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History and Philosophy of Physics papers — page 30

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Celebrating the birth of De Donder's chemical affinity (1922-2022): from the uncompensated heat to his Ave Maria
Th\'eophile De Donder, a Belgian mathematician born in Brussels, elaborated two important ideas that created a bridge between thermodynamics and chemical kinetics. He invented the concept of the…
Alessio RocciJan 19, 2023
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On the ontological ambiguity of Physics facing Reality
We discuss in this work the contradictory position in modern Physics between the existence of a microphysical quantum Reality and macrophysical classical one. After discussing some basic concepts in…
J. E. Horvath, R. Rosas Fernandes, T. E. IdiartJan 18, 2023
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Resurfaced 1964 VRT video interview of Georges Lema\itre
On December 31 2022, the Vlaamse Radio- en Televisieomroeporganisatie (VRT), the national public-service broadcaster for the Flemish Community of Belgium, recovered a video recording of a 1964…
Satya Gontcho A Gontcho, Jean-Baptiste Kikwaya Eluo, Paul GaborJan 17, 2023
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Roger of Hereford: the twelfth-century astronomer who put Hereford on the map, literally
By the twelfth century, northern European scholars gradually embraced Arabic innovations in science and technology. England naturally developed into a significant centre of the new learning in…
Richard de GrijsJan 16, 2023
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Scientific value of the quantum tests of equivalence principle in light of Hilbert's sixth problem
In his sixth problem, Hilbert called for an axiomatic approach to theoretical physics with an aim to achieve precision and rigour in scientific reasoning, where logic and language (semantics) of…
Abhishek Majhi, Gopal SardarJan 16, 2023
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A "network of networks" (from history to algebra)
Recall first the algebraic treatment of flows or tensions in a transportation network N, i.e. a connected antisymmetric 1-graph G(X, U). Assume that, unusually, we take the values of flows (resp.…
Daniel ParrochiaJan 14, 2023
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Nearly Forgotten Cosmological Concept of E. B. Gliner
E. B. Gliner started his scientific career in 1963 at the age of 40. In 1965, when the existence of the cosmological constant λ seemed unnecessary to most cosmologists, he renewed interest in…
D. G. Yakovlev, A. D. KaminkerJan 13, 2023
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The seven laws of Quantum Mechanics : banishing the bogeys
The laws of quantum mechanics are couched in subtle mathematical language. The laws are not usually stated in a compact pedagogical form. Here I present a possible way to correct this. Essential…
Urjit A. YajnikJan 13, 2023
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David Maurice Brink, 20 July 1930 - 8 March 2021
David Brink was one of the leading theoretical nuclear physicists of his generation. He made major contributions to the study of all aspects of nuclear physics embracing nuclear structure, nuclear…
C. V. Sukumar, A. BonaccorsoJan 7, 2023
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Swampland Revisited
The transcendental expectation of string theory is that the nature of the fundamental forces, particle spectra and masses, together with coupling constants, is uniquely determined by mathematical and…
Michel Cass\e', Joseph SilkJan 3, 2023
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Redundancies and Profundities
We reevaluate the status of the gauge principle and reposition it as an intermediary structure dependent on the initial conditions we endow on our theory. We explore how the gauge symmetry manifests…
Kyle SinghDec 30, 2022
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What is so special about analogue simulations?
This paper defends an account of terrestrial analogue simulations in black hole physics as instances of inferences from material analogy in science (Hesse 1963). We outline the main verdicts and…
Francesco Nappo, Nicolò CangiottiDec 27, 2022
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Tightrope-walking rationality in action: Feyerabendian insights for the foundations of quantum mechanics
We scan Paul K. Feyerabend's work in philosophy of physics and of science more generally for insights that could be useful for the contemporary debate on the foundations of quantum mechanics. We take…
Daniele OritiDec 24, 2022
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Emilie du Chatelet and Euler: A Rare Convergence on the Hypotheses of Physics
Euler stressed the importance of hypotheses, which he thought were the only means of arriving at a certain knowledge of the physical causes, essential to establish the laws of physics. This thought…
Dora MusielakDec 24, 2022
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The Prediction of Anyons: Its History and Wider Implications
Prediction of ``anyons'', often attributed exclusively to Wilczek, came first from Leinaas & Myrheim in 1977, and independently from Goldin, Menikoff, & Sharp in 1980-81. In 2020, experimentalists…
Gerald A. GoldinDec 24, 2022
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Enrico Fermi: a little-known conference dating back to the early years of solid-state physics
In April 1925, Enrico Fermi was only 23 years old and he had graduated less than three years earlier. Despite his age, Fermi was invited at the University of Rome by Federigo Enriques to give several…
Emanuele Goldoni, Ledo StefaniniDec 23, 2022
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Neutron Star versus Neutral Star: On the 90th anniversary of Landau's publication in astrophysics
In the late age of developing quantum mechanics, Lev Landau, one of the distinguished players, made great efforts to understand the nature of matter, even stellar matter, by applying the quantum…
Renxin XuDec 21, 2022
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Analogue gravity and the Hawking effect: historical perspective and literature review
Reasoning by analogies permeates theoretical developments in physics and astrophysics, motivated by the unreachable nature of many phenomena at play. For example, analogies have been used to…
Carla R Almeida, Maxime J JacquetDec 17, 2022
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How Haag-tied is QFT, really?
Haag's theorem cries out for explanation and critical assessment: it sounds the alarm that something is (perhaps) not right in one of the standard way of constructing interacting fields to be used in…
Chris Mitsch, Marian Gilton, David FreebornDec 14, 2022
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The original Gibbs paradox is the consequence of the erroneous identification of non-identical functions
This article presents the results of research into the causes of the Gibbs paradox in the formulation discussed by J. W. Gibbs himself. In this formulation, we are talking about an inexplicable…
Volodymyr IhnatovychDec 12, 2022
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Alain Aspect's experiments on Bell's theorem: A turning point in the history of the research on the foundations of quantum mechanics
Alain Aspect's three experiments on Bell's theorem, published in the early 1980s, were a turning point in the history of the research on the foundations of quantum mechanics not only because they…
Olival Freire JuniorDec 11, 2022
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Contemporary Philosophical Perspectives on the Cosmological Constant
The (re)introduction of into cosmology has spurred debates that touch on central questions in philosophy of science, as well as the foundations of general relativity and particle physics.…
Adam Koberinski, Bridget Falck, Chris SmeenkDec 8, 2022
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A comment on: Adam R. Brown and Leonard Susskind's paper "A holographic wormhole traversed in a quantum computer"
Adam Brown and Leonard Susskind write in their new paper, "A holographic wormhole traversed in a quantum computer": "The idea of a wormhole dates back to 1935, when Albert Einstein and his…
Galina WeinsteinDec 7, 2022
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Reversing the Arrow of Time
The arrow of time refers to the curious asymmetry that distinguishes the future from the past. Reversing the Arrow of Time argues that there is an intimate link between the symmetries of 'time…
Bryan W RobertsDec 7, 2022
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First-Class Constraints, Gauge Transformations, de-Ockhamization, and Triviality: Replies to Critics, Or, How (Not) to Get a Gauge Transformation from a Second-Class Primary Constraint
Recently two pairs of authors have aimed to vindicate the longstanding conventional claim that a first-class constraint generates a gauge transformation in typical gauge theories such as…
J. Brian PittsDec 6, 2022
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