物理学史与哲学

This is a chapter of the planned monograph "Out of Nowhere: The Emergence of Spacetime in Quantum Theories of Gravity", co-authored by Nick Huggett and Christian W\"uthrich and under contract with Oxford University Press. (More information…

A dozen of high-magnitude solar eclipses accumulated near New Zealand in the 15th century AD when the Maori inhabited the two main islands. Taking today's capital Wellington as the point of reference, we counted ten events with magnitude…

This paper responds to claims that causal closure of the underlying microphysics determines brain outcomes as a matter of principle, even if we cannot hope to ever carry out the needed calculations in practice. Following two papers of mine…

This is a personal history of the Hastings-Michalakis proof of quantum Hall conductance quantization.

We suggest an earlier date for the accession of the pharaoh Akhenaten of the New Kingdom in Egypt. His first year of reign would be placed in 1382 BCE. This conjecture is based on the possible witness of three annular eclipses of the sun…

The first determination of the surface temperature of stars other than the Sun is due to the Hungarian astrophysicist B\'ela Hark\'anyi. Prompted by the recent unprecedented increase in the availability of stellar temperature estimates from…

Martin David Kruskal was one of the most versatile theoretical physicists of his generation and is distinguished for his enduring work in several different areas, most notably plasma physics, a memorable detour into relativity, and his…

Quantum Mechanics (QM) has faced deep controversies and debates since its origin when Werner Heisenberg proposed the first mathematical formalism capable to operationally account for what had been recently discovered as the new field of…

This is the first of four papers prompted by a recent literature about a doctrine dubbed spacetime functionalism. This paper gives our general framework for discussing functionalism. Following Lewis, we take it as a species of reduction. We…

The Native Skywatchers programming addresses the loss of Ojibwe and Dakota star knowledge. The goal is to help preserve indigenous astronomy and pass it on to future generations. The star knowledge will serve as a cornerstone inspiration…

A-theorists and B-theorists debate whether the "Now" is metaphysically distinguished from other time slices. Analogously, one may ask whether the "I" is metaphysically distinguished from other perspectives. Few philosophers would answer the…

This paper deals with the question of whether uncertainty regarding model structure, especially in climate modeling, exhibits a kind of "chaos." Do small changes in model structure, in other words, lead to large variations in ensemble…

The objective of this second part of the work is to present heuristic derivations of the three classical tests of general relativity. These derivations are based on the Einstein equivalence principle and use Newtonian physics as a…

The question of cosmic beginning has always attracted considerable attention from serious thinkers past and present. This article examines Ibn Sina's proposed solution to the vexed problem that given an eternally existing world and one…

Astrobiology has been gaining increasing scientific prominence and public attention as the search for life beyond Earth continues to make significant headway on multiple fronts. In view of these recent developments, the fascinating and…

We show by means of the AdS/CFT correspondence in the context of quantum gravity how inter-representational relations - loosely speaking relations among different equivalent representations of one and the same physics - can play out as a…

In this note, we point attention to and briefly discuss a curious manuscript of Einstein, composed in 1938 and entitled "Unified Field Theory," the only such writing, published or unpublished, carrying this title without any further…

This paper centers on the collection of accounts on solar eclipses from the era of the Aztecs in Mesoamerica, about 1300 to 1550 AD. We present a list of all eclipse events complying with the topological visibility from the capital…

The Native Skywatchers research and programming initiative focuses on the revitalization of native star knowledge of the Ojibwe and Dakota people. Activities include interviewing elders, culture and language teachers, and creating…

This paper examines the predictions made by Chinese, Muslim and Jesuit astronomers of the eclipse of 21 June 1629 in Beijing, allegedly the event that determined Emperor Chongzhen's resolution to reform the calendar using the Western…