Related papers: A.P. Balachandran: Living in Physics
L. E. Ballentine's remarks in Physics Today about the QBist interpretation of quantum mechanics are generally wide of the mark.
I review aspects of Michael Atiyah's research in fundamental theoretical physics during the last ten years of his life, and contrast his deliberate interest in physics during this period with the inadvertent impact on physics of his early…
Professor Jacob Bekenstein was known not only for his brilliant and original physical ideas, but also for their clear presentation in his lectures and seminal research papers. I here provide a short review of Bekenstein's pioneering ideas…
This colloquium summarizes Dirac's contributions to the discovery of quantum mechanics before he invented his relativistic wave equation.
The life of Isaak Yakovlevich Pomeranchuk was short (20.05.1913 -- 14.12.1966). But the impact of his personality and his works on physics and physicists is remarkable. The talk describes the biography of I.Ya. Pomeranchuk, his major…
From 1929 to his death in 1944, A. Eddington worked on developing a highly ambitious theory of fundamental physics that covered everything in the physical world, from the tiny electron to the universe at large. His unfinished theory…
Randomness is an unavoidable notion in discussing quantum physics, and this may trigger the curiosity to know more of its cultural history. This text is an invitation to explore the position on the matter of Thomas Aquinas, one of the most…
John Barton was one of the experimental founders of particle astrophysics, working in deep underground locations all over the world. This note combines the obituary published in The Independent with a complete list of his publications.
Stirling Colgate was a remarkably imaginative physicist, an independent thinker with a wide breadth of interests and contagious enthusiasm, a born leader with enduring drive to attack fundamental problems in science. Among his many…
I shall use a few personal reminiscences of my time as a student and colleague of Dirac in Cambridge to introduce some reflections on the nature of research in theoretical physics. I shall discuss and illustrate the approach of Dirac to his…
The reality of Bohm's intellectual journey is very different from what is often claimed by the proponents of "Bohmian Mechanics" and others as we will explain in this paper. He did not believe a mechanical explanation of quantum phenomena…
(transcript of a talk given by Prof.~Feshbach:) Nuclear physics has been and will be a major factor in science and technology. It makes unique and important contributions to medicine, to industry and to other sciences. Interaction with…
Quantum properties of a (1+1)-dimensional scalar theory on a cylinder with a compact spatial part, namely, $0\leq x\leq L$, are considered. In particular, quantum theory around the classical periodic field configurations is studied and the…
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.
Central to our understanding of quantum many particle physics are two ideas due to Landau. The first is the notion of the electron as a well-defined quasiparticle excitation in the many body state. The second is that of the order parameter…
We review selected achievements of the late Bogdan Mielnik in the field of theoretical physics, with an emphasis on his attempts to go beyond quantum mechanics. Some of his original views on the problems of contemporary society and…
Alexander Andreevich Andrianov was a remarkable personality in Russian physics during the last decades. A member of th prestigious school of theoretical physics in Saint Petersburg, he made relevant contributions to a number of topics along…
In this manuscript we present a brief life history of Ludwig Edward Boltzmann and his achivements. Particularly, we discuss his H-theorem, his work on entropy and statistical interpretation of second-law of thermodynamics. We point out his…
Brief recollections by the author about how his work with Kip Thorne influenced his career in physics.
As we mark the centenary of Albert Einstein's seminal contribution to both quantum mechanics and special relativity, we approach another anniversary--that of Einstein's foundation of the quantum theory of solids. But 100 years on, the same…