物理学史与哲学

In a way similar to classical mechanics where we have the concept of inertial time as expressed in the motions of bodies, in the (special) theory of relativity we can regard the inertial time as the only notion of time at play. The inertial…

Dennis Dieks advanced the view that the idea of flow of time is implemented in the theory of relativity. The 'flow' results from the successive happening/becoming of events along the time-like worldline of a material system. This leads to a…

According to conventional wisdom, presentism is at odds with the theory of relativity. This is supposed to be shown quite simply just by considering the relativity of simultaneity. In this paper I will show that conventional wisdom is…

When addressing the notion of proper time in the theory of relativity, it is usually taken for granted that the time read by an accelerated clock is given by the Minkowski proper time. However, there are authors like Harvey Brown that…

The advent of the 1905 theory of relativity is rightly considered as a breakthrough moment in the history of physics; in particular. it is widely accepted that it brought a new conception of space and time. The purpose of this work is to…

Quantum electrodynamics presents intrinsic limitations in the description of physical processes that make it impossible to recover from it the type of description we have in classical electrodynamics. Hence one cannot consider classical…

Times magazine selected Albert Einstein, the German born Jewish Scientist as the person of the 20th century. Undoubtedly, 20th century was the age of science and Einstein's contributions in unraveling mysteries of nature was unparalleled.…

These are reminiscences of my interactions with Julian Schwinger from 1968 through 1981 and beyond.

While I was dealing with a brain injury and finding it difficult to work, two friends (Derek Westen, a friend of the KITP, and Steve Shenker, with whom I was recently collaborating), suggested that a new direction might be good. Steve in…

At the beginning of the twentieth century, two scientists, the Austrian Victor Hess and the Italian Domenico Pacini, developed two brilliant lines of research independently, leading to the determination of the origin of atmospheric…

English translation of a Russian Ph.D. thesis from 1936. No original abstract, translator's abstract: The thesis consists of two chapters. In chapter I, general requirements to be imposed on any nonlinear electrodynamics and their…

The life of Isaak Yakovlevich Pomeranchuk was short (20.05.1913 -- 14.12.1966). But the impact of his personality and his works on physics and physicists is remarkable. The talk describes the biography of I.Ya. Pomeranchuk, his major…

On April 30th 2008, the journal Nature announced that the missing circuit element, postulated thirty-seven years before by Professor Leon O. Chua has been found. Thus, after the capacitor, the resistor and the inductor, the existence of a…

Most of the mass of everyday objects resides in atomic nuclei; the total of the electrons' mass adds up to less than one part in a thousand. The nuclei are composed of nucleons---protons and neutrons---whose nuclear binding energy, though…

I review the main features of the color charge degree of freedom in particle physics, sketch the paradox in the early quark model that led to color, give a personal perspective on the discovery of color and describe the introduction of the…

I offer some historical comments about the origins of Feynman's path integral approach, as an alternative approach to standard quantum mechanics. Looking at the interaction between Einstein and Feynman, which was mediated by Feynman's…

Dick Dalitz produced lasting contributions to particle physics for 50 years. Along with Dalitz pairs, Dalitz plots and CDD poles, he did major work in parity violation, hyperon resonance identification, the quark model, and hypernuclei.…

Alastair Graham Walker Cameron was an astrophysicist and planetary scientist of broad interests and exceptional originality. A founder of the field of nuclear astrophysics, he developed the theoretical understanding of the chemical…

The darkness of the umbra of the lunar eclipse of August 7 2017 corresponded to the predictions of A. Danjon for the Sun at its minimum. It appeared partial at moonrise in Rome similarly to the one of April 3, 33 AD in Jerusalem, supposed…

As Harvey Brown emphasizes in his book Physical Relativity, inertial motion in general relativity is best understood as a theorem, and not a postulate. Here I discuss the status of the "conservation condition", which states that the…