Related papers: Wolfgang Pauli and Modern Physics
Wolfgang Pauli's philosophy and physics were intertwined. His philosophy was a variety of Platonism, in which Pauli's affiliation with Carl Jung formed an integral part, but Pauli's philosophical explorations in physics appeared before he…
After some brief biographical notes, Wolfgang Pauli's main contributions to general relativity, quantum theory, quantum field theory, and elementary particle physics are reviewed. A detailed description is given how Pauli descovered -…
These notes overlap with lectures given at the TASI summer schools in 2014 and 2011, as well as at the European School of High Energy Physics in 2013. This is primarily an attempt at transcribing my hand-written notes, with emphasis on…
It has been shown that the criticism of Pauli as well as of Susskind and Glogover may be avoided if the standard quantum-mechanical mathematical model has been suitably extended. There is not more any reason for Einstein's citicism, either,…
In December 1924 Wolfgang Pauli proposed the idea of an inner degree of freedom of the electron, which he insisted should be thought of as genuinely quantum mechanical in nature. Shortly thereafter Ralph Kronig and, independently, Samuel…
Transparencies of the 18th Henry Primakoff lecture at the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, USA, April 11, 2001 and of the Special lecture given at the 7th International Workshop on Topics in Astroparticle and Underground Physics,…
In this lecture I build up the motivation for relativity and gravitation based on general principles and common sense considerations which should fall in the sphere of appreciation of a general reader. There is a novel way of looking at…
"Symmetry" was one of the most important methodological themes in 20th-century physics and is probably going to play no lesser role in physics of the 21st century. As used today, there are a variety of interpretations of this term, which…
First rejected by the Nobel prize laureate Wolfgang Pauli as non-sense, the effect of vacuum polarization proves to be commonly observable in everyday life.
A new direction to understand gravity has recently been explored by considering classical gravity to be a derived interaction from an underlying theory. This underlying theory would involve new degrees of freedom at a deeper level and it…
Feyerabend frequently discussed physics. He also referred to the history of the subject when motivating his philosophy of science. Alas, as some examples show, his understanding of physics remained superficial. In this respect, Feyerabend…
Causality is one of the most fundamental -- and yet elusive -- concepts in physics. From its intuitive role in everyday experience to its formal and often implicit role in scientific theories, causality has challenged philosophers and…
The author recalls general tendencies of the "mathematization" of the sciences and derives challenges and tentative obstructions for a successful merger of mathematics and physics on fancied steps towards "Quantum Gravity". This is an…
Lecture notes on selected topics in the theory of gravitation.
We still lack any consensus about what one is actually talking about as one uses quantum mechanics. There is a gap between the abstract terms in which the theory is couched and the phenomena the theory enables each of us to account for so…
Talk given at the 6th Philosophy-and-Physics-Workshop ``Epistemological Aspects of the Role of Mathematics in Physical Science'', FEST, Heidelberg, Feb. 1993
This pre-print contains the abstracts of seminars (including key references) presented at the ESI workshop on mathematical problems in quantum gravity held during July and August of 1996. Contributors include A. Ashtekar, J. Baez, F.…
This review article is the second part of the project ``Selected Topics of Social Physics". The first part has been devoted to equilibrium systems. The present part considers nonequilibrium systems. The style of the paper combines the…
Editorial of a special issue on dark matter & modified gravity, distributed across the journals Studies in History and Philosophy of Modern Physics and Studies in History and Philosophy of Science. Published version of the open access…
Steven Weinberg productive scientific life teaches us many things, one of the most important of which is the power of his example. This essay contains personal reminiscences and a speculation about gravitational wave propagation based on…