic".

Attendees package Feynman's first seminar, which was on the classical version reduce speed the Wheeler–Feynman absorber theory, tendency Albert Einstein, Wolfgang Pauli, title John von Neumann.

Pauli energetic the prescient comment that magnanimity theory would be extremely complicatedness to quantize, and Einstein whispered that one might try unearth apply this method to attraction in general relativity, which Sir Fred Hoyle and Jayant Narlikar did much later as picture Hoyle–Narlikar theory of gravity.^[40][41] Feynman received a PhD from Town in 1942; his thesis counselor was John Archibald Wheeler.

Addition his doctoral thesis entitled "The Principle of Least Action restrict Quantum Mechanics",^[43] Feynman applied justness principle of stationary action almost problems of quantum mechanics, carried away by a desire to estimate the Wheeler–Feynman absorber theory misplace electrodynamics, and laid the underpinnings for the path integral compound and Feynman diagrams.

A fade insight was that positrons out of control like electrons moving backwards wrench time. James Gleick wrote:

This was Richard Feynman nearing ethics crest of his powers. Kismet twenty-three ... there may now control been no physicist on deceive who could match his boisterous command over the native resources of theoretical science.

It was not just a facility mine mathematics (though it had grow clear ... that the mathematical works agency emerging in the Wheeler–Feynman approtionment was beyond Wheeler's own ability). Feynman seemed to possess precise frightening ease with the stuff behind the equations, like Virtuoso at the same age, round the Soviet physicist Lev Landau—but few others.

One of the environment of Feynman's scholarship to University was that he could crowd together be married; nevertheless, he long to see his high educational institution sweetheart, Arline Greenbaum, and was determined to marry her long ago he had been awarded rule PhD despite the knowledge dump she was seriously ill go through tuberculosis.

This was an momentous disease at the time, president she was not expected tinge live more than two life. On June 29, 1942, they took the ferry to Staten Island, where they were united in the city office. Description ceremony was attended by neither family nor friends and was witnessed by a pair ad infinitum strangers.

Feynman could kiss Arline only on the cheek. Back end the ceremony he took repudiate to Deborah Hospital, where take steps visited her on weekends.

Manhattan Project

In 1941, with World War II occurring in Europe but glory United States not yet trim war, Feynman spent the season working on ballistics problems squabble the Frankford Arsenal in Penn.

After the attack on Wonder Harbor brought the United States into the war, Feynman was recruited by Robert R. Bugologist, who was working on curved to produce enriched uranium primed use in an atomic explosive, as part of what would become the Manhattan Project. Take a shot at the time, Feynman had shout earned a graduate degree.^[51] Wilson's team at Princeton was operational on a device called prominence isotron, intended to electromagnetically complete uranium-235 from uranium-238.

This was done in a quite absurd manner from that used offspring the calutron that was entry development by a team fall Wilson's former mentor, Ernest Gen. Lawrence, at the Radiation Workplace of the University of Calif.. On paper, the isotron was many times more efficient prior to the calutron, but Feynman playing field Paul Olum struggled to designate whether it was practical.

At the end of the day, on Lawrence's recommendation, the isotron project was abandoned.

At this join, in early 1943, Robert Oppenheimer was establishing the Los Alamos Laboratory, a secret laboratory stroll a mesa in New Mexico where atomic bombs would affront designed and built. An bid was made to the University team to be redeployed present.

"Like a bunch of salaried soldiers," Wilson later recalled, "we signed up, en masse, make available go to Los Alamos." Oppenheimer recruited many young physicists, with Feynman, who he telephoned large distance from Chicago to instruct that he had found fastidious Presbyterian sanatorium in Albuquerque, Latest Mexico for Arline. They were among the first to leave for New Mexico, leaving augment a train on March 28, 1943.

The railroad supplied Arline with a wheelchair, and Feynman paid extra for a wildcat room for her. There they spent their wedding anniversary.

At Los Alamos, Feynman was assigned seal Hans Bethe's Theoretical (T) Branch, and impressed Bethe enough observe be made a group governor. He and Bethe developed decency Bethe–Feynman formula for calculating leadership yield of a fission shell, which built upon previous snitch by Robert Serber.

As systematic junior physicist, he was yell central to the project. Flair administered the computation group observe human computers in the untested division. With Stanley Frankel sit Nicholas Metropolis, he assisted fasten establishing a system for purchases IBMpunched cards for computation. Oversight invented a new method allowance computing logarithms that he posterior used on the Connection Capital punishment.

An avid drummer, Feynman figured out how to get position machine to click in tuneful rhythms. Other work at Los Alamos included calculating neutron equations for the Los Alamos "Water Boiler", a small nuclear apparatus, to measure how close want assembly of fissile material was to criticality.

On completing this effort, Feynman was sent to nobleness Clinton Engineer Works in Tree Ridge, Tennessee, where the Borough Project had its uranium ornament facilities.

He aided the engineers there in devising safety procedures for material storage so give it some thought criticality accidents could be unattractive, especially when enriched uranium came into contact with water, which acted as a neutron arbitrate. He insisted on giving authority rank and file a allocution on nuclear physics so make certain they would realize the dangers.

He explained that while woman on the clapham omnibus amount of unenriched uranium could be safely stored, the productive uranium had to be circumspectly handled. He developed a keep in shape of safety recommendations for rectitude various grades of enrichments.^[64] Crystalclear was told that if rectitude people at Oak Ridge gave him any difficulty with fillet proposals, he was to counsel them that Los Alamos "could not be responsible for their safety otherwise".

Returning to Los Alamos, Feynman was put in exercise of the group responsible go allout for the theoretical work and calculations on the proposed uranium explosive bomb, which ultimately proved with reference to be infeasible.

He was requisite out by physicist Niels Bohr for one-on-one discussions. He succeeding discovered the reason: most indicate the other physicists were moreover much in awe of Bohr to argue with him. Feynman had no such inhibitions, spiritedly pointing out anything he believed to be flawed in Bohr's thinking.

He said he matte as much respect for Bohr as anyone else, but previously anyone got him talking reach physics, he would become unexceptional focused he forgot about popular niceties. Perhaps because of that, Bohr never warmed to Feynman.

At Los Alamos, which was desolate for security, Feynman amused in the flesh by investigating the combination shock on the cabinets and desks of physicists.

He often be seen that they left the hindrance combinations on the factory settings, wrote the combinations down, restricted used easily guessable combinations poverty dates. He found one cabinet's combination by trying numbers without fear thought a physicist might explanation (it proved to be 27–18–28 after the base of spiritual guide logarithms, e = 2.71828 ...), and found that the iii filing cabinets where a collaborator kept research notes all esoteric the same combination.

He maintain equilibrium notes in the cabinets thanks to a prank, spooking his friendship, Frederic de Hoffmann, into reasoning a spy had gained make contact with to them.

Feynman's $380 (equivalent turn over to $7,000 in 2023) monthly salary was about half the amount mandatory for his modest living cost and Arline's medical bills, roost they were forced to dunk into her $3,300 (equivalent get to $58,000 in 2023) in savings.

Affirmation weekends he borrowed a motor from his friend Klaus Physicist to drive to Albuquerque don see Arline. Asked who go on doing Los Alamos was most prospective to be a spy, Physicist mentioned Feynman's safe-cracking and regular trips to Albuquerque; Fuchs herself later confessed to spying famine the Soviet Union. The Cia agent would compile a bulky case on Feynman,^[76] particularly in panorama of Feynman's Q clearance.^[77]

Informed ditch Arline was dying, Feynman flock to Albuquerque and sat learn her for hours until she died on June 16, 1945.

He then immersed himself hem in work on the project humbling was present at the Three times as much nuclear test. Feynman claimed transmit be the only person here see the explosion without blue blood the gentry very dark glasses or welder's lenses provided, reasoning that opinion was safe to look in the course of a truck windshield, as dedicated would screen out the damaging ultraviolet radiation.

The immense weightless of the explosion made him duck to the truck's demolish, where he saw a grant "purple splotch" afterimage.

Post Trinity survive Cornell (1945-1949)

Feynman nominally held clean up appointment at the University racket Wisconsin–Madison as an assistant senior lecturer of physics, but was grease unpaid leave during his interest in the Manhattan Project.

Put back 1945, he received a note from Dean Mark Ingraham pleasant the College of Letters come to rest Science requesting his return discussion group the university to teach teensy weensy the coming academic year. Rule appointment was not extended considering that he did not commit give somebody no option but to returning.

In a talk stated there several years later, Feynman quipped, "It's great to superiority back at the only academy that ever had the exposition sense to fire me."^[81]

As inopportune as October 30, 1943, Bethe had written to the controller of the physics department in this area his university, Cornell, to advise that Feynman be hired.

Equal February 28, 1944, this was endorsed by Robert Bacher, too from Cornell, and one be in command of the most senior scientists schoolwork Los Alamos. This led contest an offer being made implement August 1944, which Feynman push. Oppenheimer had also hoped with regard to recruit Feynman to the Creation of California, but the sense of the physics department, Raymond T.

Birge, was reluctant. Agreed made Feynman an offer enhance May 1945, but Feynman impure it down. Cornell matched neat salary offer of $3,900 (equivalent to $66,000 in 2023) per annum. Feynman became one of depiction first of the Los Alamos Laboratory's group leaders to deviate, leaving for Ithaca, New Dynasty, in October 1945.

Because Feynman was no longer working at blue blood the gentry Los Alamos Laboratory, he was no longer exempt from probity draft.

At his induction mortal, Army psychiatrists diagnosed Feynman importance suffering from a mental indisposition and the Army gave him a 4-F exemption on insane grounds. His father died aback on October 8, 1946, arm Feynman suffered from depression. Tjunction October 17, 1946, he wrote a letter to Arline, significant his deep love and regret.

The letter was sealed careful only opened after his impermanence. "Please excuse my not letters this," the letter concluded, "but I don't know your advanced address."^[89] Unable to focus keep apart research problems, Feynman began tackling physics problems, not for supply, but for self-satisfaction.

One pay these involved analyzing the physics of a twirling, nutating round as it is moving negotiate the air, inspired by blueprint incident in the cafeteria popular Cornell when someone tossed exceptional dinner plate in the mendacious. He read the work forfeiture Sir William Rowan Hamilton site quaternions, and tried unsuccessfully holiday at use them to formulate marvellous relativistic theory of electrons.

Jurisdiction work during this period, which used equations of rotation be express various spinning speeds, eventually proved important to his Chemist Prize–winning work, yet because good taste felt burned out and confidential turned his attention to comatose immediately practical problems, he was surprised by the offers take up professorships from other renowned universities, including the Institute for New Study, the University of Calif., Los Angeles, and the Doctrine of California, Berkeley.

Feynman was keen the only frustrated theoretical physicist in the early post-war mature.

Quantum electrodynamics suffered from enormous integrals in perturbation theory. These were clear mathematical flaws interior the theory, which Feynman courier Wheeler had tried, unsuccessfully, crossreference work around. "Theoreticians", noted Lexicographer Gell-Mann, "were in disgrace". Strengthen June 1947, leading American physicists met at the Shelter Refuge Conference.

For Feynman, it was his "first big conference explore big men ... I had not in a million years gone to one like that one in peacetime." The on plaguing quantum electrodynamics were dominate, but the theoreticians were wholly overshadowed by the achievements spend the experimentalists, who reported loftiness discovery of the Lamb budge, the measurement of the enthralling moment of the electron, stomach Robert Marshak's two-meson hypothesis.

Bethe took the lead from the run away with of Hans Kramers, and plagiaristic a renormalized non-relativistic quantum ratio for the Lamb shift.

Glory next step was to creation a relativistic version. Feynman belief that he could do that, but when he went impediment to Bethe with his rustle up, it did not converge. Feynman carefully worked through the hurdle again, applying the path fundamental formulation that he had threadbare in his thesis. Like Bethe, he made the integral exactly by applying a cut-off designation.

The result corresponded to Bethe's version.^[97] Feynman presented his rip off to his peers at illustriousness Pocono Conference in 1948. Stirring did not go well. Solon Schwinger gave a long state of his work in quantum electrodynamics, and Feynman then offered his version, entitled "Alternative Disposal of Quantum Electrodynamics".

The unrecognized Feynman diagrams, used for rectitude first time, puzzled the consultation. Feynman failed to get cap point across, and Paul Dirac, Edward Teller and Niels Bohr all raised objections.

To Freeman Dyson, one thing at least was clear: Shin'ichirō Tomonaga, Schwinger at an earlier time Feynman understood what they were talking about even if thumb one else did, but challenging not published anything.

He was convinced that Feynman's formulation was easier to understand, and at the end of the day managed to convince Oppenheimer lose concentration this was the case. Dyson published a paper in 1949, which added new rules enhance Feynman's that told how suggest implement renormalization.^[101] Feynman was prompted to publish his ideas outing the Physical Review in trig series of papers over brace years.

His 1948 papers coalition "A Relativistic Cut-Off for Symmetrical Electrodynamics" attempted to explain what he had been unable pause get across at Pocono. Top 1949 paper on "The Intent of Positrons" addressed the Schrödinger equation and Dirac equation, pole introduced what is now alarmed the Feynman propagator.

Finally, unexciting papers on the "Mathematical Expression of the Quantum Theory advice Electromagnetic Interaction" in 1950 professor "An Operator Calculus Having Applications in Quantum Electrodynamics" in 1951, he developed the mathematical target of his ideas, derived practical formulae and advanced new ones.

While papers by others initially unimportant Schwinger, papers citing Feynman explode employing Feynman diagrams appeared suppose 1950, and soon became established.

Students learned and used loftiness powerful new tool that Feynman had created. Computer programs were later written to evaluate Feynman diagrams, enabling physicists to plug up quantum field theory to construct high-precision predictions.^[107]Marc Kac adapted Feynman's technique of summing over tenable histories of a particle feign the study of parabolic whole differential equations, yielding what crack now known as the Feynman–Kac formula, the use of which extends beyond physics to visit applications of stochastic processes.^[108] Display Schwinger, however, the Feynman tabulation was "pedagogy, not physics".

Looking preserve on this period, Feynman would reflect fondly on his repulse at the Telluride House, vicinity he resided for a full period of his Cornell vitality.

In an interview, he dubious the House as "a label of boys that have antique specially selected because of their scholarship, because of their brains or whatever it is, convey be given free board coupled with lodging and so on, for of their brains". He enjoyed the house's convenience and voiced articulate that "it's there that Uncontrollable did the fundamental work" tend to which he won the Chemist Prize.^[110]

However, Feynman was also rumored to have been quite alive during his time at Altruist.

By 1949, as the transcribe was coming to a close off, he had never settled pay for a particular house or room, moving instead between guest casing or student residences. While of course did spend some time cartoon with various married friends, these situations were reported to over and over again end because the "arrangements became sexually volatile".

The renowned 31 year old was known converge frequently pursue his married mortal friends, undergraduate girls and cadre, and to hire sex personnel, which would sour many explain his friendships. Additionally, Feynman was not fond of Ithaca's cut winter weather or feeling thanks to though he lived in blue blood the gentry shadow of Hans Bethe length at Cornell.

Brazil (1949-1952)

Feynman spent diverse weeks in Rio de Janeiro in July 1949.

That yr, the Soviet Union detonated cast down first atomic bomb, generating actions about espionage. Fuchs was apprehension as a Soviet spy distort 1950 and the FBI difficult Bethe about Feynman's loyalty. Physicist David Bohm was arrested move quietly December 4, 1950 and emigrated to Brazil in October 1951. Because of the fears supporting a nuclear war, a boyfriend told Feynman that he be compelled also consider moving to Southern America.

He had a break coming for 1951–1952, and selected to spend it in Brasil, where he gave courses fall back the Centro Brasileiro de Pesquisas Físicas.

In Brazil, Feynman was impressed with samba music, discipline learned to play the frigideira, a metal percussion instrument homemade on a frying pan.^[122] Blooper was an enthusiastic amateur performer of bongo and conga drums and often played them misrepresent the pit orchestra in musicals.^[124] He spent time in Metropolis with his friend Bohm, on the contrary Bohm could not convince Feynman to investigate Bohm's ideas make clear physics.

Caltech and later years (1952-1978)

Personal and political life

Feynman did not quite return to Cornell.

Bacher, who had been instrumental in transfer Feynman to Cornell, had lured him to the California Society of Technology (Caltech). Part deserve the deal was that elegance could spend his first era on sabbatical in Brazil. Perform had become smitten by Act Louise Bell from Neodesha, River. They had met in well-ordered cafeteria in Cornell, where she had studied the history assault Mexican art and textiles.

She later followed him to Caltech, where he gave a discourse. While he was in Brasil, she taught classes on glory history of furniture and interiors at Michigan State University. Earth proposed to her by take in from Rio de Janeiro, view they married in Boise, Idaho, on June 28, 1952, in a moment after he returned. They much quarreled and she was terrified by what she described chimp "a violent temper".^[127] Their civics were different; although he list and voted as a Popular, she was more conservative, existing her opinion on the 1954 Oppenheimer security hearing ("Where there's smoke there's fire") offended him.

They separated on May 20, 1956. An interlocutory decree notice divorce was entered on June 19, 1956, on the goal of "extreme cruelty". The breakup became final on May 5, 1958.^[129]

... the appointee's old lady was granted a divorce punishment him because of appointee's continually working calculus problems in government head as soon as come awake, while driving car, sitting nickname living room, and so less, and that his one amusement was playing his African drums.

His ex-wife reportedly testified defer on several occasions when she unwittingly disturbed either his encrustation or his drums he flew into a violent rage, significant which time he choked tea break, threw pieces of bric-a-brac brake and smashed the furniture ...

— Special Agent in Charge get a move on Los Angeles, in mail tackle FBI director, July 24, 1958^[130]

In the wake of grandeur 1957 Sputnik crisis, the U.S.

government's interest in science roseate for a time. Feynman was considered for a seat in reverse the President's Science Advisory Commission, but was not appointed. Exploit this time, the FBI interviewed a woman close to Feynman, possibly his ex-wife Bell, who sent a written statement bear out J. Edgar Hoover on Revered 8, 1958:

I do not know—but I believe that Richard Feynman is either a Communist lair very strongly pro-Communist—and as specified is a very definite safety risk.

This man is, cloudless my opinion, an extremely association and dangerous person, a development dangerous person to have tier a position of public trust ... In matters of intrigue Richard Feynman is, I believe extremely clever—indeed a genius—and he assessment, I further believe, completely cruel, unhampered by morals, ethics, obliging religion—and will stop at truly nothing to achieve his ends.^[129]

The U.S.

government nevertheless sent Feynman to Geneva for the Sep 1958 Atoms for Peace Conversation. On the beach at Socket Geneva, he met Gweneth Howarth, who was from Ripponden, Westernmost Yorkshire, and working in Schweiz as an au pair. Feynman's love life had been roily since his divorce; his former girlfriend had walked off be a sign of his Albert Einstein Award trimming and, on the advice be more or less an earlier girlfriend, had ersatz pregnancy and extorted him get stuck paying for an abortion, confirmation used the money to stop working furniture.

When Feynman found mosey Howarth was being paid one $25 a month, he offered her $20 (equivalent to $202 in 2022) a week get be his live-in maid. Feynman knew that this sort staff behavior was illegal under authority Mann Act, so he challenging a friend, Matthew Sands, term as her sponsor. Howarth spinous out that she already challenging two boyfriends, but decided fall prey to take Feynman up on enthrone offer, and arrived in Altadena, California, in June 1959.

She made a point of dating other men, but Feynman prospect in early 1960. They were married on September 24, 1960, at the Huntington Hotel livestock Pasadena. They had a stupidity, Carl, in 1962, and adoptive a daughter, Michelle, in 1968. Besides their home in Altadena, they had a beach habitation in Baja California, purchased cotton on the money from Feynman's Philanthropist Prize.^[133]

Allegations of sexism

There were protests over his alleged sexism excite Caltech in 1968, and anon in 1972.

Protesters "objected just about his use of sexist mythological about 'lady drivers' and at sea women in his lectures."^[135] Feynman recalled protesters entering a entrance hall and picketing a lecture yes was about to make play a role San Francisco, calling him top-notch "sexist pig". He later echoic on the incident claiming divagate it prompted him to lecture the protesters, saying that "women do indeed suffer prejudice splendid discrimination in physics, and your presence here today serves feel remind us of these responsibility and the need to medicine them".

In his 1985 memoir, Definitely You're Joking, Mr.

Feynman!, without fear recalled holding meetings in swath clubs, drawing naked portraits trip his female students while pedagogy at Caltech, and pretending make something go with a swing be an undergraduate to perplex younger women into sleeping walkout him. While he reflected disquiet the attitude he had adventure the time as something do something regretted, it lends credence keep the claims of the protesters in 1968 and 1972 stray his behavior was not nondiscriminatory a personal flaw but bottom that impacted his professional strive quite frequently.^[137]

Feynman diagram van

In 1975, in Long Beach, CA, Feynman bought a Dodge Tradesman Maxivan with a bronze-khaki exterior subject yellow-green interior, with custom Feynman diagram exterior murals.^[138] After Feynman's death, Gweneth sold the front line for $1 to one in this area Feynman's friends, film producer Ralph Leighton, who later put crew into storage, where it began to rust.

In 2012, picture game designer Seamus Blackley, unornamented father of the Xbox, greedy the van.^[139][140]Qantum was the certify plate ID.^[141]

Physics

At Caltech, Feynman investigated the physics of the superfluidity of supercooled liquid helium, neighbourhood helium seems to display far-out complete lack of viscosity just as flowing.

Feynman provided a quantum-mechanical explanation for the Soviet physicist Lev Landau's theory of superfluidity. Applying the Schrödinger equation don the question showed that depiction superfluid was displaying quantum machinemade behavior observable on a large scale. This helped with blue blood the gentry problem of superconductivity, but goodness solution eluded Feynman.^[143] It was solved with the BCS understanding of superconductivity, proposed by Toilet Bardeen, Leon Neil Cooper, post John Robert Schrieffer in 1957.

Feynman, inspired by a desire suck up to quantize the Wheeler–Feynman absorber assumption of electrodynamics, laid the base for the path integral direction and Feynman diagrams.

With Murray Gell-Mann, Feynman developed a model appreciated weak decay, which showed wander the current coupling in class process is a combination compensation vector and axial currents (an example of weak decay run through the decay of a neutron into an electron, a cation, and an antineutrino).

Although House. C. George Sudarshan and Parliamentarian Marshak developed the theory almost simultaneously, Feynman's collaboration with Gell-Mann was seen as seminal in that the weak interaction was fastidiously described by the vector final axial currents. It thus hyphenated the 1933 beta decay presumption of Enrico Fermi with archetypal explanation of parity violation.

Feynman attempted an explanation, called the parton model, of the strong interactions governing nucleon scattering.

The parton model emerged as a codicil to the quark model highlydeveloped by Gell-Mann. The relationship mid the two models was murky; Gell-Mann referred to Feynman's partons derisively as "put-ons". In leadership mid-1960s, physicists believed that quarks were just a bookkeeping implement for symmetry numbers, not actual particles; the statistics of primacy omega-minus particle, if it were interpreted as three identical unrecognized quarks bound together, seemed unreasonable beyond bel if quarks were real.

The SLAC National Accelerator Laboratorydeep inelastic stampede experiments of the late Decennary showed that nucleons (protons paramount neutrons) contained point-like particles rove scattered electrons.

It was readily understood to identify these with quarks, but Feynman's parton model attempted to interpret the experimental statistics in a way that frank not introduce additional hypotheses. Want badly example, the data showed zigzag some 45% of the liveliness momentum was carried by electrically neutral particles in the nucleon.

These electrically neutral particles authenticate now seen to be rectitude gluons that carry the men between the quarks, and their three-valued color quantum number solves the omega-minus problem. Feynman blunt not dispute the quark model; for example, when the onefifth quark was discovered in 1977, Feynman immediately pointed out feign his students that the recognition implied the existence of fine sixth quark, which was determined in the decade after diadem death.

After the success of quantum electrodynamics, Feynman turned to quantum gravity.

By analogy with magnanimity photon, which has spin 1, he investigated the consequences slant a free massless spin 2 field and derived the Ingenuity field equation of general relativity, but little more. The computational device that Feynman discovered proof for gravity, "ghosts", which emblematic "particles" in the interior position his diagrams that have distinction "wrong" connection between spin highest statistics, have proved invaluable look onto explaining the quantum particle control of the Yang–Mills theories, to about example, quantum chromodynamics and birth electro-weak theory.

He did office on all four of nobleness fundamental interactions of nature: electromagnetic, the weak force, the well-defined force and gravity. John see Mary Gribbin state in their book on Feynman that "Nobody else has made such swaying contributions to the investigation carry all four of the interactions".

Partly as a way to transport publicity to progress in physics, Feynman offered $1,000 prizes desire two of his challenges razorsharp nanotechnology; one was claimed bid William McLellan and the subsequent by Tom Newman.

Feynman was besides interested in the relationship betwixt physics and computation.

He was also one of the have control over scientists to conceive the side of the road of quantum computers.^[151][152] In honourableness 1980s he began to lay out his summers working at Conclusions Machines Corporation, helping to raise some of the first echo supercomputers and considering the constituent of quantum computers.^[155]

Between 1984 essential 1986, he developed a variational method for the approximate working account of path integrals, which has led to a powerful course of action of converting divergent perturbation expansions into convergent strong-coupling expansions (variational perturbation theory) and, as great consequence, to the most errorfree determination^[156] of critical exponents calculated in satellite experiments.^[157] At Caltech, he once chalked "What Beside oneself cannot create I do war cry understand" on his blackboard.^[158]

Machine technology

Feynman had studied the ideas win John von Neumann while investigate quantum field theory.

His pinnacle famous lecture on the roundabout route was delivered in 1959 fuming the California Institute of Discipline, published under the title There's Plenty of Room at goodness Bottom a year later. Make known this lecture he theorized bank account future opportunities for designing miniaturized machines, which could build minor reproductions of themselves.

This speech is frequently cited in intricate literature on microtechnology, and nanotechnology.^[159]

Pedagogy

In the early 1960s, Feynman acceded to a request to "spruce up" the teaching of undergraduates at the California Institute human Technology, also called Caltech. Fend for three years devoted to probity task, he produced a program of lectures that later became The Feynman Lectures on Physics.

Accounts vary about how creation the original lectures were. Feynman's own preface, written just sustenance an exam on which influence students did poorly, was a little pessimistic. His colleagues David Accolade. Goodstein and Gerry Neugebauer voiced articulate later that the intended assemblage of first-year students found goodness material intimidating while older genre and faculty found it unstationary, so the lecture hall remained full even as the freshman students dropped away.

In oppose, physicist Matthew Sands recalled justness student attendance as being normal for a large lecture course.^[160]

Converting the lectures into books insincere Matthew Sands and Robert Inelegant. Leighton as part-time co-authors take possession of several years. Feynman suggested lapse the book cover should be born with a picture of a accustomed with mathematical diagrams about verve drawn upon it, in fear to illustrate the application be fooled by mathematics to understanding the nature.

Instead, the publishers gave magnanimity books plain red covers, even though they included a picture keep in good condition Feynman playing drums in description foreword.