Related papers: The Photon-Box Bohr-Einstein Debate Demithologized
In 1907, Einstein suggested an experiment with flying atoms for corroborating time dilation. In that paper, the flying atom was conceived as a flying clock: the reference to the Doppler effect was only indirect (the experiments by Stark to…
Einstein's reply to Weyl about the importance in General Relativity of the identity of the sources of spectral lines is well know. We show that, already in Special Relavitity, Einstein's definition of the unit of time from the frequency of…
A frequently given version of the argument of Einstein, Podolsky and Rosen against the completeness of the quantum mechanical description is criticized as a misrepresentation that lacks the cogency of the original EPR argument.
Corroboration or confirmation is a prominent philosophical debate of the 20th century. Many philosophers have been involved in this debate most notably the proponents of confirmation led by Hempel and its most powerful criticism by the…
Recently it was shown that classical "relativistic" particle dynamics was implicit in physics going back to Maxwell. The demonstration utilized a simple modification of a 1906 thought experiment by which Einstein established the mass…
Quantum electrodynamics corrects miscalculations of classical electrodynamics, but by introducing the pseudo-particle "photon" it is the source of errors whose practical consequences are serious. Thus W. E. Lamb disadvises the use of the…
We study the question of whether two frames of a given physical theory are equivalent or not in the presence of quantum corrections. By using field theory arguments we claim that equivalence is broken in the presence of anomalous symmetries…
The purpose of this paper is to show that the composite photon theory measures up well against the Standard Model's elementary photon theory. This is done by comparing the two theories area by area. Although the predictions of quantum…
Albert Einstein's real "biggest blunder" was not the 1917 introduction into his gravitational field equations of a cosmological constant term \Lambda, rather was his failure in 1916 to distinguish between the entirely different concepts of…
The remarkable recent experiments on ensembles of magnetically trapped ultracold alkali atoms have demonstrated the transition to a highly ordered phase, that has been attributed to the process of quantum-mechanical condensation, predicted…
Famously, Klein and Einstein were embroiled in an epistolary dispute over whether General Relativity has any physically meaningful conserved quantities. In this paper, we explore the consequences of Noether's second theorem for this debate,…
This paper provides a systematic response to the criticisms raised by Jean-Marc Ginoux in response to my review of his book on the history of relativity. Whereas my review was written in a strictly academic manner, Ginoux's commentary…
Experiments may not reveal their full import at the time that they are performed. The scientists who perform them usually are testing a specific hypothesis and quite often have specific expectations limiting the possible inferences that can…
The Bose-Einstein condensation of atoms can be conveniently formulated as a problem in thermal quantum field theory. There are many properties of the equilibrium system and its collective excitations that can be studied experimentally. The…
The EPR argument points to the existence of additional variables that are necessary to complete standard quantum theory. It was dismissed by Bohr because it attributes physical reality to isolated microscopic systems, independently of the…
A test of quantum mechanics proposed by K. Popper and dealing with two-particle entangled states emitted from a fixed source has been criticized by several authors. Some of them claim that the test becomes inconclusive once all the quantum…
The question of Einstein's rejection of the November tensor is re-examined in light of conflicting answers by several historians. I discuss these conflicting conjectures in view of three questions that should inform our thinking: Why did…
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…
The quantum theory of de Broglie and Bohm solves the measurement problem, but the hypothetical corpuscles play no role in the argument. The solution finds a more natural home in the Everett interpretation.
The Einstein's mass-energy relation $E=mc^2$ is one of the most fundamental formulae in physics, but it has not been seriously tested by an elaborated experiment, and only some indirect evidences in nuclear reaction suggested that it holds…