1940sReputable sourceWell documented
Quantum Electrodynamics
On the timeline · around 1940s ·
What happened
In the late 1940s Richard Feynman, Julian Schwinger, and Shin'ichirō Tomonaga built quantum electrodynamics (QED), a complete quantum theory of how light and matter interact. Feynman's intuitive diagrams tamed its fearsome mathematics, and its predictions matched experiment to more decimal places than any theory before.
Why it matters
QED is the most precisely tested theory in all of science and the model for the modern theories of the fundamental forces. It showed how to unite quantum mechanics with relativity — the template for the Standard Model.