物理学史与哲学
We present an English translation of a second 1918 paper by Felix Klein which follows up on his earlier work.
We present an English translation of a 1918 paper by Felix Klein.
Typically, a less fundamental theory, or structure, emerging from a more fundamental one is an example of synchronic emergence. A model (and the physical state it describes) emerging from a prior model (state) upon which it nevertheless…
This paper discusses experiments with single-particle systems, some of whose states appear to be entangled. It shows that the interpretation of the experiments in terms of entanglement is ill-defined. Three forms of ambiguity are discussed.…
Jacob Bekenstein's pioneering contributions to the foundations of Gravity cover a broad range of scales, from Black Holes to the entire Universe. He is well known as the father of Black Hole Thermodynamics and the inventor of the TeVeS…
Mathematical steps are developed to obtain optimised well tempered model "temperaments", based on a musical Well Temperament definition by H. Kelletat, that is derived from A. Werckmeister. This supports objective mathematical ranking of…
The eclipse of the Sun of 1919 was fundamental in the development of physics and earns a high place in the history of science. Several players took part in this adventure. The most important are Einstein, Dyson, Eddington, the Sun, the…
Leonid Keldysh -- one of the most influential theoretical physicists of the 20th century -- passed away in November 2016. Keldysh is best known for the diagrammatic formulation of real-time (nonequilibrium) Green functions theory and for…
Richard Feynman famously declared, "I think that I can safely say that nobody really understands quantum mechanics." Sean Carroll lamented the persistence of this sentiment in a recent opinion piece entitled, "Even Physicists Don't…
Everett suggested that there is no such thing as wavefunction collapse. He hypothesized that for an idealized spin measurement the apparatus evolves into a superposition on the pointer basis of two apparatuses, each displaying one of the…
Black holes are extreme spacetime deformations where even light is imprisoned. There is an extensive astrophysical evidence for the real and abundant existence of these prisons of matter and light in the Universe. Mathematically, black…
Probably the most dramatic historical challenge to scientific realism concerns Arnold Sommerfeld's 1916 derivation of the fine structure energy levels of hydrogen. Not only were his predictions good, he derived exactly the same formula that…
This paper argues that philosophers of science have before them an important new task that they urgently need to take up. It is to convince the scientific community to adopt and implement a new philosophy of science that does better justice…
I begin to develop a framework for emergence in the physical sciences. Namely, I propose to explicate ontological emergence in terms of the notion of 'novel reference', and of an account of interpretation as a map from theory to world. I…
During the First World War, the status of energy conservation in general relativity was one of the most hotly debated questions surrounding Einstein's new theory of gravitation. His approach to this aspect of general relativity differed…
We analyze Feynman's work on the response of an amplifier performed at Los Alamos and described in a technical report of 1946, as well as lectured on at the Cornell University in 1946-47 during his course on Mathematical Methods. The…
The emergence of the new, non-Euclidean geometry of Bolyai, Gauss, and Lobachevskii (BGL) and its impact on modern sciences is the subject of a series of biennial conferences. Below, I briefly review the history.
Black holes are now commonplace, among the stars, in Galactic centers, and perhaps other places. But within living memory, their very existence was doubted by many, and few chose to look for them. Zeldovich and Guseinov were first, followed…
Considered one of the founding fathers of integral geometry, Luis Santal\'o has contributed to various areas of mathematics. His work has applications in number theory, in the theory of differential equations, in stochastic geometry, in…
We critically analyze the rationale of arguments from finetuning and naturalness in particle physics and cosmology. Some other numerological coincidences are also discussed.