The European Physical Journal H最新文献

Historical debates over the physical reality of the wave function 关于波函数的物理实在性的历史争论

IF 1.5 4区物理与天体物理

The European Physical Journal H Pub Date : 2026-09-29 DOI: 10.1140/epjh/s13129-026-00129-x

Jacob A. Barandes

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引用次数: 0

Von Neumann, his thought experiment, his entropy, and thermodynamics 冯·诺伊曼，他的思想实验，他的熵和热力学

IF 1.5 4区物理与天体物理

The European Physical Journal H Pub Date : 2026-09-23 DOI: 10.1140/epjh/s13129-026-00132-2

Alain Deville, Yannick Deville

{"title":"Von Neumann, his thought experiment, his entropy, and thermodynamics","authors":"Alain Deville, Yannick Deville","doi":"10.1140/epjh/s13129-026-00132-2","DOIUrl":"10.1140/epjh/s13129-026-00132-2","url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>In quantum mechanics, the concept of entropy was introduced by von Neumann in his canonical 1932 book. More than seventy years later, a debate has developed within the Philosophy of Science community, about the relevance of a thought experiment introduced by von Neumann. This debate is presently still open, and has developed along various paths. The present paper focuses on this thought experiment. It is proposed first to respect the approach followed by von Neumann. It is then stressed that when thermodynamic arguments implying exchanges of matter between parts of the system of interest are introduced into its analysis, these exchanges should be analyzed with the right thermodynamic concept. This concept, introduced more than 140 years ago, is now called the chemical potential. In the literature discussed in the present paper, that failure to use the chemical potential concept first led to the claim of wrong thermodynamic results. A second consequence was a premature introduction of quantum measurements together with an undue rejection of the step with a thermodynamic treatment developed by von Neumann in his analysis of his experiment. The analysis of his thought experiment with phenomenological thermodynamics led von Neumann to propose that the entropy of a quantum system in a state described by the density operator <span>(rho )</span> should be <span>(-<Lnrho >=-Tr(rho Lnrho ) )</span>(or <span>( -k<Lnrho>)</span> in non-reduced units, <i>k</i>: the Boltzmann constant, <i>Tr</i>: the Trace). The present paper shows that this proposal by von Neumann was right.\u0000</p></div>","PeriodicalId":791,"journal":{"name":"The European Physical Journal H","volume":"51 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":1.5,"publicationDate":"2026-09-23","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"149035020","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"物理与天体物理","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

引用次数: 0

Gleb Wataghin and his mission in Brazil: a memoir 格列布·瓦塔欣和他在巴西的使命：回忆录

IF 1.5 4区物理与天体物理

The European Physical Journal H Pub Date : 2026-09-10 DOI: 10.1140/epjh/s13129-026-00133-1

Carola Dobrigkeit

{"title":"Gleb Wataghin and his mission in Brazil: a memoir","authors":"Carola Dobrigkeit","doi":"10.1140/epjh/s13129-026-00133-1","DOIUrl":"10.1140/epjh/s13129-026-00133-1","url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>This contribution, based on a talk delivered at the Workshop Ukrainian Contributions to Particle Physics: History and Prospects, offers a personal memoir of Gleb Wataghin (1899–1986) and his role in the institutional development of modern physics at the University of São Paulo and in Brazil. Born in what is now Ukraine and educated in Turin, Wataghin joined the newly created university in São Paulo in 1934, where he helped establish a physics department and research school. He developed an internationally recognized cosmic-ray program and encouraged exchanges of students and researchers with leading scientific centres abroad. His students included Cesar Lattes, who participated in the discovery of the pion in 1947. After returning to Italy in 1949, Wataghin rebuilt the physics department in Turin while preserving strong ties with Brazil. This memoir is not intended as an archival study in the history of science. Instead, it is written from the perspective of a physicist who knew Wataghin in Campinas and whose career in ultra-high-energy cosmic rays traces back to him through her PhD advisor, Cesar Lattes. Viewed through this scientific lineage, Wataghin’s legacy combines scientific vision, institutional commitment, and intellectual leadership.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":791,"journal":{"name":"The European Physical Journal H","volume":"51 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":1.5,"publicationDate":"2026-09-10","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1140/epjh/s13129-026-00133-1.pdf","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148927838","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"物理与天体物理","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

引用次数: 0

Blurred orbits and blurred particles: Heisenberg’s 1926 helium atom 模糊轨道和模糊粒子：海森堡1926年的氦原子

IF 1.5 4区物理与天体物理

The European Physical Journal H Pub Date : 2026-09-01 DOI: 10.1140/epjh/s13129-026-00127-z

Gonzalo Gimeno, Mercedes Xipell, Enric Pérez

引用次数: 0

Using two-photon interference to perform ultrahigh-precision timing measurements: the origins of the Hong–Ou–Mandel effect 利用双光子干涉进行超高精度定时测量：洪鸥-曼德尔效应的起源

IF 1.5 4区物理与天体物理

The European Physical Journal H Pub Date : 2026-08-26 DOI: 10.1140/epjh/s13129-026-00131-3

Gautier Depambour

{"title":"Using two-photon interference to perform ultrahigh-precision timing measurements: the origins of the Hong–Ou–Mandel effect","authors":"Gautier Depambour","doi":"10.1140/epjh/s13129-026-00131-3","DOIUrl":"10.1140/epjh/s13129-026-00131-3","url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>In this paper, I recount the early experiments leading to the observation of the two-photon interference phenomenon commonly referred to as the “Hong–Ou–Mandel effect,” observed in 1987 at the University of Rochester by Chung Ki Hong, Zhe-Yu Ou, and Leonard Mandel, and now widely used for quantum technologies. I show that Mandel and his collaborators originally designed their experiment not to probe the nonclassical properties of radiation, as one might think, but to perform ultrahigh-precision timing measurements on photon pairs produced through a nonlinear optical process, namely spontaneous parametric down-conversion. More broadly, I argue that the Hong–Ou–Mandel experiment resulted from the convergence of three distinct lines of research: nonlinear optics, the quantum properties of radiation, and, more unexpectedly, the foundations of quantum mechanics. Within this framework, I bring to light the work of physicists whose names do not appear in the acronym “HOM,” but whose contributions proved crucial to the demonstration of two-photon interference—notably Stephen Friberg and Rupamanjari Ghosh within Mandel’s laboratory, Yanhua Shih and Carroll Alley at the University of Maryland, and John Rarity and Paul Tapster in England.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":791,"journal":{"name":"The European Physical Journal H","volume":"51 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":1.5,"publicationDate":"2026-08-26","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148837461","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"物理与天体物理","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

引用次数: 0

Neglecting non-locality: the response to EPR 忽略非局部性：对EPR的响应

IF 1.5 4区物理与天体物理

The European Physical Journal H Pub Date : 2026-08-12 DOI: 10.1140/epjh/s13129-026-00126-0

Kristian Camilleri

{"title":"Neglecting non-locality: the response to EPR","authors":"Kristian Camilleri","doi":"10.1140/epjh/s13129-026-00126-0","DOIUrl":"10.1140/epjh/s13129-026-00126-0","url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>The 1935 Einstein–Podolsky–Rosen (EPR) paper, “Can Quantum–Mechanical Description of Physical Reality Be Considered Complete?”, stands as a landmark in the foundational debates over quantum mechanics. While the paper has since become one of Einstein’s most cited works, it initially received little attention, and the feature of non-locality, which was central to the argument in the paper, was largely neglected for decades. In this paper, I offer two reasons for this early neglect of non-locality in the immediate aftermath of EPR. First, early responses to the EPR paper defended the completeness of quantum mechanics by reformulating the thought experiment the authors had presented, thereby obscuring the feature of quantum mechanics the authors had wished to highlight. Bohr’s influential reply, for instance, substituted the specific thought experiment presented by EPR with the two-slit experiment, thus suppressing the entanglement between spatially separated systems. A second reason for the marginalization of non-locality was the tendency to see Einstein’s critique of quantum mechanics as proceeding from a commitment to determinism, though this in fact played no role in the EPR paper or in his later writings and correspondence. This paper argues that the failure to recognize non-locality was partly a result of the rhetorical manoeuvring by EPR’s critics, but also to a broader philosophical climate dominated by concerns over determinism, which effectively eclipsed all other conceptual issues, Only with Bell’s theorem in the 1960s did non-locality return as a serious focus of foundational inquiry.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":791,"journal":{"name":"The European Physical Journal H","volume":"51 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":1.5,"publicationDate":"2026-08-12","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1140/epjh/s13129-026-00126-0.pdf","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148751946","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"物理与天体物理","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

引用次数: 0

The tropical year and the problem of its approximation in Julian-derived calendars: a physical and historical inquiry into the structure of astronomical time 儒略历中的回归年及其近似问题：对天文时间结构的物理和历史研究

IF 1.5 4区物理与天体物理

The European Physical Journal H Pub Date : 2026-08-10 DOI: 10.1140/epjh/s13129-026-00125-1

Vladan Kuzmanović

{"title":"The tropical year and the problem of its approximation in Julian-derived calendars: a physical and historical inquiry into the structure of astronomical time","authors":"Vladan Kuzmanović","doi":"10.1140/epjh/s13129-026-00125-1","DOIUrl":"10.1140/epjh/s13129-026-00125-1","url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>The determination of the tropical year constitutes a fundamental problem at the intersection of celestial mechanics, astronomy, and historical timekeeping. As a physically defined quantity arising from the combined effects of orbital motion and axial precession, the tropical year provides the natural reference for civil calendar systems. This study examines the historical development of Julian-derived calendars as successive approximations to the tropical year, interpreted within a unified physical and mathematical framework. From the Julian calendar through the Gregorian reform to the Revised Julian system of Milutin Milanković, these calendars are analyzed as rational approximations to a slowly varying astronomical quantity. Within this framework, an adjusted Julian scheme is introduced as a theoretical extension of this tradition. Rather than constituting a proposal for reform, it serves to elucidate the limiting behavior of fixed calendrical systems when applied to a time-dependent physical quantity. The analysis demonstrates that calendar design is inherently epoch-dependent and reflects a continuous interaction between physical theory, mathematical structure, and historical practice. The results contribute to the understanding of timekeeping as a physical as well as cultural problem.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":791,"journal":{"name":"The European Physical Journal H","volume":"51 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":1.5,"publicationDate":"2026-08-10","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148751408","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"物理与天体物理","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

引用次数: 0

The other cosmological parameter: wanderings, selection effects, and biases in a struggle to measure q0 另一个宇宙学参数：漫游，选择效应，以及在测量q0时的偏差

IF 1.5 4区物理与天体物理

The European Physical Journal H Pub Date : 2026-08-10 DOI: 10.1140/epjh/s13129-026-00122-4

Milan M. Ćirković, Slobodan Perović

{"title":"The other cosmological parameter: wanderings, selection effects, and biases in a struggle to measure q0","authors":"Milan M. Ćirković, Slobodan Perović","doi":"10.1140/epjh/s13129-026-00122-4","DOIUrl":"10.1140/epjh/s13129-026-00122-4","url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>The tumultuous history of measurements of the deceleration parameter <i>q</i><sub>0</sub>, one of a few key cosmological parameters, yields historical, theoretical, and epistemological reasons for studying it. A wide variety of observational methods and techniques, combined with evolutionary, astrophysical, cosmological, and observational selection effects, as well as various, and often contradictory assumptions behind various models, led to widely differing values of <i>q</i><sub>0</sub> (from − 2 to + 36!) over a span of half a century. Moreover, there was an inevitable epistemic trade-off between observational sensitivity and statistical wealth of data. While there certainly was a diversity of theoretical predictions for <i>q</i><sub>0</sub> among various cosmological models, our analysis indicates that the main historical cause of such a large and confusing scatter of empirical values was the persistent failure to appreciate the scope and tempo of evolutionary change in various astronomical sources. We survey and sort out this historical context, providing some preliminary general lessons for ongoing and future endeavors of similar complexity.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":791,"journal":{"name":"The European Physical Journal H","volume":"51 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":1.5,"publicationDate":"2026-08-10","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148751290","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"物理与天体物理","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

引用次数: 0

PWO scintillator: how the story began ppo闪烁体：故事是如何开始的

IF 1.5 4区物理与天体物理

The European Physical Journal H Pub Date : 2026-07-31 DOI: 10.1140/epjh/s13129-026-00128-y

I. Tupitsyna

{"title":"PWO scintillator: how the story began","authors":"I. Tupitsyna","doi":"10.1140/epjh/s13129-026-00128-y","DOIUrl":"10.1140/epjh/s13129-026-00128-y","url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>The development of scintillation materials science has been profoundly shaped by the work of Ludmyla Nagorna from the Institute for Single Crystals in Kharkiv. In 1992, Nagorna proposed the use of lead tungstate (PbWO<sub>4</sub>) crystals for particle physics experiments. Her belief in the potential of PbWO<sub>4</sub>, combined with her persistence in developing methods for growing high-quality large crystals was instrumental in convincing the global scientific community of the material's promise. Today, these crystals are at the heart of the electromagnetic calorimeters in the ALICE and CMS detectors at CERN’s Large Hadron Collider (LHC), where they have been essential for data collection since 2008. Nagorna's scientific legacy continues through her research group’s ongoing development of next-generation scintillation single crystals. Besides high-energy calorimetry, attention is currently focused on low-background nuclear spectrometry, a field requiring materials with extreme radiopurity and unique physical characteristics. These scintillators are designed for experiments targeting rare physical phenomena at the frontier of the Standard Model. This research includes the search for non-baryonic dark matter interactions and the detection of neutrinoless double beta decay. Furthermore, these materials are being optimized for investigating the radioactive decay of long-lived isotopes and for studying neutrinos from core-collapsing supernovae stars using coherent elastic neutrino-nuclear scattering (CEνNS).</p></div>","PeriodicalId":791,"journal":{"name":"The European Physical Journal H","volume":"51 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":1.5,"publicationDate":"2026-07-31","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148615110","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"物理与天体物理","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

引用次数: 0

Hermann Minkowski and the special theory of relativity 赫尔曼·闵可夫斯基和狭义相对论

IF 1.5 4区物理与天体物理

The European Physical Journal H Pub Date : 2026-07-17 DOI: 10.1140/epjh/s13129-026-00124-2

Alberto T. Pérez, José Ferreirós, María de Paz

引用次数: 0