This volume is the first systematic presentation of the work of Albert Einstein, comprising fourteen essays by leading historians and philosophers of science that introduce readers to his work. Following an introduction that places Einstein's work in the context of his life and times, the book opens with essays on the papers of Einstein's 'miracle year', 1905, covering Brownian motion, light quanta, and special relativity, as well as his contributions to early quantum theory and the opposition to his light quantum (...) hypothesis. Further essays relate Einstein's path to the general theory of relativity and the beginnings of two fields it spawned, relativistic cosmology and gravitational waves. Essays on Einstein's later years examine his unified field theory program and his critique of quantum mechanics. The closing essays explore the relation between Einstein's work and twentieth-century philosophy, as well as his political writings. (shrink)

This paper attempts an interpretation of Everett's relative state formulation of quantum mechanics that avoids the commitment to new metaphysical entities like ‘worlds’ or ‘minds’. Starting from Everett's quantum mechanical model of an observer, it is argued that an observer's belief to be in an eigenstate of the measurement (corresponding to the observation of a well-defined measurement outcome) is consistent with the fact that she objectively is in a superposition of such states. Subjective states corresponding to such beliefs are constructed. (...) From an analysis of these subjective states and their dynamics it is argued that Everett's pure wave mechanics is subjectively consistent with von Neumann's classical formulation of quantum mechanics. It follows from the argument that the objective state of a system is in principle unobservable. Nevertheless, an adequate concept of empirical reality can be constructed. (shrink)

What precisely does it mean to unify fields like the electric and magnetic field to only one field? Are there different kinds of unification? Is there only ‘unified’ and ‘not unified’, or could a unififcation of fields also be partially succesful? I will argue that what is normally referred to as the project of a unified field theory is actually a bundle of three research programmes that are logically independent of each other. The sub-programmes are those of a unified field (...) theory, a complete field theory, and a geometrised field theory. Here I will focus on the programme of a unified field theory in a narrow sense. In particular, I will make use of an almost unknown debate between Einstein and Pauli about which criteria a unification of fields should fulfil, in order to distinguish between different degrees of unification in field theories. (shrink)

From classical to quantum physics. Theoretical challenges by experimental physics : radiation and its interaction with matter / Shaul Katzir. Challenging the boundaries between classical and quantum physics : the case of optical dispersion / Marta Jordi Taltavull. Putting the quantum to work : Otto Sackur's pioneering exploits in the quantum theory of gases / Massimiliano Badino and Bretislav Friedrich -- Quantum mechanics in the making. The concepts of light atoms and light molecules and their final interpretation / Dieter Fick (...) and Horst Kant. Early interactions of quantum statistics and quantum mechanics / Daniela Monaldi. Pourparlers for amalgamation : some early sources of quantum gravity research / Dean Rickles -- Extending the framework of quantum physics. Superposing dynamos and electrons : electrical engineering and quantum physics in the case of Nishina Yoshio / Kenji Ito. The origins of Maria Göppert's dissertation on two-photon quantum transitions at Göttingen's Institutes of Physics, 1920-1933 / Barry R. Masters. An act of creation : the Meitner-Frisch interpretation of nuclear fission / Roger H. Stuewer -- The challenges of quantum field theory. Tsung-Sui Chang's contribution to the quantization of constrained Hamiltonian systems / Xiaodong Yin, Zhongyuan Zhu, Donald C. Salisbury. Feynman's struggle and Dyson's surprise : the development and early application of a new means of representation / Adrian Wüthrich -- Traditions and debates in recent quantum physics. Orthodoxies on the interpretation of quantum theory : the case of the consistent history approach / Olival Freire. From do-it-yourself quantum mechanics to nanotechnology? : the history of experimental semiconductor physics, 1970-2000 / Christian Kehrt. (shrink)