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History and Philosophy of Physics papers — page 59

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Towards a Theory of Emergence for the Physical Sciences
I begin to develop a framework for emergence in the physical sciences. Namely, I propose to explicate ontological emergence in terms of the notion of 'novel reference', and of an account of…
Sebastian De HaroJul 24, 2019
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Progress and Gravity: Overcoming Divisions between General Relativity and Particle Physics and between Physics and HPS
Reflective equilibrium between physics and philosophy, and between GR and particle physics, is fruitful and rational. I consider the virtues of simplicity, conservatism, and conceptual coherence,…
J. Brian PittsJul 23, 2019
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Copernicanism and the Typicality in Time
How special (or not) is the epoch we are living in? What is the appropriate reference class for embedding the observations made at the present time? How probable -- or else -- is anything we observe…
Milan M. Ćirković, Amedeo BalbiJul 21, 2019
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Speeches by V. F. Weisskopf, J. H. Van Vleck, I. I. Rabi, M. Hamermesh, B. T. Feld, R. P. Feynman, and D. Saxon, given in honor of Julian Schwinger at his 60th birthday
In February 1978 Julian Schwinger's 60th birthday was celebrated with a SchwingerFest at UCLA. This article consists of transcripts of historical talks given there.
Berthold-Georg Englert, Kimball A. MiltonJul 20, 2019
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Bononia, the Roman Bologna: Archaeoastronomy and Chronology
In an article written by Giulio Magli on the orientation of the Roman towns, Bononia, the Roman Bologna, is given as a specific example to support Magli's thesis on the existence of preferred solar…
Amelia Carolina SparavignaJul 20, 2019
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The Discovery of Kepler-16b
We describe the Discovery of Kepler-16b, the first widely accepted detection of a circumbinary planet.
Laurance R. DoyleJul 19, 2019
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The Legacy of George Sudarshan
Ennackal Chandy George Sudarshan was born on 16 September 1931 in Pallam, a small village in the Kottayam District of Kerala State, South India.
Giuseppe Marmo, Saverio PascazioJul 12, 2019
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Theorie der Electrophorese -- Het Relaxatie-Effect
In this thesis, a theoretical treatment of the relation between electrophoretic velocity and the potential of the double layer of colloidal particles is presented. Translators' note: The theory of…
J. Th. G. OverbeekJul 12, 2019
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Julian Schwinger and the Semiclassical Atom
In the early 1980s, Schwinger made seminal contributions to the semiclassical theory of atoms. There had, of course, been earlier attempts at improving upon the Thomas--Fermi model of the 1920s. Yet,…
Berthold-Georg EnglertJul 10, 2019
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Physics and the Totalitarian Principle
What is sometimes called the "totalitarian principle," a metaphysical doctrine often associated with the famous physicist Murray Gell-Mann, states that everything allowed by the laws of nature must…
Helge KraghJul 10, 2019
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Falsifiability of Isolated Spacetime Regions
In this work it is pointed out that some physical theories, even being themselves falsifiable, predict the existence of regions of spacetime which are not falsifiable with relation to each other due…
Roberto C. AlaminoJul 5, 2019
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Ehrenfest's Theorem Revisited
Historically, Ehrenfest's theorem (1927) is the first one which shows that classical physics can emerge from quantum physics as a kind of approximation. We recall the theorem in its original form.…
H. ArodzJul 4, 2019
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Validity of the Einstein Hole Argument
Arguing from his "hole" thought experiment, Einstein became convinced that, in cases in which the energy-momentum-tensor source vanishes in a spacetime hole, a solution to his general relativistic…
Oliver Davis JohnsJul 2, 2019
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Music of the Spheres: Teaching Quantum Field Theory at the Introductory Level
Quantum field theory has formed the conceptual framework of most of physics for more than sixty years. It incorporates a complete revision of our conception of the nature of matter and existence…
Ian H. RedmountJun 27, 2019
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Theoretical Equivalence and Duality
Theoretical equivalence and duality are two closely related notions: but their interconnection has so far not been well understood. In this paper I explicate the contribution of a recent schema for…
Sebastian De HaroJun 26, 2019
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Editorial note to: Erwin Schr\"odinger, Dirac electron in the gravitational field I
Editorial Note with a mathematical and historical introduction to a 1932 paper by Erwin Schr\"odinger on the generalization of the Dirac equation to a curved spacetime -- to appear in the 'Golden…
Bernard S. KayJun 25, 2019
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Equivalence and Duality in Electromagnetism
In this paper I bring the recent philosophical literature on theoretical equivalence to bear on dualities in physics. Focusing on electromagnetic duality, which is a simple example of S-duality in…
James Owen WeatherallJun 24, 2019
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On the Properties of Monocyclic Systems, and others related to them
Translation of Ludwig Boltzmann's paper "\"Uber die Eigenschaften monozyklischer und anderer damit verwandter Systeme" Crelles Journal 98. S. 68-94. 1884 u. 1885 from German into English. In this…
Ludwig BoltzmannJun 21, 2019
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Time travelling in emergent spacetime
Most approaches to quantum gravity suggest that relativistic spacetime is not fundamental, but instead emerges from some non-spatiotemporal structure. This paper investigates the implications of this…
Christian WuthrichJun 21, 2019
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Historical and Philosophical Aspects of the Einstein World
This article presents a brief review of some historical and philosophical aspects of Einstein's 1917 paper 'Cosmological Considerations in the General Theory of Relativity', a landmark work that…
Cormac O'RaifeartaighJun 20, 2019
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Some remarks on history and pre-history of Feynman path integral
One usually refers the concept of Feynman path integral to the work of Norbert Wiener on Brownian motion in the early 1920s. This view is not false and we show in this article that Wiener used the…
Daniel ParrochiaJun 20, 2019
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Majorana equation and its consequences in physics and philosophy
We focus here on the work of the italian physicist Ettore Majorana, and more particularly on his 1937 article on the symmetrical theory of the electron and the positron, probably one of the most…
Daniel ParrochiaJun 20, 2019
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How "Facts" Shaped Modern Disciplines: The Fluid Concept of Fact and the Common Origins of German Physics and Historiography
This history of the concept of fact reveals that the fact-oriented practices of German physicists and historians derived from common origins. The concept of fact became part of the German language…
Sjang L. Ten HagenJun 19, 2019
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Einstein's Working Sheets and His Search For a Unified Field Theory
The Einstein Archives contain a considerable collection of calculations in the form of working sheets and scratch paper, documenting Einstein's scientific preoccupations during the last three decades…
Tilman SauerJun 14, 2019
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Refuting Strong AI: Why Consciousness Cannot Be Algorithmic
While physicalism requires only that a conscious state depends entirely on an underlying physical state, it is often assumed that consciousness is algorithmic and that conscious states can be copied,…
Andrew KnightJun 11, 2019
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