物理学史与哲学

The Standard Model of particle physics is standardly formulated in terms of principal fibre bundles and their associated representations -- what may be called a symmetry-first approach. This paper develops an alternative geometry-first…

We discuss and then resolve a tension between how physicists treat gauge bosons and the celebrated "Wu-Yang dictionary", which identifies particle physics terminology with that of principal bundles and principal connections. We show how…

We present a new careful and comprehensive analysis the observations of the satellites of Jupiter from the Sidereus Nuncius that extends and complements previous similar studies. Each observation is compared to the predictions obtained…

On April 27, 1900, William Thomson, better known as Lord Kelvin, delivered a visionary speech before the Royal Institution of Great Britain. In it, he presented two unresolved problems which, to him, appeared fundamental and unavoidable at…

Many have have taken in hand to write a treatise on the Star of Bethlehem, particularly on Kepler's explanation as a stellar birth, triggered by Mars joining a great conjunction (a meeting of Jupiter and Saturn), as he observed it in…

The problem of time of quantum gravity has been argued to make canonical approaches unsatisfactory. In this article I study how it affects quantum cosmology and reach the same conclusion. The advantage of studying the cosmological case is…

Inter-level connections in science routinely require constructs that neither of the connected theories contains. Statistical mechanics requires assumptions such as the Stosszahlansatz to generate thermodynamic irreversibility - assumptions…

Chaos theory is a branch of classical physics, founded in the 1960s-70s, that studies systems whose solutions are sensitively dependent on their initial conditions. For many, it is surprising that chaos theory arrived so late. However,…

Relativistic quantum mechanics can be considered to have begun with a search for wave equations corresponding to each intrinsic spin. However, relativistic quantum physics differs fundamentally from the non-relativistic wave mechanics. It…

Traditionally, the Planck constant $h$ makes its debut appearance in quantum physics textbooks in the context of the blackbody radiation law and subsequently as a fundamental ingredient of the physics of the photoelectric effect and the…

Relational Quantum Mechanics (RQM) treats quantum states as observer-dependent facts rather than absolute properties. While this relational stance is conceptually attractive, it raises concerns about empirical confirmation, particularly in…

Standard historiographical approaches to the Scientific Revolution illuminate background conditions but leave three puzzles unresolved: what triggered the initial escalation of inherited tensions, what made early investigative efforts…

There is a question of whether de-idealization is needed for justified use of -- for 'checking' -- idealizations. We argue that the standard philosophical account of de-idealization has become too idealized, but that this does not preclude…

We discuss the discovery of the relativistic wave equation for a spin-zero charged particle in the Coulomb field by Erwin Schr\"odinger (and elaborate on why he didn't publish it).

A 17th-century oil painting by an unknown artist, once owned by the Tayler family and now in the collection of Trinity College, Cambridge, is currently identified as a portrait of a young Isaac Barrow. The sitter is shown pointing to a…

The master student at Lomonosov University in Moscow E.P. Velikhov formulated 1959 the theory of magnetorotational instability, which dominates current astrophysics. A meteoric career made him later the science, nuclear and disarmament…

We identify troubling cases of so-called `permanent underdetermination' in both dark energy and inflationary cosmology. We bring to bear (a) a taxonomy of possible responses to underdetermination, and (b) an understanding of both dark…

There is a widespread assumption that the universe in general, and the Earth's biosphere in particular, is becoming more complex over time. This paper formulates this assumption as a macroscopic law, the law of increasing complexity, for a…

This note offers an overview of how Josiah Willard Gibbs's Elementary Principles in Statistical Mechanics, published simultaneously in London and New York in 1902, spread through European university libraries. Contrary to the received idea…

In the nineteenth century, the Dutch established time signals in their Atlantic colonies to synchronise maritime navigation with European standards. In Paramaribo (Suriname), a sophisticated sequence of apparatus -- including time balls,…