Additional Contributions
In a 1947 paper, published in Nature (with Maurice Pryce), Ward was the first to calculate, and use, the probability amplitudes for the polarization of two entangled photons moving in opposite directions. For polarizations x and y, this probability amplitude is
which once normalized becomes
where 1 and 2 refer to the respective directions of propagation. Ward's probability amplitude is then applied to derive the correlation of the quantum polarizations of the two photons propagating in opposite directions. This prediction was experimentally confirmed by Wu and Shaknov in 1950. In current terminology this result corresponds to a pair of entangled photons and is directly relevant to a typical Einstein-Podolsky-Rosen (EPR) paradox, or situation.
He is also one of the pioneers of the Standard Model of gauge particle interactions: His contributions were published in a series of papers co-authored with A. Salam An insightful and well documented discussion on Ward's contribution to the physics of the Standard Model is given in the recent book Cosmic Anger.
In addition, he made important contributions to quantum mechanics, fermion theory, quantum solid-state physics, and statistical mechanics. He is further credited with being an early pioneer in the use of Feynman diagrams.
In 1955-1956 Ward worked, at Aldermaston, on British atomic weapons and has been portrayed as the "creator of the British hydrogen bomb". This topic is discussed by historian Lorna Arnold while Ward's own account is given in his memoirs. An additional analysis on this issue is provided by one of Ward's colleagues, and friend, Richard Dalitz, who wrote: "Ward had independently conceived a two-stage device".
Read more about this topic: John Clive Ward
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