arXiv - PHYS - History and Philosophy of Physics最新文献

{"title":"All roads lead to (New) Rome: Byzantine astronomy and geography in a rapidly changing world","authors":"Richard de GrijsMacquarie University, Sydney, Australia","doi":"arxiv-2407.16285","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/arxiv-2407.16285","url":null,"abstract":"During the first few centuries CE, the centre of the known world gradually\u0000shifted from Alexandria to Constantinople. Combined with a societal shift from\u0000pagan beliefs to Christian doctrines, Antiquity gave way to the Byzantine era.\u0000While Western Europe entered an extended period of intellectual decline,\u0000Constantinople developed into a rich cultural crossroads between East and West.\u0000Yet, Byzantine scholarship in astronomy and geography continued to rely heavily\u0000on their ancient Greek heritage, and particularly on Ptolemy's Geography.\u0000Unfortunately, Ptolemy's choices for his geographic coordinate system resulted\u0000in inherent and significant distortions of and inaccuracies in maps centred on\u0000the Byzantine Empire. This comprehensive review of Byzantine geographic\u0000achievements -- supported by a review of astronomical developments pertaining\u0000to position determination on Earth -- aims to demonstrate why and how, when\u0000Constantinople fell to the Turks in 1453 and the Ottoman Empire commenced,\u0000Byzantine astronomers had become the central axis in an extensive network of\u0000Christians, Muslims and Jews. Their influence remained significant well into\u0000the Ottoman era, particularly in the context of geographical applications.","PeriodicalId":501042,"journal":{"name":"arXiv - PHYS - History and Philosophy of Physics","volume":"64 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2024-07-23","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141771493","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"In Which Sense Can We Say That First-Class Constraints Generate Gauge Transformations?","authors":"Álvaro Mozota Frauca","doi":"arxiv-2407.16281","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/arxiv-2407.16281","url":null,"abstract":"In this paper, I consider a recent controversy about whether first-class\u0000constraints generate gauge transformations in the case of electromagnetism. I\u0000argue that there is a notion of gauge transformation, the extended notion,\u0000which is different from the original gauge transformation of electromagnetism,\u0000but at the same time not trivial, which allows the making of that claim. I\u0000further argue that one can expect that this claim can be extended to more\u0000general theories, and that Dirac's conjecture may be true for some physically\u0000reasonable theories and only in this sense of gauge transformation. Finally, I\u0000argue that the extended notion of gauge transformation seems unnatural from the\u0000point of view of classical theories, but that it nicely fits with the way\u0000quantum versions of gauge theories are constructed.","PeriodicalId":501042,"journal":{"name":"arXiv - PHYS - History and Philosophy of Physics","volume":"37 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2024-07-23","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141771496","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Symmetries as Isomorphisms","authors":"Lu Chen","doi":"arxiv-2407.14234","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/arxiv-2407.14234","url":null,"abstract":"Symmetries and isomorphisms play similar conceptual roles when we consider\u0000how models represent physical situations, but they are formally distinct, as\u0000two models related by symmetries are not typically isomorphic. I offer a\u0000rigorous categorical strategy that formulate symmetries as isomorphisms between\u0000models and apply it to classical electromagnetism, and evaluate its\u0000philosophical significance in relation to the recent debate between\u0000`sophistication' and `reduction'. In addition to traditional spacetime models,\u0000I also consider algebraic models, in which case we can use the method of\u0000natural operators to address the problem of ontological nonperspicuity faced by\u0000the categorical strategy. Finally, I briefly expound on the significance of\u0000symmetries as isomorphisms in the framework of Univalent Foundations, in which\u0000isomorphic structures are formally identified.","PeriodicalId":501042,"journal":{"name":"arXiv - PHYS - History and Philosophy of Physics","volume":"63 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2024-07-19","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141742510","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"What Gibbsian Statistical Mechanics Says: Defending Bare Probabilism","authors":"David Wallace","doi":"arxiv-2407.13875","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/arxiv-2407.13875","url":null,"abstract":"I expound and defend the ``bare probabilism'' reading of Gibbsian (i.e.\u0000mainstream) statistical mechanics, responding to Frigg and Werndl's recent\u0000(BJPS 72 (2021), 105-129) plea: ``can somebody please say what Gibbsian\u0000statistical mechanics says?''","PeriodicalId":501042,"journal":{"name":"arXiv - PHYS - History and Philosophy of Physics","volume":"57 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2024-07-18","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141742513","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Why you do not need to worry about the standard argument that you are a Boltzmann brain","authors":"Carlo Rovelli, David Wolpert","doi":"arxiv-2407.13197","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/arxiv-2407.13197","url":null,"abstract":"Are you, with your perceptions, memories and observational data, a Boltzmann\u0000brain, namely a fleeting statistical fluctuation out of the thermal equilibrium\u0000of the universe? Arguments are given in the literature claiming that this\u0000bizarre hypothesis needs to be considered seriously, that all of our data about\u0000the past is actually a mirage. We point to a difficulty in these arguments.\u0000They are based on the dynamical laws and on statistical arguments, but they\u0000disregard the fact that we infer the dynamical laws presupposing the\u0000reliability of our data records about the past. Hence the reasoning in favor of\u0000the Boltzmann brain hypothesis contradicts itself, relying on the reliability\u0000of our data about the past to conclude that that data is wrong. More broadly,\u0000it is based on incomplete evidence. Incomplete evidence notoriously leads to\u0000false conclusions.","PeriodicalId":501042,"journal":{"name":"arXiv - PHYS - History and Philosophy of Physics","volume":"29 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2024-07-18","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141742511","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"How the Michelson and Morley experiment was reinterpreted by special relativity","authors":"Alejandro Cassini, Leonardo Levinas","doi":"arxiv-2407.12960","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/arxiv-2407.12960","url":null,"abstract":"We elucidate how different theoretical assumptions bring about radically\u0000different interpretations of the same experimental result. We do this by\u0000analyzing special relativity as it was originally formulated. Then, we examine\u0000the relationship of the theory with the result of the Michelson and Morley\u0000experiment. We point out that in diverse a historical context the same\u0000experiment can be thought of as providing different conceptualizations of\u0000phenomena. This demonstrates why special relativity prevailed over its rival\u0000theories. This theory made a new reinterpretation of the experiment by\u0000associating it with a novel phenomenon, namely, the invariance of the speed of\u0000light, a phenomenon that was not the one originally investigated. This leads us\u0000to an understanding of how this experiment could have been interpreted in a\u0000completely different historical context.","PeriodicalId":501042,"journal":{"name":"arXiv - PHYS - History and Philosophy of Physics","volume":"24 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2024-07-17","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141742512","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Personal Reminiscences of Steven Weinberg","authors":"Fernando Quevedo","doi":"arxiv-2407.10033","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/arxiv-2407.10033","url":null,"abstract":"My personal recollections are presented regarding my interactions with Steven\u0000Weinberg and the impact he had in my career from when I was his graduate\u0000student until the present.","PeriodicalId":501042,"journal":{"name":"arXiv - PHYS - History and Philosophy of Physics","volume":"7 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2024-07-14","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141719567","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"The Time in Thermal Time","authors":"Eugene Y. S. Chua","doi":"arxiv-2407.18948","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/arxiv-2407.18948","url":null,"abstract":"Preparing general relativity for quantization in the Hamiltonian approach\u0000leads to the `problem of time,' rendering the world fundamentally timeless. One\u0000proposed solution is the `thermal time hypothesis,' which defines time in terms\u0000of states representing systems in thermal equilibrium. On this view, time is\u0000supposed to emerge thermodynamically even in a fundamentally timeless context.\u0000Here, I develop the worry that the thermal time hypothesis requires dynamics --\u0000and hence time -- to get off the ground, thereby running into worries of\u0000circularity.","PeriodicalId":501042,"journal":{"name":"arXiv - PHYS - History and Philosophy of Physics","volume":"9 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2024-07-11","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141864280","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Physics, scientific investigation and society in Argentina, 1930-1940","authors":"Alejandro Gangui, Eduardo L. Ortiz","doi":"arxiv-2407.08698","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/arxiv-2407.08698","url":null,"abstract":"In this paper we continue our study of the scientific research carried out at\u0000the Institute of Physics of the National University of La Plata during the\u0000first half of the 20th century, and of the important role played by the\u0000physicist Ramon G. Loyarte. Based on his studies, alone or in collaboration\u0000with members of the Institute, towards the end of the 1920s Loyarte proposed\u0000the possible existence of a new quantum of rotational energy in the mercury\u0000atom. This idea raised criticism and generated a fierce scientific controversy\u0000that reached the national and international academic media. We analyse this\u0000controversy by studying the comments that appeared in international review\u0000journals. We also study Loyarte's activities in politics and science policy in\u0000Argentina in the 1930s and 1940s, where he was responsible for interesting\u0000political and scientific initiatives.","PeriodicalId":501042,"journal":{"name":"arXiv - PHYS - History and Philosophy of Physics","volume":"26 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2024-07-11","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141612812","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Is there something missing from the Antikythera Mechanism? Was it a mechanical Planetarium, positioner? or a Luni solar Time calculator device? Reconstructing the lost parts of b1 gear and its Cover Disc","authors":"Aristeidis Voulgaris, Christophoros Mouratidis, Andreas Vossinakis, Manos Roumeliotis","doi":"arxiv-2407.15858","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/arxiv-2407.15858","url":null,"abstract":"We present the observations and the results of our experience from a large\u0000number of flight hours in constructing, handling, testing, studying and\u0000interacting with our Antikythera Mechanism functional reconstruction models. We\u0000constructed our models according to the X Ray tomographies and without any use\u0000of modern stabilization parts (screws, nuts etc). Simple typical bronze\u0000material (not with special alloys) was used in the construction, while (most\u0000of) the gears were cut from simple bronze discs with thickness about 2mm and\u0000with triangular shaped teeth (not in modern involute shape). The bronze (not\u0000iron or steel) shafts have dimensions conforming to the original parts of the\u0000ancient artifact. The assembly of the parts was done following careful study of\u0000the Personal Constructional Characteristics and the Design Style of the ancient\u0000Craftsman, which are visible or even hidden on the Antikythera Mechanism\u0000Fragments. During the extensive use of our models, it was concluded that two\u0000important and mandatory indicators are missing from all current reconstructions\u0000of the Antikythera Mechanism. The absence of these two indicator dials makes it\u0000difficult to properly operate the Mechanism and their existence is necessary,\u0000in order for the Antikythera Mechanism to be considered as a complete and self\u0000contained operational time measuring device. The two procedures related to the\u0000(poorly) preserved remains were located on gear b1 and the lost Cover Disc of\u0000the b1 gear. The reconstruction of those missing parts was achieved by paying\u0000special attention to the Personal Constructional Characteristics of the ancient\u0000Craftsman. The extensive analysis of the Antikythera Mechanism calibrated\u0000scales leads to the understanding of the Mechanism as a luni solar time\u0000measuring device, as opposed to the notion that it was a mechanical planetarium\u0000presenting the hypothesized planetary motions and positions.","PeriodicalId":501042,"journal":{"name":"arXiv - PHYS - History and Philosophy of Physics","volume":"26 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2024-07-08","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141771492","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}