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History and Philosophy of Physics papers — page 38

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Galileo between Jesuits: The Fault is in the Stars
In the middle of the seventeenth century, Andr\'e Tacquet, S.J. briefly discussed a scientific argument regarding the structure of a Copernican universe, and commented on Galileo Galilei's discussion…
Christopher M. GraneyDec 21, 2021
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What are the Realities
The question of what is real is familiar in physics. This paper addresses this question through the notions of reality in the models of of the world (schemata) that are created by the information…
James HartleDec 19, 2021
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G\"ursey, Groups & Fluids
Feza G\"ursey was a brilliant physicist who loved symmetries and beautiful mathematical structures such as group theory and division algebras. In this centenary year, I give a brief review of some of…
V. P. NairDec 18, 2021
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The Constructivist's Programme and the Problem of Pregeometry
Prominently, Norton (2008) argues against constructivism about spacetime theories, the doctrine that spatiotemporal structure in the dynamics only has derivative status. Among other things, he…
Niels Linnemann, Kian SalimkhaniDec 17, 2021
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Chirality: A Scientific Leitmotif
Handedness, or chirality, has been a continuing source of inspiration across a wide range of scientific problems. After a quick review of some important, instructive historical examples, I present…
Frank WilczekDec 13, 2021
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Forced Changes Only: A New Take on the Law of Inertia
Newton's First Law of Motion is typically understood to govern only the motion of force-free bodies. This paper argues on textual and conceptual grounds that it is in fact a stronger, more general…
Daniel HoekDec 4, 2021
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How to distinguish between indistinguishable particles
A long and intense debate in philosophy is concerned with the question whether there can be haecceistic differences between possible worlds, that is, nonqualitative differences that only arise from…
Michael te VrugtNov 30, 2021
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Albert A. Michelsons experimentum crucis 1881 in Potsdam, Germany
This paper reviews briefly the history of the Michelson experiment, invented and performed for the first time in the Astrophysical Observatory Potsdam in 1881. The paper draws attention to the…
Hans J. HauboldNov 23, 2021
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On the Question Why There Exists Something Rather Than Nothing
In my opinion, nothing useful has ever been written on the question in the title, and small is the contribution that I have to offer. I outline an explanation for why there is something rather than…
Roderich TumulkaNov 23, 2021
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Einstein and the Perihelion Motion of Mercury
On November 23, 2021, the Einstein-Besso manuscript on the perihelion motion of Mercury will be auctioned at Christie's. Expected to fetch around $3M, it promises to be the most expensive scientific…
Michel Janssen, Jürgen RennNov 22, 2021
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Guerrilla Science: creating scientific instruments in `high tropicallity' conditions
The 1980s was a flourishing time for Cuban physics, with various achievements ranging from the design of several experiments to be performed by a Cuban cosmonaut in 1980, to the synthesis of the…
Ernesto AltshulerNov 15, 2021
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From the Dining Room to the Coll\`ege royal: The Scholarly Spaces of the Female Collaborators in Astronomy of J\'er\ome Lalande
J\'er\ome Lalande, a famous French astronomer in the 18th century, collaborated throughout his career with several female calculators in astronomy: Nicole Reine Lepaute, Marie Louise Dupi\'ery…
Isabelle Lémonon-WaxinNov 15, 2021
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Laws beyond spacetime
Quantum gravity's suggestion that spacetime may be emergent and so only exist contingently would force a radical reconception of extant analyses of laws of nature. Humeanism presupposes a…
Vincent Lam, Christian WüthrichNov 8, 2021
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Drawing Scales Apart: The Origins of Wilson's Conception of Effective Field Theories
This article traces the origins of Kenneth Wilson's conception of effective field theories (EFTs) in the 1960s. I argue that what really made the difference in Wilson's path to his first prototype of…
Sébastien RivatNov 4, 2021
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Identity and difference: how topology helps to understand quantum indiscernability
This contribution, to be published in Imagine Math 8 to celebrate Michele Emmer's 75th birthday, can be seen as the second part of my previous considerations on the relationships between topology and…
Amaury MouchetNov 4, 2021
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Reluctant Pioneer of Nuclear Astrophysics: Eddington and the Problem of Stellar Energy
During the years from 1917 to 1921, A.S. Eddington was intensely occupied with Einstein's general theory of relativity and the epic eclipse expedition which confirmed one of the theory's predictions.…
Helge KraghNov 3, 2021
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Bruno Touschek Remembered. 1921-2021. Bibliography and Sources
The 100th anniversary of Bruno Touschek's birth also marks 60 years since the first beams of electrons and positrons circulated in AdA, the first ever matter-antimatter collider built in Frascati…
Luisa BonolisOct 31, 2021
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A glimpse into Feynman's contributions to the debate on the foundations of quantum mechanics
The broad debate on foundational issues in quantum mechanics, which took place at the famous 1957 Chapel Hill conference on The Role of Gravitation in Physics, is here critically analyzed…
Marco Di Mauro, Salvatore Esposito, Adele NaddeoOct 30, 2021
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A look inside Feynman's route to gravitation
In this contribution we report about Feynman's approach to gravitation, starting from the records of his interventions at the Chapel Hill Conference of 1957. As well known, Feynman was concerned…
Marco Di Mauro, Salvatore Esposito, Adele NaddeoOct 30, 2021
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Towards detecting gravitational waves: a contribution by Richard Feynman
An account of Richard Feynman's work on gravitational waves is given. Feynman's involvement with this subject can be traced backto 1957, when he attended the famous Chapel Hill conference on the Role…
Marco Di Mauro, Salvatore Esposito, Adele NaddeoOct 30, 2021
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On the formation and propagation of pulses in ether
In 1746 Euler publishes E88 -- Nova theoria lucis et colorum (A new theory of light and colors) in five chapters. This is an annotated translation of Chapter II - De formatione ac propagatione…
Sylvio R BistafaOct 27, 2021
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The role of representational conventions in assessing the empirical significance of symmetries
This paper explicates the direct empirical significance (DES) of symmetries in gauge theory, with comparisons to classical mechanics. Given a physical system composed of subsystems, such significance…
Henrique GomesOct 27, 2021
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Idealizations and analogies
The "universality" of critical phenomena is much discussed in philosophy of scientific explanation, idealizations and philosophy of physics. Lange and Reutlinger recently opposed Batterman concerning…
Quentin RodriguezOct 25, 2021
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The Quantum Revolution in Philosophy (Book Review)
In this thought-provoking book, Richard Healey proposes a new interpretation of quantum theory inspired by pragmatist philosophy. Healey puts forward the interpretation as an alternative to realist…
Eddy Keming ChenOct 23, 2021
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Moons Are Planets: Scientific Usefulness Versus Cultural Teleology in the Taxonomy of Planetary Science
We argue that taxonomical concept development is vital for planetary science as in all branches of science, but its importance has been obscured by unique historical developments. The literature…
Philip T. Metzger, William M. Grundy, Mark Sykes et al.Oct 22, 2021
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