Related papers: Between equilibrium and fluctuation: Einstein's he…
Western thinking underwent a turning point between 1885 and 1925. Einstein in 1905 symbolizes the emblematic hinge of this change of direction. To find an equivalent phenomenon in the past we need to go back to the period from the XV…
Since its inception, quantum theory has been the subject of fierce interpretive controversy, which persists to this day. Disputed topics include the basic ontology and dynamics of the theory, the role (if any) of measurement, the meaning of…
Einstein's revolutionary light quantum hypothesis of 1905 and his further contributions to quantum theory are reviewed.
It is well known that in quantum gravity, the very geometry of space and time is subject to continual fluctuation. The mathematical formulation for this old theory is still lacking. This article formulates this more than forty-year-old…
The Heisenberg position-momentum uncertainty principle shares with the equivalence principle the role of main pillar of our current description of nature. However, in its original formulation it is inconsistent with special relativity, and…
Einstein's distinction between principle theories and constructive theories is methodological rather than metaphysical. Principle theories such as thermodynamics and relativity articulate empirically distilled constraints that delimit…
This is a brief look at how Einstein explored formal symmetries between quantized matter and quantized radiation between 1903 and 1925. Specifically he employed thermodynamic comparisons between the ideal molecular gas and the photon gas.…
An interesting test of Einstein's equivalence principle (EEP) relies on the observed lag in arrival times of photons emitted from extragalactic transient sources. Attributing the lag between photons of different energies to the…
This paper reconstructs the derivations underlying the kinematical part of Einstein's 1905 special relativity paper, emphasizing their operational clarity and minimalist use of mathematics. Einstein employed modest tools-algebraic…
Lorentz [of the Lorentz transforms and Lorentz contractions fame] contended against Einstein that there had to be a medium in which electro-magnetic waves exist and propagate, and that that would of necessity be an absolute frame of…
The Equivalence Principle (EP) is not one of the ``universal'' principles of physics (like the Action Principle). It is a heuristic hypothesis which was introduced by Einstein in 1907, and used by him to construct his theory of General…
Einstein's special theory of relativity starts with assumptions about how observations conducted in relatively moving inertial frames must compare. From these assumptions, conclusions can be drawn regarding the laws of physics in any one…
This paper discusses Einstein's methodology. 1. Einstein characterized his work as a theory of principle and reasoned that beyond kinematics, the 1905 heuristic relativity principle could offer new connections between non-kinematical…
The content of Einstein's theory of gravitation is encoded in the properties of the solutions to his field equations. There has been obtained a wealth of information about these solutions in the ninety years the theory has been around. It…
In 1916 Einstein introduced the first rules for a quantum theory of electromagnetic radiation, and he applied them to a model of matter in thermal equilibrium with radiation to derive Planck's black-body formula. Einstein's treatment is…
This article presents a brief review of some historical and philosophical aspects of Einstein's 1917 paper 'Cosmological Considerations in the General Theory of Relativity', a landmark work that denoted the starting point of modern…
It is well known that the problem of divergence in the physical interpretation of quantum mechanics originating from the uncertainty principle has not yet been resolved. Attempting to clear the constraints and confusion of this situation…
Had Einstein followed the Bianchi differential identity for the derivation of his equation of motion for gravitation, $\Lambda$ would have emerged as a true new constant of spacetime on the same footing as the velocity of light? It is then…
The Finnish physicist Gunnar Nordstr\"om developed a competing theory of gravitation to Einstein's 1912-1913 gravitation theory. The equivalence principle was valid in his theory and it also satisfied red shift of the spectral lines from…
The confrontation between Einstein's gravitation theory and experimental results, notably binary pulsar data, is summarized and its significance discussed. Experiment and theory agree at the 10^{-3} level. All the basic structures of…