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History and Philosophy of Physics papers — page 7

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Realism and Ontology in Quantum Mechanics and String Theory
Dualities in physics have challenged traditional forms of scientific realism by undermining the idea that theories describe a unique underlying ontology. In this paper, we develop a new perspective…
Richard Dawid, Guilherme FranzmannDec 18, 2025
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Notes on Crowther and the "Interpretation" of Quantum Mechanics (arXiv:2512.14315)
We read Karen Crowther's Another 100 Years of Quantum Interpretation? with two practical goals. First, we spell out what she means by interpretation'': an attempt to provide understanding (not…
Mikołaj Sienicki, Krzysztof SienickiDec 18, 2025
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Another 100 Years of Quantum Interpretation?
Interpretation is not the only way to explain a theory's success, form and features, and nor is it the only way to solve problems we see with a theory. This can also be done by giving a reductive…
Karen CrowtherDec 16, 2025
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Einstein Was Not a Flat Physicalist: Principle Theories, Constructive Theories, and the Direction of Constraint
Einstein's distinction between principle theories and constructive theories is methodological rather than metaphysical. Principle theories such as thermodynamics and relativity articulate empirically…
Galina WeinsteinDec 15, 2025
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Evidential Reconfiguration as Bayesian Confirmation For Dark Matter in 1974: How Existing Data Become Evidence in New Structures
The 1974 papers by Ostriker et al. [1974] and Einasto et al. [1974] are considered by many to be pivotal in establishing the epistemic foundations for the dark matter hypothesis. From a theory…
Simon AllzénDec 15, 2025
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Ugo Amaldi, the DELPHI Collaboration and The Physics Legacy of LEP
This article offers a portrait of the DELPHI experiment at CERN's Large Electron-Positron Collider (LEP) through the scientific life and leadership of Ugo Amaldi. It traces how DELPHI contributed to…
Alessandro De AngelisDec 11, 2025
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Deflating the Spacetime-Matter Dichotomy
In this paper we analyse scalar-tensor theories-specific instances of which include mainstream inflation and dark energy models-in light of the spacetime-matter dichotomy. We argue that it is…
Antonio Ferreiro, Alex Fleuren, Niels C. M. MartensDec 11, 2025
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The Fine-Structure Constant as a Scaled Quantity
The fine-structure constant alpha approximately 1/137 is traditionally regarded as a fundamental dimensionless parameter. I argue instead that alpha is a scaled quantity that arises only where the…
Harry StickerDec 7, 2025
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A result from the thesis of the french astronomer Alexandre V\'eronnet: critical latitudes
We are interested in a result found in the thesis of the astronomer Alexandre V\'eronnet (1876-1951) : "Precession of a fluid ring rotating along a parallel axis. Zone of maximum crustal compression…
Hervé Le FerrandDec 6, 2025
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A catalog of old globes in Spanish public collections
This paper presents the first catalog of celestial and terrestrial globes, as well as armillary spheres and orreries, produced before 1900 and preserved in Spanish public institutions. Most globes…
Miguel QuerejetaDec 5, 2025
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Post-Cold War Diaspora of Russian Particle Physicists
While the migration of scientists from the Soviet Union to the West occurred at a modest pace during the 1970s and 1980s, the dissolution of the USSR in 1991 and the ensuing economic and social…
Vladimir ShiltsevDec 3, 2025
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Comparing land- and skyscapes in the three main manorial-conquered lands of the Canary Islands
This work is a study of the relationship between astronomy and landscape focused on the orientation of Christian churches of the three main Manorial (Se\~nor\'io) Islands of the Canary archipelago…
Maria Florencia Muratore, Alejandro Gangui, Juan Antonio Belmonte et al.Dec 3, 2025
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Questions related to the Deflection of Light by Gravity determined by Soldner, Einstein and Schwarzschild
Before we discuss the deflection of light in a gravitational field, we give a brief overview of some basic physical formulas on photon properties, generation and propagation. The much debated…
Klaus Wilhelm, Bhola N. Dwivedi, Karsten MullerDec 3, 2025
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Determining the Qibla Direction by Astronomical and Geometrical Methods
This paper investigates the determination of the Qibla direction using both astronomical and geometrical approaches. The study reviews historical and classical methods employed by Muslim scholars and…
Duaa AbdullahDec 2, 2025
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Limiting Reduction and Modified Gravity
Modified Newtonian Dynamics (MOND) is a framework of theories that adjust Newton's laws of gravity to explain effects such as galactic rotation anomalies, offering an alternative to dark matter. This…
Antonis Antoniou, Lorenzo LorenzettiDec 2, 2025
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Kirchhoff`s Forgotten Contributions to Electromagnetism: Continuity Equation versus Displacement Currents
In 1857, Kirchhoff published two seminal papers on the motion of electricity in wires. In that work, he was the first to derive what we now call the telegrapher`s equations, which describes the…
Xavier Oriols, Robert Eisenberg, David K. FerryDec 1, 2025
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Einstein's 1935 Letters to Schr\"odinger and Popper and the Boundaries of the PBR -Epistemic Framework
Einstein's 1935 critique of quantum mechanics is often associated with the Einstein-Podolsky-Rosen (EPR) argument, yet his private correspondence from that year reveals a more exact conceptual…
Galina WeinsteinNov 28, 2025
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Astronomical Methods and Instrumentation in the Islamic World: Past, Present, Future
From al-Sufi's tenth-century observation of the Andromeda Galaxy as a "little cloud" to contemporary space missions, Islamic astronomy represents a millennium-spanning tradition of innovation and…
Armin MAghami Asl, Yaseen AlmleakyNov 24, 2025
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Quantum Spacetime: Echoes of basho
I will discuss how the concept of basho, introduced by Nishida Kitaro nearly a century ago, can give an interesting insight to understand the concept of a point in modern quantum gravity. A quantum…
Fedele LizziNov 21, 2025
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The 59th Karl Jansky Lecture: Discovering the Radio Universe
The NRAO 59th Karl Jansky Lecture was presented on 24 October 2024, 22 November 2024, and 4 December 2024 in Charlottesville, Virginia, Socorro, New Mexico, and Green Bank, West Virginia,…
K. I. KellermannNov 20, 2025
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Dark Matter Realism: How Referential Semantics Restricts Realism in Contemporary Fundamental Physics
Philosophers increasingly treat semantics as decisive for realism about dark matter. In this paper, I consider a recent proposal from Vaynberg (2024) anchored in the causal-descriptive theory of…
Simon AllzénNov 19, 2025
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DNNs, Dataset Statistics, and Correlation Functions
This paper argues that dataset structure is important in image recognition tasks (among other tasks). Specifically, we focus on the nature and genesis of correlational structure in the actual…
Robert W. Batterman, James F. WoodwardNov 18, 2025
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MacLaurin and Morality
Scottish mathematician Colin MacLaurin (1698-1746) is best known for his A Treatise of Fluxions (1742), An Account of Sir Isaac Newton's Philosophical Discoveries (1748), and the appellation for a…
Isobel Falconer, David HorowitzNov 18, 2025
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The significance of Halley's Comet in the Bayeux Tapestry
A comet appears in the Bayeux Tapestry between the scene showing the death of the English king Edward the Confessor and the election of his successor, Harold Godwinson. The Tapestry's inscription…
Michael Lewis, Simon Portegies ZwartNov 17, 2025
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The Birth of Gravitational Particle Creation: the Enduring Legacy of Leonard Parker's 1966 Thesis
This paper offers a historical overview of the origins and enduring significance of gravitational particle creation, a groundbreaking discovery first formulated in Leonard Parker's 1966 doctoral…
Antonio Ferreiro, Jose Navarro-Salas, Silvia PlaNov 17, 2025
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