物理学史与哲学

The Kalam cosmological argument, of a metaphysical nature, asserts that the universe had a first cause. This study examines the compatibility of its premises through a bibliographic review of advancements in contemporary physics. Quantum…

We consider the class of physical theories whose dynamics are given by natural equations, which are partial differential equations determined by a functor from the category of n-manifolds, for some n, to the category of fiber bundles,…

I consider the sense in which teleparallel gravity and symmetric teleparallel gravity may be understood as gauge theories of gravity. I first argue that both theories have surplus structure. I then consider the relationship between…

I revisit Roberto Torretti's "Spacetime Models for the World" [SHPMP 31 (2):171-186 (2000)] in the light of more recent work in (philosophy of) cosmology. I discuss the motivations for FLRW spacetimes as a natural starting point for…

After a short Historical bibliographical note, in the Starting points attention will be focused on some postulates common to classical mechanics and special relativity. Starting from these premises, in the sections The deduction of the form…

In 1924, Einstein received a short manuscript in the mail from the Indian physicist S.N. Bose. He quickly translated Bose's manuscript to German and submitted it to Zeitschrift f\"ur Physik. Within a few weeks, Einstein presented his own…

We discuss an unfortunate mistake, for a Dirac free particle, in the last Fermi lecture notes on quantum mechanics, in a course given at the University of Chicago in winter and spring of 1954. As is demonstrated, the correct result can be…

It is argued that the problem of interpreting quantum mechanics, and the philosophical problem of consciousness, both have their roots in the same set of misguided Cartesian assumptions. The confusions underlying those assumptions are…

In a recent work, arxiv:2412.20407, we have mentioned two Egyptian kings, Shepseskaf and Userkaf, of the IV and V Dynasties. Here we continue discussing their burial places, that is their pyramids, in a new framework based on the study of…

It is commonly remarked that contemporary physics faces a challenge in reconciling quantum theory with Relativity, specifically General Relativity as a theory of gravity. But "challenge" is too mild a descriptor. Once one understands both…

In 1947, four months before the famous Shelter Island conference, Richard Feynman wrote a lengthy letter to his former MIT classmate Theodore Welton, reporting on his efforts to develop a path integral describing the propagation of a Dirac…

The concept of presence has been extensively explored in philosophy, yet the notion of particle presence within quantum theory remains under-examined. In this article, we explore particle presence through an analysis of a paradox arising…

The experimental observations that led to the quark structure of matter and the development of hadron physics are reviewed with emphasis on the discoveries of mesons and baryons, starting in the 1940s with the pion and kaon which mediate…

English translation of "Bemerkungen zur allgemein-relativistischen Fassung der Quantentheorie", originally published in {\em Sitzber. kgl.-preu{\ss}. Akad. Wiss. Berlin, Sitzung der phys.-math. Klasse} {\bf XXIV} (1932) 346--354.

We re-examine a common narrative that experimental errors by Walther Bothe in 1941 led Germany to abandon graphite as a reactor moderator during World War II. Using document-based nuclear archaeology, we first show that both American and…

This paper presents a novel information-theoretic proof demonstrating that the human brain as currently understood cannot function as a classical digital computer. Through systematic quantification of distinguishable conscious states and…

We consider two simple criteria for when a physical theory should be said to be "generally covariant", and we argue that these criteria are not met by Yang-Mills theory, even on geometric formulations of that theory. The reason, we show, is…

The history of the Arcetri Institute of Physics at the University of Florence is analyzed from the beginning of the 20th century to the 1960s. Thanks to the arrival of Garbasso in 1913, not only did the Institute gain new premises on…

I argue that John Norton's notions of empirical, hypothetical, and counterfactual possibility can be successfully used to analyze counterintuitive examples of physical possibility and align better with modal intuitions of practicing…

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…