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History and Philosophy of Physics papers — page 72

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Copernicus's Heliograph at Olsztyn -- the 500th Anniversary of a Scientific Milestone
Exactly 500 years ago, Nicolaus Copernicus drew a lattice of lines on a panel above the doorway to his rooms at Olsztyn Castle, then in the Bishopric of Warmia. Although its design has long been…
Gerd Graßhoff, Gordon FischerDec 5, 2017
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Why surplus structure is not superfluous
The idea that gauge theory has 'surplus' structure poses a puzzle: in one much discussed sense, this structure is redundant; but on the other hand, it is also widely held to play an essential…
James Nguyen, Nicholas J. Teh, Laura WellsDec 4, 2017
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Cosmological Black Hole Observations and Kant's Transcendental Aesthetic
Kant put forward the notion of the Transcendental Aesthetic (TA) in his manuscript A\; Critique\; of\; Pure\; Reason. In this note I review the TA in light of the detection of gravitational…
Juna A. KollmeierDec 3, 2017
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Inter-theory Relations in Quantum Gravity: Correspondence, Reduction, and Emergence
Relationships between current theories, and relationships between current theories and the sought theory of quantum gravity (QG), play an essential role in motivating the need for QG, aiding the…
Karen CrowtherDec 1, 2017
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Hints towards the Emergent Nature of Gravity
A possible way out of the conundrum of quantum gravity is the proposal that general relativity (GR) is not a fundamental theory but emerges from an underlying microscopic description. Despite recent…
Niels S. Linnemann, Manus R. VisserNov 28, 2017
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The Impact of World War I on Relativity: A Progress Report
From an astronomical and relativistic point of view, the Great War began with the August, 1914 capture and imprisonment of the members of a German eclipse expedition that had gone to the Crimea to…
Virginia TrimbleNov 28, 2017
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On the Conceptuality Interpretation of Quantum and Relativity Theories
How can we explain the strange behavior of quantum and relativistic entities? Why do they behave in ways that defy our intuition about how physical entities should behave, considering our ordinary…
Diederik Aerts, Massimiliano Sassoli de Bianchi, Sandro Sozzo et al.Nov 27, 2017
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Working with Stephen
The banquet for the July 2017 conference in Cambridge, UK celebrating Stephen Hawking's 75th birthday was held in Trinity College on July 3rd. The organizers asked the author, among others, to give a…
James B. HartleNov 24, 2017
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The Two-fold Role of Observables in Classical and Quantum Kinematics
Observables have a dual nature in both classical and quantum kinematics: they are at the same time quantities, allowing to separate states by means of their numerical values, and…
Federico ZalameaNov 18, 2017
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One Hundred Years of the Cosmological Constant: from 'Superfluous Stunt' to Dark Energy
We present a centennial review of the history of the term known as the cosmological constant. First introduced to the general theory of relativity by Einstein in 1917 in order to describe a universe…
Cormac O'Raifeartaigh, Michael O'Keeffe, Werner Nahm et al.Nov 18, 2017
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Photon-photon scattering and related phenomena. Experimental and theoretical approaches: The early period
We review the literature on possible violations of the superposition principle for electromagnetic fields in vacuum from the earliest studies until the emergence of renormalized QED at the end of the…
K. ScharnhorstNov 14, 2017
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Fisica e Metafisica? The Science at the time of de Chirico and Carrà
The evolution of Physics between the second half of the XIX century and the beginning of the XX century is presented coupling art and science, in the framework of Ferrara. The main characters are…
S. Bertelli, G. Zini, P. LenisaNov 13, 2017
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What is quantum mechanics? A minimal formulation
This paper presents a minimal formulation of nonrelativistic quantum mechanics, by which is meant a formulation which describes the theory in a succinct, self-contained, clear, unambiguous and of…
R. Friedberg, P. C. HohenbergNov 11, 2017
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Time dilation and length contraction without relativity: The Bohr atom and the semi-classical hydrogen molecule ion
Recently it was shown that classical "relativistic" particle dynamics was implicit in physics going back to Maxwell. The demonstration utilized a simple modification of a 1906 thought…
Allan WalstadNov 10, 2017
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The nature of representation in Feynman diagrams
After a brief presentation of Feynman diagrams, we criticizise the idea that Feynman diagrams can be considered to be pictures or depictions of actual physical processes. We then show that the best…
Mauro Dorato, Emanuele RossaneseNov 10, 2017
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Constraints on physical reality arising from a formalization of knowledge
There are (at least) four ways that an agent can acquire information concerning the state of the universe: via observation, control, prediction, or via retrodiction, i.e., memory. Each of these four…
David WolpertNov 9, 2017
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Artificial vs Substantial Gauge Symmetries: a Criterion and an Application to the Electroweak Model
To systematically answer the generalized Kretschmann objection, we propose a mean to make operational a criterion widely recognized as allowing to decide if the gauge symmetry of a theory is…
Jordan FrançoisNov 6, 2017
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Jet Activity in the Central Super Massive Black Hole of the Milky Way in 4th and 14th centuries and millennial periods of the climate change
This paper discusses the historical evidence for the light jets from the central Super Massive Black Hole of Galaxy in the 4th and 14th centuries. We suggest that the apparitions of a "lightening…
Olga I. Piskounova, Irina V. TamarkinaNov 6, 2017
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The (A)temporal Emergence of Spacetime
This paper examines two cosmological models of quantum gravity (from string theory and loop quantum gravity) to investigate the foundational and conceptual issues arising from quantum treatments of…
Nick Huggett, Christian WuthrichOct 31, 2017
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Reason and Method in Einstein's Relativity
Relativity was Einstein's main research program and scientific project. It was an open-ended program that developed throughout Einstein's scientific career, giving rise to special relativity,…
Hisham GhassibOct 26, 2017
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How We Make Sense of the World: Information, Map-Making, and The Scientific Narrative
Science is a constructed narrative of the natural world based on information gathering and its subsequent analysis. In this essay, we develop a novel approach to the epistemic foundations of the…
Marcelo Gleiser, Damian SowinskiOct 26, 2017
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The path to high-energy electron-positron colliders: from Wideroe's betatron to Touschek's AdA and to LEP
We describe the road which led to the construction and exploitation of electron positron colliders, hightlighting how the young physics student Bruno Touschek met the Norwegian engineer Rolf Wideroe…
Giulia Pancheri, Luisa BonolisOct 24, 2017
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Structural Nonrealism and Quantum Information
The article introduces a new concept of structure, defined, echoing J. A. Wheeler's concept of "law without law," as a "structure without law," and a new philosophical viewpoint,…
Arkady PlotnitskyOct 23, 2017
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Supernova 1572 and other newly observed stars in the literature of the time
SN 1572, also known as the Tycho's Nova, was a supernova largely reported and discussed in the literature of the time. Here we talk about this literature. In the latest texts, we find also…
Amelia Carolina SparavignaOct 20, 2017
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The Dawn of the Post-Naturalness Era
In an imaginary conversation with Guido Altarelli, I express my views on the status of particle physics beyond the Standard Model and its future prospects.
Gian Francesco GiudiceOct 18, 2017
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