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History and Philosophy of Physics papers — page 110

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40 Years of Calculus in 4 + epsilon Dimensions
Modern physics describes elementary particles by a formalism known as Quantum Field Theory. However, straight calculations with this formalism lead to numerous divergences, hence one needs a suitable…
Wolfgang Bietenholz, Lilian PradoNov 8, 2012
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The Chinese Pyramids and the Sun
The Chinese Pyramids are huge ancient burial mounds. In the satellite images we can see some complexes where the main buildings are the pyramidal mounds of an emperor and his empress. Here we discuss…
Amelia Carolina SparavignaNov 5, 2012
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Effective Field Theories and the Role of Consistency in Theory Choice
Promoting a theory with a finite number of terms into an effective field theory with an infinite number of terms worsens simplicity, predictability, falsifiability, and other attributes often favored…
James D. WellsNov 3, 2012
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No evidence for an early seventeenth-century Indian sighting of Keplers supernova (SN1604)
In a recent paper Sule et al. (Astronomical Notes, vol. 332 (2011), 655) argued that an early 17th-century Indian mural of the constellation Sagittarius with a dragon-headed tail indicated that the…
Robert H. van GentNov 2, 2012
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Gerberto e le fistulae: tubi acustici ed astronomici
Gerbert of Aurillac wrote to Constantine of Fleury in 978 a letter to describe in detail the procedure to point the star nearest to the North celestial pole. This was made to align a sphere equipped…
Costantino SigismondiNov 2, 2012
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Gerberto e la misura delle canne d'organo
Gerbert of Aurillac in the Mensura Fistularum explained how to compute the length of organ pipes. The method is shown on two octaves, starting from a fistula of length L=16 units and radius 1 which…
Costantino SigismondiNov 2, 2012
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Indian Amateur Astronomer R. G. Chandra: A unique AAVSO member
In this Note, which is a sequel on the Indian amateur astronomer R.G. Chandra [Biswas2011a, Biswas2011b], we have presented some documents to reveal his three-decades relationship with the American…
Sudhindra Nath Biswas, Saibal Ray, Utpal MukhopadhyayOct 31, 2012
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Constructor Theory
Constructor theory seeks to express all fundamental scientific theories in terms of a dichotomy between possible and impossible physical transformations - those that can be caused to happen and those…
David DeutschOct 28, 2012
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Wurdi Youang: an Australian Aboriginal stone arrangement with possible solar indications
Wurdi Youang is an egg-shaped Aboriginal stone arrangement in Victoria, Australia. Here we present a new survey of the site, and show that its major axis is aligned within a few degrees of east-west.…
Ray P. Norris, Cilla Norris, Duane W. Hamacher et al.Oct 25, 2012
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Max Born, Albert Einstein and Hermann Minkowski's Space-Time Formalism of Special Relativity
This note is by no means a comprehensive study of Minkowski's space-time formalism of special relativity. The mathematician, Hermann Minkowski was Einstein's former mathematics professor at…
Galina WeinsteinOct 25, 2012
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Early work on pion-nucleon scattering at Rochester
In 1956 when I was a graduate student at the University of Rochester, the post doc Herman Winick arrived there, joined the group and we worked together with colleagues from different countries on low…
G. GiacomelliOct 24, 2012
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Uncomputability and free will
The basic problem posed by free will (FW) for physics appears to be not the physical one of whether it is compatible with the laws of physics, but the logical one of how to…
Chetan S. Mandayam Nayakar, R. SrikanthOct 23, 2012
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The road to the Loulan Kingdom
Here a discussion on the Loulan Kingdom, an ancient kingdom along the Silk Road, and some observations based on satellite images.
Amelia Carolina SparavignaOct 21, 2012
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New additional material of meteor showers during 9th -19th centuries in the Islamic history
This article presents twelve records of meteor showers in Arabic chronicles covering period from the 9th to the 19th century. The observations were in Egypt, Morocco, Syria and Yemen. These new…
Hassan M. BasurahOct 15, 2012
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Relativity Is Not About Spacetime
Quantum measurement predictions are consistent with relativity for macroscopic observations, but there is no consensus on how to explain this consistency in fundamental terms. The prevailing…
Edward J. GillisOct 9, 2012
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A little known astronomer in the late Islamic period. A study of Qasim ali al-Qayini's manuscripts
It is widely believed that the advance of science in the Islamic world after the mid-fifteenth century A.D. suffered a decline. For the purpose of examining this belief, a manuscript by Qasim ali…
Marjan AkbariOct 8, 2012
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Has Science Established that the Cosmos is Physically Comprehensible?
Most scientists would hold that science has not established that the cosmos is physically comprehensible - i.e. such that there is some as-yet undiscovered true physical theory of everything that is…
Nicholas MaxwellOct 5, 2012
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Probabilistic and Geometric Languages in the Context of the Principle of Least Action
This paper explores the issue of the unification of three languages of physics, the geometric language of forces, geometric language of fields or 4-dimensional space-time, and probabilistic language…
Vladislav TerekhovichOct 3, 2012
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Maria Reiche's Line to Archaeoastronomy
Maria Reiche devoted her life to the study of the Nazca Lines, the most famous Peruvian geoglyphs. In fact, she was an archaeoastronomer that proposed for the Lines some interesting astronomical…
Amelia Carolina SparavignaOct 3, 2012
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Evolution of the problem "search for life in the Universe" from some examples
On the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the Drake formula, it appears interesting to briefly review the history of Astrobiology from the origins up to the epoch of the Drake formula. After…
Danielle BriotOct 2, 2012
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Lev Landau and the conception of neutron stars
We review the history of neutron star physics in the 1930s that is related to L. Landau. According to recollections of Rosenfeld (1974, Proc. 16th Solvay Conference on Physics, p. 174), Landau…
Dmitry G. Yakovlev, Pawel Haensel, Gordon Baym et al.Oct 2, 2012
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The Nazca Frigatebird and Fomalhaut
It seems that the Nazca Lines, ancient geoglyphs of a Peruvian dry pampa, had some astronomical orientations. Here we discuss a geoglyph representing a frigatebird and its orientation towards the…
Amelia Carolina SparavignaOct 1, 2012
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Farewell to the Tevatron
Installation of the world's first superconducting synchrotron began at Fermilab 30 years ago, but now the Tevatron has finally seen its last beam. The author looks back at the intriguing story of…
Roger L. DixonSep 26, 2012
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Albert Einstein's Methodology
This paper discusses Einstein's methodology. 1. Einstein characterized his work as a theory of principle and reasoned that beyond kinematics, the 1905 heuristic relativity principle could offer…
Galina WeinsteinSep 24, 2012
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Carlo Cercignani's Interests for the Foundations of Physics
Carlo Cercignani was known all over the world for his works on the Boltzmann equation and on kinetic theory. There was however another aspect of his scientific life, which is not much known. Namely,…
Luigi GalganiSep 19, 2012
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