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History and Philosophy of Physics papers — page 133

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The citation impact outside references - formal versus informal citations
In this study the amount of informal citations (i.e. those mentioning only author names or their initials instead of the complete references) in comparison to the formal (full reference based)…
Werner Marx, Manuel CardonaJan 11, 2007
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Quantum Mechanics: Bell and Quantum Entropy for the Classroom
In this article we are willing to give some first steps to quantum mechanics and a motivation of quantum mechanics and its interpretation for undergraduate students not from physics. After a short…
Philipp PluchJan 10, 2007
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Nyaya-Vaisheshika: The Indian Tradition of Physics
This paper introduces terms like inference, substance, etc. and discusses atomic reactions as understood by the ancient Indian physicists of the Nyaya-Vaisesika School.
R. H. NarayanJan 6, 2007
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The hypernuclear physics heritage of Dick Dalitz (1925-2006)
The major contributions of Richard H. Dalitz to hypernuclear physics, since his first paper in 1955 to his last one in 2005 covering a span of 50 years during which he founded and led the theoretical…
Avraham GalJan 1, 2007
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Goedel and Physics
We introduce some early considerations of physical and mathematical impossibility as preludes to the Goedel incompleteness theorems. We consider some informal aspects of these theorems and their…
John D. BarrowDec 29, 2006
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Einstein and the Early Theory of Superconductivity, 1919-1922
Einstein's early thoughts about superconductivity are discussed as a case study of how theoretical physics reacts to experimental findings that are incompatible with established theoretical…
Tilman SauerDec 15, 2006
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The Accuracy of Galileo's Observations and the Early Search for Stellar Parallax
The question of annual stellar parallax is usually viewed as having been a "win-win situation" for seventeenth-century astronomers who subscribed to the Copernican view of universe in which the Earth…
Christopher M. GraneyDec 10, 2006
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Cosmology in Portugal: The First 20 Years
We reminisce on the first steps of the cosmology community in Portugal, which can be traced back to about 20 years ago, and discuss its achievements and current specificities. We also reflect on the…
Orfeu BertolamiDec 7, 2006
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Probability as typicality
The concept of typicality refers to properties holding for the "overwhelming majority" of cases and is a fundamental idea of the qualitative approach to dynamical problems. We argue that…
Sergio B. VolchanNov 17, 2006
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Holographic Views of the World
This note has been written on the occasion of Gerard 't Hooft's 60th birthday celebration. It is not a technical paper but just a collection of discussions that the three authors had with…
Giovanni Arcioni, Sebastian de Haro, Leonard SusskindNov 15, 2006
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The discovery of superfluidity
Superfluidity is a remarkable manifestation of quantum mechanics at the macroscopic level. This article describes the history of its discovery, which took place at a particularly difficult period of…
Sebastien BalibarNov 13, 2006
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Remarks on the relation between physics and faith
It is a quite common view among people, that are not aware of the developments in modern physics, that it is part of human nature to substitute religious faith in places where there is no knowledge.…
Horst R. BeyerNov 10, 2006
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Early Greek Thought and Perspectives for the Interpretation of Quantum Mechanics: Preliminaries to an Ontological Approach
It will be shown in this article that an ontological approach for some problems related to the interpretation of Quantum Mechanics could emerge from a re-evaluation of the main paradox of early Greek…
K. Verelst, B. CoeckeNov 7, 2006
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New Insights? Heisenberg's visit to Copenhagen in 1941 and the Bohr letters
It is shown that, in contrast to many interpretations in the press, the drafts of Bohr's unsent letters to Heisenberg are not contradicting Heisenberg's description of his famous trip in 1941…
Klaus GottsteinOct 30, 2006
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Pressure and Motion of Dry Sand -- Translation of Hagen's Paper from 1852
In a remarkable paper from 1852, Gotthilf Heinrich Ludwig Hagen measured and explained two fundamental aspects of granular matter: The first effect is the saturation of pressure with depth in a…
Brian P. Tighe, Matthias SperlOct 23, 2006
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On the verge of Umdeutung in Minnesota: Van Vleck and the correspondence principle (Part Two)
This is the second installment of a two-part paper on developments in quantum dispersion theory leading up to Heisenberg's "Umdeutung" paper. In telling this story, we have taken a paper…
Anthony Duncan, Michel JanssenOct 23, 2006
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On the verge of Umdeutung in Minnesota: Van Vleck and the correspondence principle (Part One)
In October 1924, the Physical Review, a relatively minor journal at the time, published a remarkable two-part paper by John H. Van Vleck, working in virtual isolation at the University of Minnesota.…
Anthony Duncan, Michel JanssenOct 23, 2006
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The Internal and External Problems of String Theory - A Philosophical View
String theory is at the moment the only advanced approach to a unification of all interactions, including gravity. But, in spite of the more than thirty years of its existence, it does not make any…
Reiner HedrichOct 21, 2006
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How to Derive the Schrodinger Equation
We illustrate a simple derivation of the Schrodinger equation, which requires only knowledge of the electromagnetic wave equation and the basics of Einstein's special theory of relativity. We do…
David W. Ward, Sabine M. VolkmerOct 17, 2006
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A Note on Aryabhata's Principle of Relativity
This paper presents the principle of relativity of motion as described in Aryabhata's text Aryabhatiya. This principle is likely to have been instrumental in the faming of Aryabhata's theory…
Abhishek ParakhOct 12, 2006
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Julian Schwinger: Nuclear Physics, the Radiation Laboratory, Renormalized QED, Source Theory, and Beyond
Julian Schwinger's influence on twentieth century science is profound and pervasive. Of course, he is most famous for his renormalization theory of quantum electrodynamics, for which he shared…
K. A. MiltonOct 9, 2006
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Hole theory and Quantum Electrodynamics in an unknown French manuscript by Ettore Majorana
We give an accurate historical and scientific account of a previously unknown manuscript written by Ettore Majorana in French. The retrieved text deals with Quantum Electrodynamics by using the…
S. EspositoSep 15, 2006
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Yang-Mills redux
It is noted that a given pairing of the phase factor and gauge transformation to retain gauge symmetry is not unique. In their seminal paper, when Yang and Mills (YM) discuss the phase factor - gauge…
Samuel L. MarateckSep 11, 2006
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Ludwig Edward Boltzmann
In this manuscript we present a brief life history of Ludwig Edward Boltzmann and his achivements. Particularly, we discuss his H-theorem, his work on entropy and statistical interpretation of…
S. Rajasekar, N. AthavanSep 7, 2006
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The Tenth Article of Ettore Majorana
This year is the centenary of the birth of Ettore Majorana, one of the major Italian physicists of all times. In this note we briefly sketch a few biographical details about Ettore Majorana and…
Rosario Nunzio MantegnaAug 29, 2006
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