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History and Philosophy of Physics papers — page 46

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Floating free from physics: the metaphysics of quantum mechanics
We discuss some methodological aspects of the relation between physics and metaphysics by dealing specifically with the case of non-relativistic quantum mechanics. Our main claim is that current…
Raoni W. Arroyo, Jonas R. B. ArenhartDec 10, 2020
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A Natural Introduction to Fine-Tuning
A well-known topic within the philosophy of physics is the problem of fine-tuning: the fact that the universal constants seem to take non-arbitrary values in order for live to thrive in our Universe.…
Julian De VuystDec 10, 2020
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Relational structures of fundamental theories
General relativity and quantum mechanics have both revealed the relativity of certain notions that were previously thought to be absolute. I clarify the precise sense in which these theories are…
Pierre Martin-DussaudDec 10, 2020
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Realism and metaphysics in quantum mechanics
According to scientific realism, science gives us an approximately true description of what the world is like. But what does it mean? In this chapter, we focus on the ontological and metaphysical…
Raoni Wohnrath Arroyo, Jonas R. B. ArenhartDec 5, 2020
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Classical Logic in Quantum Context
It is generally accepted that quantum mechanics entails a revision of the classical propositional calculus as a consequence of its physical content. However, the universal claim according to which a…
Andrea OldofrediDec 3, 2020
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Essay Review of Tanya and Jeffrey Bub's Totally Random: Why Nobody Understands Quantum Mechanics: A Serious Comic on Entanglement
This is an extended essay review of Tanya and Jeffrey Bub's Totally Random: Why Nobody Understands Quantum Mechanics: A serious comic on entanglement. Princeton and Oxford: Princeton University Press…
Michael E. Cuffaro, Emerson P. DoyleDec 3, 2020
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M.K. Das Gupta, the first Indian radio astronomer, and his connection with the 2020 Physics Nobel Prize
Half of the 2020 Nobel Prize is awarded for discovering a super-massive black hole at the centre of our Galaxy. One of the first indications of the existence of a black hole at the centre of a galaxy…
Arnab Rai Choudhuri, Ritaban ChatterjeeDec 2, 2020
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Cometary records revise Eastern Mediterranean chronology around 1240 CE
Eirene Laskarina, empress of John III Batatzes of the exiled Byzantine Empire of Nicaea (1204--1261 CE), was an important Eastern Mediterranean figure in the first half of the thirteenth century. We…
Koji Murata, Kohei Ichikawa, Yuri I. Fujii et al.Dec 2, 2020
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Jos\'e Monteiro da Rocha (1734-1819) and his work of 1782 on the determination of comet orbits
In 1782 Jos\'e Monteiro da Rocha, astronomer and professor of the University of Coimbra, presented in a public session of the Royal Academy of Sciences of Lisbon a memoir on the problem of the…
Fernando B. Figueiredo, João M. FernandesDec 1, 2020
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Keplers's Equation and Angular Momentum: Historical Perspective, Critical Analysis and Implications for Development of the Orbital Mechanics/Dynamics, Mathematics and Physics
After some more than four centuries from the formulation and publication (in Astronomia Nova) of the Kepler's Equation, which relates the eccentric (and, intermediately, the true) anomaly of the…
Slobodan NedicDec 1, 2020
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Matter and forces in quantum field theory -- an attempt at a philosophical elucidation
This is a translation into English of my Masters thesis (hovedoppgave) from 1991. The main topic of the thesis is the relation between fundamental physics and philosophy, and a discussion of several…
Jon-Ivar SkullerudNov 28, 2020
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Einstein on Involutions in Projective Geometry
We discuss Einstein's knowledge of projective geometry. We show that two pages of Einstein's Scratch Notebook from around 1912 with geometrical sketches can directly be associated with similar…
Tilman Sauer, Tobias SchützNov 27, 2020
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Sir Thomas Walter Bannerman Kibble CBE
Professor Tom Kibble was an internationally-renowned theoretical physicist whose contributions to theoretical physics range from the theory of elementary particles to modern early-universe cosmology.…
M. J. Duff, K. S. StelleNov 26, 2020
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Modified Relational Quantum Mechanics
A modified version of relational quantum mechanics is developed based on the three following ideas. An observer can develop an internally consistent description of the universe but it will, of…
B. K. JenningsNov 25, 2020
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Niels Bohr, objectivity, and the irreversibility of measurements
The only acceptable reason why measurements are irreversible and outcomes definite is the intrinsic definiteness and irreversibility of human sensory experience. While QBists deserve credit for their…
Ulrich J. MohrhoffNov 25, 2020
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Simulation as a sustainable trading zone: Aiming at intergenerational justice
The paper, drawing on the example of simulation codes used in nuclear physics and high-energy physics, seeks to highlight the ethical implications of discontinuing support for simulation codes and…
Vitaly PronskikhNov 25, 2020
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The Foundations of Quantum Mechanics in Post-War Italy's Cultural Context
After World War II, a hyper-pragmatic paradigm was established in physics in most of the western countries, within which foundations of quantum mechanics were vastly dismissed as pointless…
Flavio Del SantoNov 24, 2020
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The Bundle Theory Approach to Relational Quantum Mechanics
The present essay provides a new metaphysical interpretation of Relational Quantum Mechanics (RQM) in terms of mereological bundle theory. The essential idea is to claim that a physical system in RQM…
Andrea OldofrediNov 20, 2020
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Hamilton, Hamiltonian Mechanics, and Causation
I show how Hamilton's philosophical commitments led him to a causal interpretation of classical mechanics. I argue that Hamilton's metaphysics of causation was injected into his dynamics by way of a…
Christopher Gregory WeaverNov 16, 2020
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How Intellectual Communities Progress
Recent work takes both philosophical and scientific progress to consist in acquiring factive epistemic states such as knowledge. However, much of this work leaves unclear what entity is the subject…
Lewis RossNov 14, 2020
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Why is the universe comprehensible?
Why is the universe comprehensible? How is it that we can come to know its regularities well-enough to exploit them for our own gain? In this essay I argue that the nature of our comprehension lies…
Ian T. DurhamNov 12, 2020
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The state is not abolished, it withers away: how quantum field theory became a theory of scattering
It is described how quantum field theory went from a theory for calculating the properties of stationary states, in the mold of quantum mechanics, to the scattering-focused theory we know today. This…
Alexander S. BlumNov 11, 2020
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About soft photon resummation
The first time one of us (G.P.) encountered Earle was in Summer 1966, when she was directed to study Earle's papers on radiative corrections to quasi-elastic electron scattering. The suggestion had…
Giulia Pancheri, Yogendra N. SrivastavaNov 11, 2020
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The solar eclipse of August 30, 1905 at Alcala de Chisvert
Solar eclipses play an important role in the history of astronomy because their observation allowed astrophysics to expand. The eclipse of August 30th, 1905 is particularly interesting since the line…
Emmanuel DavoustNov 6, 2020
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The journey of the German expedition to observe the transit of Venus on December 9, 1874 at the Kerguelen Islands and its sojourn there
Astronomers are the surveyors of the sky. They have always dedicated much time and resources to determining the scale of distances in the universe. Today, the Hubble constant; yesterday, the solar…
Emmanuel DavoustNov 6, 2020
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