Related papers: Gregor Wentzel
Wilson was a physicist who changed both the substance and style of theoretical science.
This article is a brief Retrospective on the life and work of Robert W. Zwanzig, who formulated nonequilibrium statistical mechanics and who passed away in May of this year.
Wigner's "unreasonable effectiveness of mathematics" in physics can be understood as a reflection of a deep and unexpected unity between the fundamental structures of mathematics and of physics. Some of the history of evidence for this is…
Introduction for a special issue of Physica E dedicated to the memory of Markus B\"uttiker.
This entry reviews Rudolf Carnap's philosophical views on the quantum mechanics of his time. It also offers some thoughts on how Carnap might have reacted to some recent developments in the foundations of quantum mechanics.
We introduce some early considerations of physical and mathematical impossibility as preludes to the Goedel incompleteness theorems. We consider some informal aspects of these theorems and their underlying assumptions and discuss some the…
A brief description is given of the life and influence on relativity theory of Professor J. L. Synge accompanied by some technical examples to illustrate his style of work.
We discuss the scientific contributions of Edsger Wybe Dijkstra, his opinions and his legacy.
Experiment plays a decisive role in physics. It is the single source of our understanding of nature. But, during the last century the main accent in theoretical physics has moved toward metaphysics. Some mathematicians/theoreticians try to…
A.P. Balachandran was a theoretical physicist of extraordinary versatility and originality. In a career spanning over six decades, he made many significant contributions to quantum field theory and mathematical physics. His influence…
A recent essay [1] reminds us of how richly Boltzmann deserves to be admiringly commemorated for the originality of his ideas on the occasion of his 150th birthday. Without any doubt, the scientific community owes Boltzmann a great debt of…
A speculative discussion on the role of various symmetries in physics.
This lecture recalls the memory of Baron Roland Eotvos, an outstanding figure of the experimental exploration of the gravitational interaction.
Recollections by the author about how his interactions with John Wheeler influenced his career in physics.
Starting with Einstein's famous papers of 1905, we review some of the ensuing developments and their impact on present-day physics. We attempt to cover topics that are of interest to historians and philosophers of science as well as to…
An obituary for Alexander Gordon which will appear in the Journal of Spectral Theory
We are interested here in the program of reconstruction of quantum mechanics of the German physicist and philosopher Carl Friedrich von Weizs\"{a}cker, which still has some supporters today. In the major part of this article, we limit…
The quantization of gravity, and its unification with the other interactions, is one of the greatest challenges of theoretical physics. Current ideas suggest that the value of G might be related to the other fundamental constants of…
Lev Davidovich Landau was arguably one of the greatest and most versatile physicists. His work spans a very wide range and has had a considerable impact on all areas of physics including condensed matter physics, plasma, high energy and…
I review and discuss the contributions of Aron Bernstein to the field of chiral dynamics.