Wick's collision-matrix paper
Gian-Carlo Wick published the contraction method now called Wick's theorem in a 1950 Physical Review paper.
- Date
- 1950
- Participants
- Gian-Carlo Wick
- Significance
- The paper supplies the primary historical source for the contraction identity used in perturbative expansions.
- Interpretation note
- Publication chronology alone does not settle all questions of priority or precursor influence.
- Canonical treatment
- Wick Expansion for Interacting Fields
- Aliases
- Wick theorem publication, The Evaluation of the Collision Matrix
- Scope
- Publication of the consulted primary paper and its bounded role in the foundations evidence registry.
- Assumptions
- The publication date records this paper, not an exhaustive priority determination for every precursor or equivalent formulation.