A Dirac jump was a change of energy states in subatomic particles. (TOS novel: Spock Must Die!)
- Author James Blish, as a student of science in the classic era of science fiction, based the description of this occurrence in the Star Trek universe on the real Dirac equationWP of quantum mechanics.
History and specifics[]
After contact was first made with the mirror universe in the year 2267, Montgomery Scott wrote in his paper on the subject that Dirac jumps were one of the things that had occurred between the two realities. (TNG novel: Dark Mirror)
In 2269, Scotty explained to Leonard McCoy, who had stated that transporters turned matter into energy and then reconstituted it, that what the transporter actually did was analyze the energy state of each particle and produce a Dirac jump to an equivalent state elsewhere. (TOS novel: Spock Must Die!)