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  1. In defense of a “single-world” interpretation of quantum mechanics.Jeffrey Bub - 2020 - Studies in History and Philosophy of Science Part B: Studies in History and Philosophy of Modern Physics 72:251-255.
  2.  39
    Newton's early metaphysics of body: Impenetrability, action at a distance, and essential gravity.Elliott D. Chen - 2020 - Studies in History and Philosophy of Science Part B: Studies in History and Philosophy of Modern Physics 72:192-204.
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  3. Information causality, the Tsirelson bound, and the ‘being-thus’ of things.Michael E. Cuffaro - 2020 - Studies in History and Philosophy of Science Part B: Studies in History and Philosophy of Modern Physics 72:266-277.
    The principle of 'information causality' can be used to derive an upper bound---known as the 'Tsirelson bound'---on the strength of quantum mechanical correlations, and has been conjectured to be a foundational principle of nature. In this paper, however, I argue that the principle has not to date been sufficiently motivated to play this role; the motivations that have so far been given are either unsatisfactorily vague or else amount to little more than an appeal to intuition. I then consider how (...)
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  4.  32
    Preface.Erik Curiel, Tom Pashby & James Weatherall - 2020 - Studies in History and Philosophy of Science Part B: Studies in History and Philosophy of Modern Physics 72:150-151.
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  5.  40
    What's left for the neo-Copenhagen theorist.Michael Dascal - 2020 - Studies in History and Philosophy of Science Part B: Studies in History and Philosophy of Modern Physics 72:310-321.
  6.  53
    Jump ship, shift gears, or just keep on chugging: Assessing the responses to tensions between theory and evidence in contemporary cosmology.Siska De Baerdemaeker & Nora Mills Boyd - 2020 - Studies in History and Philosophy of Science Part B: Studies in History and Philosophy of Modern Physics 72:205-216.
  7.  17
    Constancy of the speed of light and the unit matching problem.Alon Drory - 2020 - Studies in History and Philosophy of Science Part B: Studies in History and Philosophy of Modern Physics 72:107-120.
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  8.  54
    Understanding quantum phenomena and quantum theories.Armond Duwell - 2020 - Studies in History and Philosophy of Science Part B: Studies in History and Philosophy of Modern Physics 72:278-291.
  9.  96
    Quantum theory is not only about information.Laura Felline - 2020 - Studies in History and Philosophy of Science Part B: Studies in History and Philosophy of Modern Physics 72:256-265.
    In his recent book Bananaworld. Quantum mechanics for primates, Jeff Bub revives and provides a mature version of his influential information-theoretic interpretation of Quantum Theory (QT). In this paper, I test Bub’s conjecture that QT should be interpreted as a theory about information, by examining whether his information-theoretic interpretation has the resources to explain (or explain away) quantum conundrums. The discussion of Bub’s theses will also serve to investigate, more in general, whether other approaches succeed in defending the claim that (...)
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  10.  40
    The philosophical underpinning of the absorber theory of radiation.Marco Forgione - 2020 - Studies in History and Philosophy of Science Part B: Studies in History and Philosophy of Modern Physics 72:91-106.
    The paper considers the absorber theory of radiation by (Wheeler and Feynman 1945) and (Wheeler and Feynman 1949) and advances the idea that the theory is grounded on the philosophical intuition of overall processes. Such intuition consists of having to consider advanced and retarded radiation as well as the interaction between absorbers and emitter. I discuss the discrepancy between microdynamic time-symmetry and the asymmetry of the experimental evidences. In doing so, I consider (Price, 1991)'s reformulation of the theory and argue (...)
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  11.  40
    Newtonian methodological abstraction.Michael Friedman - 2020 - Studies in History and Philosophy of Science Part B: Studies in History and Philosophy of Modern Physics 72:162-178.
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  12.  37
    Quantum reaxiomatisations and information-theoretic interpretations of quantum theory.Leah Henderson - 2020 - Studies in History and Philosophy of Science Part B: Studies in History and Philosophy of Modern Physics 72:292-300.
    Jeff Bub has developed an information-theoretic interpretation of quantum mechanics on the basis of the programme to reaxiomatise the theory in terms of information-theoretic principles. According to the most recent version of the interpretation, reaxiomatisation can dissolve some of the demands for explanation traditionally associated with the task of providing an interpretation for the theory. The key idea is that the real lesson we should take away from quantum mechanics is that the ‘structure of in- formation’ is not what we (...)
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  13.  15
    Completely real? A critical note on the claims by Colbeck and Renner.R. Hermens - 2020 - Studies in History and Philosophy of Science Part B: Studies in History and Philosophy of Modern Physics 72:121-137.
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  14.  39
    Non-empirical robustness arguments in quantum gravity.Niels S. Linnemann - 2020 - Studies in History and Philosophy of Science Part B: Studies in History and Philosophy of Modern Physics 72:70-86.
  15.  43
    (1 other version)Cartography of the space of theories: An interpretational chart for fields that are both (dark) matter and spacetime.Niels C. M. Martens & Dennis Lehmkuhl - 2020 - Studies in History and Philosophy of Science Part B: Studies in History and Philosophy of Modern Physics 72:217-236.
  16.  33
    Wigner's convoluted friends.R. Muciño & E. Okon - 2020 - Studies in History and Philosophy of Science Part B: Studies in History and Philosophy of Modern Physics 72:87-90.
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  17. Separating Einstein's separability.Sebastián Murgueitio Ramírez - 2020 - Studies in History and Philosophy of Science Part B: Studies in History and Philosophy of Modern Physics 72:138-149.
    In this paper, I accomplish a conceptual task and a historical task. The conceptual task is to argue that (1) Einstein’s Principle of Separability (henceforth “separability”) is not a supervenience principle and that (2) separability and entanglement are compatible. I support (1) by showing that the conclusion of Einstein’s incompleteness argument would still follow even if one assumes that the state of a composite system does not supervene on the states of the subsystems, and by showing that what Einstein says (...)
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  18. The dynamical approach to spin-2 gravity.Kian Salimkhani - 2020 - Studies in History and Philosophy of Science Part B: Studies in History and Philosophy of Modern Physics 72:29-45.
    This paper engages with the following closely related questions that have recently received some attention in the literature: what is the status of the equivalence principle in general relativity?; how does the metric field obtain its property of being able to act as a metric?; and is the metric of GR derivative on the dynamics of the matter fields? The paper attempts to complement these debates by studying the spin-2 approach to gravity. In particular, the paper argues that three lessons (...)
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  19.  46
    Is Bananaworld nonlocal?Allen Stairs - 2020 - Studies in History and Philosophy of Science Part B: Studies in History and Philosophy of Modern Physics 72:301-309.
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  20.  30
    When do Gibbsian phase averages and Boltzmannian equilibrium values agree?Charlotte Werndl & Roman Frigg - 2020 - Studies in History and Philosophy of Science Part B: Studies in History and Philosophy of Modern Physics 72:46-69.
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  21.  68
    Dark matter = modified gravity? Scrutinising the spacetime–matter distinction through the modified gravity/ dark matter lens.Niels C. M. Martens & Dennis Lehmkuhl - 2020 - Studies in History and Philosophy of Science Part B: Studies in History and Philosophy of Modern Physics 72:237-250.
    This paper scrutinises the tenability of a strict conceptual distinction between space and matter via the lens of the debate between modified gravity and dark matter. In particular, we consider Berezhiani and Khoury's novel 'superfluid dark matter theory' as a case study. Two families of criteria for being matter and being spacetime, respectively, are extracted from the literature. Evaluation of the new scalar field postulated by SFDM according to these criteria reveals that it is as much matter as anything could (...)
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  22.  85
    A stronger Bell argument for (some kind of) parameter dependence.Paul M. Näger - 2020 - Studies in History and Philosophy of Science Part B: Studies in History and Philosophy of Modern Physics 72:1-28.
    It is widely accepted that the violation of Bell inequalities excludes local theories of the quantum realm. This paper presents a stronger Bell argument which even forbids certain non-local theories. The conclusion of the stronger Bell argument presented here provably is the strongest possible consequence from the violation of Bell inequalities on a qualitative probabilistic level. Since among the excluded non-local theories are those whose only non-local probabilistic connection is a dependence between the space-like separated measurement outcomes of EPR/B experiments, (...)
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  23. How does physics bear upon metaphysics; and why did Plato hold that philosophy cannot be written down?Howard Stein - 2020 - Studies in History and Philosophy of Science Part B: Studies in History and Philosophy of Modern Physics 72:152-161.
    The paper begins with consideration of Plato and Aristotle, but the question addressed in this essay is the following: What has been meant--and what role has been played--in the succession of doctrines of physics we have had since the seventeenth century, by notions of “power” and of “cause”? The essay concludes with consideration of field theories set in relativistic space-time.
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  24.  38
    Effective field theories as a novel probe of fine-tuning of cosmic inflation.Feraz Azhar - 2020 - Studies in History and Philosophy of Science Part B: Studies in History and Philosophy of Modern Physics 71:87-100.
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  25.  41
    Spacetime as a quantum error-correcting code?Jonathan Bain - 2020 - Studies in History and Philosophy of Science Part B: Studies in History and Philosophy of Modern Physics 71:26-36.
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  26.  93
    Quantum relational indeterminacy.Claudio Calosi & Cristian Mariani - 2020 - Studies in History and Philosophy of Science Part B: Studies in History and Philosophy of Modern Physics 71 (C):158-169.
  27.  42
    Hamiltonian mechanics is conservation of information entropy.Gabriele Carcassi & Christine A. Aidala - 2020 - Studies in History and Philosophy of Science Part B: Studies in History and Philosophy of Modern Physics 71:60-71.
  28.  53
    Absolute space and Newton's theory of relativity.Robert DiSalle - 2020 - Studies in History and Philosophy of Science Part B: Studies in History and Philosophy of Modern Physics 71:232-244.
  29.  54
    ‘Like thermodynamics before Boltzmann.’ On the emergence of Einstein's distinction between constructive and principle theories.Marco Giovanelli - 2020 - Studies in History and Philosophy of Science Part B: Studies in History and Philosophy of Modern Physics 71 (C):118-157.
  30.  34
    Howard Stein on sophisticated practice of philosophers/scientists.William L. Harper - 2020 - Studies in History and Philosophy of Science Part B: Studies in History and Philosophy of Modern Physics 71:196-208.
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  31.  38
    Holography without holography: How to turn inter-representational into intra-theoretical relations in AdS/CFT.Rasmus Jaksland & Niels S. Linnemann - 2020 - Studies in History and Philosophy of Science Part B: Studies in History and Philosophy of Modern Physics 71:101-117.
    We show by means of the AdS/CFT correspondence in the context of quantum gravity how inter-representational relations—loosely speaking relations among different equivalent representations of one and the same physics—can play out as a tool for intra-theoretical developments and thus boost theory development in the context of discovery. More precisely, we first show that, as a duality, the AdS/CFT correspondence cannot in itself testify to the quantum origin of gravity (though it may be utilized for this purpose). We then establish through (...)
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  32.  80
    Q.e.D., Qed.Adam Koberinski & Chris Smeenk - 2020 - Studies in History and Philosophy of Science Part B: Studies in History and Philosophy of Modern Physics 71:1-13.
    Precision testing of the quantum electrodynamics (QED) and the standard model provides some of the most secure knowledge in the history of physics. These tests can also be used to constrain and search for new physics going beyond the standard model. We examine the evidential structure of relationships between theoretical predictions from QED, precision measurements of these phenomena, and the indirect determination of the fine structure constant. We argue that "pure QED" is no longer sufficient to predict the electron's anomalous (...)
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  33.  40
    MOND vs. dark matter in light of historical parallels.Mordehai Milgrom - 2020 - Studies in History and Philosophy of Science Part B: Studies in History and Philosophy of Modern Physics 71:170-195.
  34.  35
    — It would be possible to do a lengthy dialectical number on this.Wayne C. Myrvold - 2020 - Studies in History and Philosophy of Science Part B: Studies in History and Philosophy of Modern Physics 71:209-219.
  35.  43
    Loop quantum ontology: Spacetime and spin-networks.Joshua Norton - 2020 - Studies in History and Philosophy of Science Part B: Studies in History and Philosophy of Modern Physics 71:14-25.
  36.  45
    The concept ‘indistinguishable’.Simon Saunders - 2020 - Studies in History and Philosophy of Science Part B: Studies in History and Philosophy of Modern Physics 71 (C):37-59.
    The concept of indistinguishable particles in quantum theory is fundamental to questions of ontology. All ordinary matter is made of electrons, protons, neutrons, and photons and they are all indistinguishable particles. Yet the concept itself has proved elusive, in part because of the interpretational difficulties that afflict quantum theory quite generally, and in part because the concept was so central to the discovery of the quantum itself, by Planck in 1900; it came encumbered with revolution. I offer a deflationary reading (...)
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  37. Some reflections on the structure of cosmological knowledge.Chris Smeenk - 2020 - Studies in History and Philosophy of Science Part B: Studies in History and Philosophy of Modern Physics 71:220-231.
    Stein has characterized one of the central problems in accounting for our knowledge in physics as that of getting the laboratory, or observatory, inside the theory -- that is, of understanding how the mathematical structures of fundamental physical theories have empirical content. He has argued that physicists respond to this problem by giving schematic representations of observers and experiments. In addition, Stein emphasizes the importance of regarding knowledge as an enterprise, with current theories providing guidance for future inquiry. I will (...)
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  38.  42
    Bohm's theory of quantum mechanics and the notion of classicality.Marij van Strien - 2020 - Studies in History and Philosophy of Science Part B: Studies in History and Philosophy of Modern Physics 71 (C):72-86.
    When David Bohm published his alternative theory of quantum mechanics in 1952, it was not received well; a recurring criticism was that it formed a reactionary attempt to return to classical physics. In response, Bohm emphasized the progressiveness of his approach, and even turned the accusation of classicality around by arguing that he wanted to move beyond classical elements still inherent in orthodox quantum mechanics. In later years, he moved more and more towards speculative and mystical directions. This paper aims (...)
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  39.  35
    Diagnosing disagreements: The authentication of the positron 1931–1934.Ana-Maria Creţu - 2020 - Studies in History and Philosophy of Science Part B: Studies in History and Philosophy of Modern Physics 70:28-38.
  40. How to make reflectance a surface property.Nicholas Danne - 2020 - Studies in History and Philosophy of Science Part B: Studies in History and Philosophy of Modern Physics 70:19-27.
    Reflectance physicalists define reflectance as the intrinsic disposition of a surface to reflect finite-duration light pulses at a given efficiency per wavelength. I criticize the received view of dispositional reflectance (David R. Hilbert’s) for failing to account for what I call “harmonic dispersion,” the inverse relationship of a light pulse's duration to its bandwidth. I argue that harmonic dispersion renders reflectance defined in terms of light pulses an extrinsic disposition. Reflectance defined as the per-wavelength efficiency to reflect the superimposed, infinite-duration, (...)
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  41.  18
    An unpublished debate brought to light: Karl Popper's enterprise against the logic of quantum mechanics.Flavio Del Santo - 2020 - Studies in History and Philosophy of Science Part B: Studies in History and Philosophy of Modern Physics 70:65-78.
  42.  34
    The Frauchiger-Renner argument: A new no-go result?Sebastian Fortin & Olimpia Lombardi - 2020 - Studies in History and Philosophy of Science Part B: Studies in History and Philosophy of Modern Physics 70:1-7.
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  43.  83
    Redundant epistemic symmetries.James Read & Thomas Møller-Nielsen - 2020 - Studies in History and Philosophy of Science Part B: Studies in History and Philosophy of Modern Physics 70:88-97.
  44.  66
    (1 other version)The metaphysics of invariance.David Schroeren - 2020 - Studies in History and Philosophy of Science Part B: Studies in History and Philosophy of Modern Physics 70:51-64.
  45.  29
    Putting positrons into classical Dirac field theory.Charles T. Sebens - 2020 - Studies in History and Philosophy of Science Part B: Studies in History and Philosophy of Modern Physics 70:8-18.
  46. Reformulating Bell's theorem: The search for a truly local quantum theory.Mordecai Waegell & Kelvin J. McQueen - 2020 - Studies in History and Philosophy of Science Part B: Studies in History and Philosophy of Modern Physics 70:39-50.
    The apparent nonlocality of quantum theory has been a persistent concern. Einstein et al. and Bell emphasized the apparent nonlocality arising from entanglement correlations. While some interpretations embrace this nonlocality, modern variations of the Everett-inspired many worlds interpretation try to circumvent it. In this paper, we review Bell's "no-go" theorem and explain how it rests on three axioms, local causality, no superdeterminism, and one world. Although Bell is often taken to have shown that local causality is ruled out by the (...)
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  47.  88
    Some Philosophical Prehistory of the (Earman-Norton) hole argument.James Owen Weatherall - 2020 - Studies in History and Philosophy of Science Part B: Studies in History and Philosophy of Modern Physics 70:79-87.
    The celu of the philosophical literature on the hole argument is the 1987 paper by Earman \& Norton ["What Price Space-time Substantivalism? The Hole Story" Br. J. Phil. Sci.]. This paper has a well-known back-story, concerning work by Stachel and Norton on Einstein's thinking in the years 1913-15. Less well-known is a connection between the hole argument and Earman's work on Leibniz in the 1970s and 1980s, which in turn can be traced to an argument first presented in 1975 by (...)
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  48.  68
    Large gauge transformations and the strong CP problem.John Dougherty - 2020 - Studies in History and Philosophy of Science Part B: Studies in History and Philosophy of Modern Physics 69:50-66.
    According to the Standard Model of particle physics, some gauge transformations are physical symmetries. That is, they are mathematical transformations that relate representatives of distinct physical states of affairs. This is at odds with the standard philosophical position according to which gauge transformations are an eliminable redundancy in a gauge theory's representational framework. In this paper I defend the Standard Model's treatment of gauge from an objection due to Richard Healey. If we follow the Standard Model in taking some gauge (...)
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  49.  63
    Expanding theory testing in general relativity: LIGO and parametrized theories.Lydia Patton - 2020 - Studies in History and Philosophy of Science Part B: Studies in History and Philosophy of Modern Physics 69:142-53.
    The multiple detections of gravitational waves by LIGO (the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory), operated by Caltech and MIT, have been acclaimed as confirming Einstein's prediction, a century ago, that gravitational waves propagating as ripples in spacetime would be detected. Yunes and Pretorius (2009) investigate whether LIGO's template-based searches encode fundamental assumptions, especially the assumption that the background theory of general relativity is an accurate description of the phenomena detected in the search. They construct the parametrized post-Einsteinian (ppE) framework in response, (...)
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  50.  31
    Emergence and correspondence for string theory black holes.Jeroen van Dongen, Sebastian De Haro, Manus Visser & Jeremy Butterfield - 2020 - Studies in History and Philosophy of Science Part B: Studies in History and Philosophy of Modern Physics 69:112-127.
  51.  30
    Definitions more geometrarum and Newton's scholium on space and time.Zvi Biener - 2020 - Studies in History and Philosophy of Science Part B: Studies in History and Philosophy of Modern Physics:179-191.
    Newton's Principia begins with eight formal definitions and a scholium, the so-called scholium on space and time. Despite a history of misinterpretation, scholars now largely agree that the purpose of the scholium is to establish and defend the de fi nitions of key concepts. There is no consensus, however, on how those definitions differ in kind from the Principia's formal definitions and why they are set-off in a scholium. The purpose of the present essay is to shed light on the (...)
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  52.  41
    Unweyling Three Mysteries of Nordström Gravity.Patrick M. Duerr - 2020 - Studies in History and Philosophy of Science Part B: Studies in History and Philosophy of Modern Physics.
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