Name the physicist who first proposed the concept of antiparticle.

The concept of the antiparticle was first proposed by the British physicist Paul Dirac in 1928. Dirac developed an equation, known as the Dirac equation, to describe the behavior of relativistic electrons. In solving this equation, he discovered that it predicted the existence of particles that were counterparts to known particles, with the same mass but opposite electric charge. This led to the idea of the “antiparticle,” an entity that mirrors the properties of an electron but with a positive charge instead of a negative one.

Dirac’s theoretical prediction was later confirmed experimentally in 1932 when Carl Anderson discovered the positron, the antiparticle of the electron, in cosmic rays. This discovery marked a significant milestone in physics, confirming the existence of antimatter and opening new avenues for research in particle physics. Dirac’s work not only contributed to the understanding of fundamental particles but also played a key role in the development of quantum field theory.