{"title":"Real or not real that is the question...","authors":"Reinhold A. Bertlmann","doi":"10.1140/epjh/e2020-10022-x","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1140/epjh/e2020-10022-x","url":null,"abstract":"<p>My discussions with John Bell about reality in quantum mechanics are recollected. I would like to introduce the reader to Bell’s vision of reality which was for him a natural position for a scientist. Bell had a strong aversion against <i>“quantum jumps”</i> and insisted to be clear in phrasing quantum mechanics, his <i>“words to be forbidden”</i> proclaimed with seriousness and wit – both typical Bell characteristics – became legendary. I will summarize the Bell-type experiments and what Nature responded, and discuss the implications for the physical quantities considered, the <i>real</i> entities and the nonlocality concept due to Bell’s work. Subsequently, I also explain a quite different view of the meaning of a quantum state, this is the information theoretic approach, focusing on the work of Brukner and Zeilinger. Finally, I would like to broaden and contrast the reality discussion with the concept of “virtuality,” with the meaning of virtual particle occurring in quantum field theory. With some of my own thoughts I will conclude the paper which is composed more as a historical article than as a philosophical one.</p>","PeriodicalId":791,"journal":{"name":"The European Physical Journal H","volume":"45 2-3","pages":"205 - 236"},"PeriodicalIF":1.0,"publicationDate":"2020-09-14","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1140/epjh/e2020-10022-x","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"4590710","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}
{"title":"Masters and students in Italian Physics between the 19th and 20th centuries: the Felici-Bartoli-Stracciati-Corbino case","authors":"Giovanni Battimelli, Adele La Rana, Paolo Rossi","doi":"10.1140/epjh/e2020-10016-y","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1140/epjh/e2020-10016-y","url":null,"abstract":"<p>In the second half of the 19th century, a special practice of research and training in physics took shape in Pisa, characterized by a particular attention to theoretical studies and to combining experimental activity with a profound mastery of mathematical tools. This peculiar approach, started by Carlo Matteucci and Ottaviano Mossotti, continued and spread by Riccardo Felici, Enrico Betti, Adolfo Bartoli and Vito Volterra, was quite an exception in the framework generally marked by strict experimentalism and positivist empiricism of the Italian physics cabinets of the time. The present paper highlights a special path connecting this tradition of the Pisan school to the scientific environment that was formed in the early years of the 20th century at the Royal Physical Institute in Via Panisperna in Rome, through the interaction of Orso Mario Corbino with Volterra on one side, and the imprinting left on Corbino by Adolfo Bartoli and his student and collaborator Enrico Stracciati.</p>","PeriodicalId":791,"journal":{"name":"The European Physical Journal H","volume":"45 2-3","pages":"107 - 121"},"PeriodicalIF":1.0,"publicationDate":"2020-08-05","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1140/epjh/e2020-10016-y","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"4200351","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}
{"title":"The concept of velocity in the history of Brownian motion","authors":"Arthur Genthon","doi":"10.1140/epjh/e2020-10009-8","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1140/epjh/e2020-10009-8","url":null,"abstract":"<p>\u0000Interest in Brownian motion was shared by different communities: this phenomenon was first observed by the botanist Robert Brown in 1827, then theorised by physicists in the 1900s, and eventually modelled by mathematicians from the 1920s, while still evolving as a physical theory. Consequently, Brownian motion now refers to the natural phenomenon but also to the theories accounting for it. There is no published work telling its entire history from its discovery until today, but rather partial histories either from 1827 to Perrin’s experiments in the late 1900s, from a physicist’s point of view; or from the 1920s from a mathematician’s point of view. In this article, we tackle the period straddling the two ‘half-histories’ just mentioned, in order to highlight continuity, to investigate the domain-shift from physics to mathematics, and to survey the enhancements of later physical theories. We study the works of Einstein, Smoluchowski, Langevin, Wiener, Ornstein and Uhlenbeck from 1905 to 1934 as well as experimental results, using the concept of Brownian velocity as a leading thread. We show how Brownian motion became a research topic for the mathematician Wiener in the 1920s, why his model was an idealization of physical experiments, what Ornstein and Uhlenbeck added to Einstein’s results, and how Wiener, Ornstein and Uhlenbeck developed in parallel contradictory theories concerning Brownian velocity.\u0000</p>","PeriodicalId":791,"journal":{"name":"The European Physical Journal H","volume":"45 1","pages":"49 - 105"},"PeriodicalIF":1.0,"publicationDate":"2020-07-09","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1140/epjh/e2020-10009-8","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"4386388","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}
{"title":"Charles Galton Darwin’s 1922 quantum theory of optical dispersion","authors":"Benjamin Johnson","doi":"10.1140/epjh/e2020-80058-7","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1140/epjh/e2020-80058-7","url":null,"abstract":"<p>\u0000The quantum theory of dispersion was an important conceptual advancement which led out of the crisis of the old quantum theory in the early 1920s and aided in the formulation of matrix mechanics in 1925. The theory of Charles Galton Darwin, often cited only for its reliance on the statistical conservation of energy, was a wave-based attempt to explain dispersion phenomena at a time between the theories of Ladenburg and Kramers. It contributed to future successes in quantum theory, such as the virtual oscillator, while revealing through its own shortcomings the limitations of the wave theory of light in the interaction of light and matter. After its publication, Darwin’s theory was widely discussed amongst his colleagues as the competing interpretation to Compton’s in X-ray scattering experiments. It also had a pronounced influence on John C. Slater, whose ideas formed the basis of the BKS theory.\u0000</p>","PeriodicalId":791,"journal":{"name":"The European Physical Journal H","volume":"45 1","pages":"1 - 23"},"PeriodicalIF":1.0,"publicationDate":"2020-05-29","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1140/epjh/e2020-80058-7","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"5129182","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}
{"title":"Erratum to: E. Cartan’s attempt at bridge-building between Einstein and the Cosserats - or how translational curvature became to be known as torsion","authors":"Erhard Scholz","doi":"10.1140/epjh/e2020-0001s-y","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1140/epjh/e2020-0001s-y","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":791,"journal":{"name":"The European Physical Journal H","volume":"45 4-5","pages":"345 - 374"},"PeriodicalIF":1.0,"publicationDate":"2020-05-05","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"4225169","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}
{"title":"Stellar equilibrium vs. gravitational collapse","authors":"Carla Rodrigues Almeida","doi":"10.1140/epjh/e2019-100045-x","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1140/epjh/e2019-100045-x","url":null,"abstract":"<p>\u0000The idea of gravitational collapse can be traced back to the first solution of Einstein’s equations, but in these early stages, compelling evidence to support this idea was lacking. Furthermore, there were many theoretical gaps underlying the conviction that a star could not contract beyond its critical radius. The philosophical views of the early 20th century, especially those of Sir Arthur S. Eddington, imposed equilibrium as an almost unquestionable condition on theoretical models describing stars. This paper is a historical and epistemological account of the theoretical defiance of this equilibrium hypothesis, with a novel reassessment of J.R. Oppenheimer’s work on astrophysics.\u0000</p>","PeriodicalId":791,"journal":{"name":"The European Physical Journal H","volume":"45 1","pages":"25 - 48"},"PeriodicalIF":1.0,"publicationDate":"2020-02-11","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1140/epjh/e2019-100045-x","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"4455210","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}
{"title":"Memories of my early career in relativity physics","authors":"Andrzej Trautman, Donald Salisbury","doi":"10.1140/epjh/e2019-100044-5","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1140/epjh/e2019-100044-5","url":null,"abstract":"<p>\u0000This interview is focused on university studies and early career in relativity physics including thesis work under Leopold Infeld dealing with gravitational waves. Trautman’s recollections include the collaboration with Ivor Robinson and relationships with relevant personalities like Felix Pirani, Jerzy Plebanski, Roger Penrose and Peter Bergmann.\u0000</p>","PeriodicalId":791,"journal":{"name":"The European Physical Journal H","volume":"44 4-5","pages":"391 - 413"},"PeriodicalIF":1.0,"publicationDate":"2019-11-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1140/epjh/e2019-100044-5","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"4402876","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}
{"title":"Luis Santaló and classical field theory","authors":"Mariano Galvagno, Gaston Giribet","doi":"10.1140/epjh/e2019-100038-9","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1140/epjh/e2019-100038-9","url":null,"abstract":"<p>\u0000Considered one of the founding fathers of integral geometry, Luis Santaló has contributed to various areas of mathematics. His work has applications in number theory, in the theory of differential equations, in stochastic geometry, in functional analysis, and also in theoretical physics. Between the 1950’s and the 1970’s, he wrote a series of papers on general relativity and on the attempts at generalizing Einstein’s theory to formulate a unified field theory. His main contribution in this subject was to provide a classification theorem for the plethora of tensors that were populating Einstein’s generalized theory. This paper revisits his work on theoretical physics.\u0000</p>","PeriodicalId":791,"journal":{"name":"The European Physical Journal H","volume":"44 4-5","pages":"381 - 389"},"PeriodicalIF":1.0,"publicationDate":"2019-10-25","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1140/epjh/e2019-100038-9","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"4983716","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}
{"title":"The magic of Feynman’s QED: from field-less electrodynamics to the Feynman diagrams","authors":"Olivier Darrigol","doi":"10.1140/epjh/e2019-100025-2","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1140/epjh/e2019-100025-2","url":null,"abstract":"<p>\u0000For some time, even after the Feynman diagrams and rules were publicly known, the foundations of Feynman’s quantum electrodynamics remained mostly private. Its stupendous efficiency then appeared like magic to most of his competitors. The purpose of this essay is to reveal the hidden contrivances of this magic, in a journey from field-less electrodynamics to the Feynman diagrams.\u0000</p>","PeriodicalId":791,"journal":{"name":"The European Physical Journal H","volume":"44 4-5","pages":"349 - 369"},"PeriodicalIF":1.0,"publicationDate":"2019-10-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1140/epjh/e2019-100025-2","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"4918418","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}
{"title":"History of accelerator neutrino beams","authors":"Ubaldo Dore, Pier Loverre, Lucio Ludovici","doi":"10.1140/epjh/e2019-90032-x","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1140/epjh/e2019-90032-x","url":null,"abstract":"<p>\u0000Neutrino beams obtained from proton accelerators were first operated in 1962. Since then, neutrino beams have been intensively used in particle physics and evolved in many different ways. We describe the characteristics of various neutrino beams, relating them to the historical development of the physics studies and discoveries. We also discuss some of the ideas still under consideration for future neutrino beams.\u0000</p>","PeriodicalId":791,"journal":{"name":"The European Physical Journal H","volume":"44 4-5","pages":"271 - 305"},"PeriodicalIF":1.0,"publicationDate":"2019-10-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1140/epjh/e2019-90032-x","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"4103272","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}