Related papers: John Archibald Wheeler: A Biographical Memoir
In this paper we discuss the relevance of the algebraic approach to quantum phenomena first introduced by von Neumann before he confessed to Birkoff that he no longer believed in Hilbert space. This approach is more general and allows us to…
Probably the most dramatic historical challenge to scientific realism concerns Arnold Sommerfeld's 1916 derivation of the fine structure energy levels of hydrogen. Not only were his predictions good, he derived exactly the same formula that…
Ten short years ago, we had the rare privilege of witnessing the onset of a renaissance in science: humanity finally succeeded in its arduous quest to directly detect gravitational waves. This breakthrough did not occur in a vacuum: it was…
Paul A. M. Dirac has been undoubtedly one of the central figures of the last century physics, contributing in several and remarkable ways to the development of Quantum Mechanics (QM); he was also at the centre of an active community of…
During the First World War, the status of energy conservation in general relativity was one of the most hotly debated questions surrounding Einstein's new theory of gravitation. His approach to this aspect of general relativity differed…
I review some recent advances in foundational research at Pavia QUIT group. The general idea is that there is only Quantum Theory without quantization rules, and the whole Physics---including space-time and relativity--is emergent from the…
This article is an attempt for a new vision of the basics of Physics, and of Relativity, in particular. A new generalized principle of inertia is proposed, as an universal principle, based on universality of the conservation laws, not…
Hubble's name is associated closely with the idea of an expanding universe as he discovered the relation between the recession velocity and distances of galaxies. Hubble also did a lot of pioneering work on the distribution of galaxies in…
Since I first became enthralled with physics as a teenager, I've been intrigued by the philosophical aspects of the discipline. As I approached the end of my career as an experimental physicist and observational astronomer (I'm now…
I show that Aristotelian physics is a correct and non-intuitive approximation of Newtonian physics in the suitable domain (motion in fluids), in the same technical sense in which Newton theory is an approximation of Einstein's theory.…
In recent decades there has been a resurge of interest in the foundations of quantum theory, partly motivated by new experimental techniques, partly by the emerging field of quantum information science. Old questions, asked since the…
In this review we discuss the current status of research in nuclear physics which is being carried out in different centers in the World. For this purpose we supply a short account of the development in the area which evolved over the last…
Al Cameron, who died recently (October 3, 2005) at 80, was one of the giants in astrophysics. His insights were profound and his interests were wide-ranging. Originally trained as a nuclear physicist, he made major contributions in a number…
This paper develops the approach to special relativity put forward by John S. Bell. The classical dynamics of an electron orbiting a nucleus in uniform motion is solved analytically and compared to numerical simulations for an accelerated…
Quantum General Relativity (QGR), sometimes called Loop Quantum Gravity, has matured over the past fifteen years to a mathematically rigorous candidate quantum field theory of the gravitational field. The features that distinguish it from…
Isaac Newton is usually associated with the idea of absolute space and time, and with ballistic light-corpuscle arguments. However, Newton was also a proponent of wave/particle duality, and published a "new" variable-density aether model in…
Jacob Bekenstein's pioneering contributions to the foundations of Gravity cover a broad range of scales, from Black Holes to the entire Universe. He is well known as the father of Black Hole Thermodynamics and the inventor of the TeVeS…
The traditional formulation of the ultimate goal of physics (in the narrower sense of axiomatic theory) involves the derivation of physical laws from first principles. Though, such option doesn't make things easier since the task of the…
The availability of a number of databases, in particular the Science Citation Index (SCI), have encouraged the development and use of bibliometric techniques to analyze and evaluate the production and impact of scientists. To avoid pitfalls…
The emergence of quantum theory in the early decades of the twentieth century was accompanied by a wide range of popular science books, all of which presented in words and in images new scientific ideas about the structure of the atom. The…