Revisiting the Foundations of Relativistic Physics: Festschrift in Honor of John Stachel

ISBN-13: 9789048162864 / Angielski / Miękka / 2010 / 650 str.

Abhay Ashtekar; R. S. Cohen; Professor Don Howard

Opis

This book is for physicists, historians and philosophers of physics as well as students seeking an introduction to ongoing debates in relativistic and quantum physics. This title covers the recent debates on the emergence of relativity and quantum theory. It includes chapters with an introductory character, comprehensible to students and science teachers. It strengthens the bonds between the communities of scientists, historians, and philosophers.

Spis treści

Autobiographical Reflections; J. Stachel. Introduction; A. Ashtekar, J. Renn, A. Shimony.
I: Historical and Philosophical Roots of Relativity. The Prehistory of Relativity; J. Eisenstaedt. Interpretations and Equations of the Michelson Experiment and its Variations; H. Melcher. The Trouton Experiment, E = mc₂, and a Slice of Minkowski Space-Time; M. Janssen. The N-Stein Family; J.D. Norton. Eclipses of the Stars: Mandi, Einstein, and the Early History of Gravitational Lensing; J. Renn, T. Sauer. The Varieties of Unity: Sounding Unified Theories 1920-1930; C. Goldstein, J. Bitter. Indiscernibles, General Covariance, and Other Symmetries: The Case for Non-Reductive Relationalism; S. Saunders. On Relative Orbital Rotation in Relativity Theory; D.B. Malament.
II: Foundational Issues in Relativity and their Advancement. The Unique Nature of Cosmology; G.F.R. Ellis. Time, Structure, and Evolution in Cosmology; L. Smolin. Timekeeping in an Expanding Universe; J.L. Anderson. Gravitational Lensing from a Space-Time Perspective; J. Ehlers, S. Frittelli, E.T. Newman. Rigidly Rotating Disk Revisted; C.V. Vishveshwara. DSS 2+2; R.A. d'Inverno. Geometry, Null Hypersurfaces and New Variables; D.C. Robinson. On Vacuum Twisting Type-N Again; J.F. Plebanski, M. Przanowski. Quasi-Local Energy; J.N. Goldberg. Space-Time Defects: Open and Closed Shells Revisited; R.J. Gleiser, P.S. Letelier. Dimensionally Challenged Gravities; S. Deser. A Note on Holonomic Constraints; W.M. Tulczyjew. Towards an Action-at-a-Distance Concept of Spacetime; D.H. Wesley, J.A. Wheeler.
III: Foundational Issues in Quantum Physics and their Advancement. Inevitability, Inseparability and Gedanken Measurement; M. Beller. The Concept of Quantum State: New Views on Old Phenomena; M. Paty. Elementary Processes; D. Ritz Finkelstein. On Quantum Non-Locality, Special Relativity, and Counterfactual Reasoning; A. Shimony, H. Stein. Coherence, Entanglement and Reductionist Explanation in Quantum Physics; G. Jaeger, S. Sarkar.
IV: Science, History and the Challenges of Progress. Physics and Science Fiction; A.I. Janis. Can We Learn From History? Do We Want To? L. Tisza. Patterns of Appropriation in the Greek Intellectual Life of the 18th Century: Case Study on the Notion of Time; K. Gavroglu, M. Patiniotis. Darwin, Marx and Warranted Progress: Materialism and Views of Development in Nineteenth-Century Germany; W. Lefèvre . Albert Einstein and the Founding of Brandeis University; S.S. Schweber.
Appendix: John Stachel's Publications.

O autorze

Professor Jürgen Renn is director at the Max Planck Institute for the History of Science in Berlin. His research focuses primarily on the emergence of mechanics in antiquity, the interaction between practical and theoretical knowledge since the Renaissance, the transition from classical to modern physics, the development of the theory of relativity, and the application of new media to the history of science. Professor Renn was coordinator of the exhibition 'Albert Einstein - Chief Engineer of the Universe' 2005 in Berlin. Sahotra Sarkar is Professor of Integrative Biology and of Philosophy at the University of Texas at Austin. He is author of Genetics and Reductionism and editor.