15,302 research outputs found
The education of Walter Kohn and the creation of density functional theory
The theoretical solid-state physicist Walter Kohn was awarded one-half of the
1998 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for his mid-1960's creation of an approach to the
many-particle problem in quantum mechanics called density functional theory
(DFT). In its exact form, DFT establishes that the total charge density of any
system of electrons and nuclei provides all the information needed for a
complete description of that system. This was a breakthrough for the study of
atoms, molecules, gases, liquids, and solids. Before DFT, it was thought that
only the vastly more complicated many-electron wave function was needed for a
complete description of such systems. Today, fifty years after its
introduction, DFT (in one of its approximate forms) is the method of choice
used by most scientists to calculate the physical properties of materials of
all kinds. In this paper, I present a biographical essay of Kohn's educational
experiences and professional career up to and including the creation of DFT
History of Spin and Statistics
These lectures were given in the framework of the ``Dixi\`eme s\'eminaire
rhodanien de physique'' entitled ``Le spin en physique'', given at Villa
Gualino, Turin, March 2002. We have shown how the difficulties of
interpretation of atomic spectra led to the Pauli exclusion principle and to
the notion of spin, and then described the following steps: the Pauli spin with
22 matrices after the birth of "new" quantum mechanics, the Dirac
equation and the magnetic moment of the electron, the spins and magnetic
moments of other particles, proton, neutron and hyperons. Finally, we show the
crucial role of statistics in the stability of the world.Comment: latex file, 7 figures, 3 table
Autumn 2001
https://surface.syr.edu/arc_news/1006/thumbnail.jp
‘One must eliminate the effects of … diffuse circulation [and] their unstable and dangerous coagulation’: Foucault and beyond the stopping of mobilities
Foucault spent time investigating the stopping of mobilities, notably when studying carceral spaces such as asylums and prisons which effectively immobilise their inmates at a societal scale. In Discipline and Punish, he speculates on how such spaces are designed to put a stop to casual ‘nomadisms’. The purpose here is to inspect this aspect of Foucault’s thinking, particularly to recover what he also said about the regulation and cultivation of mobilities within the depths of immobility. Attention is also drawn to an engagement with mobility-immobility appearing in Foucault’s little-discussed Psychiatric Power lectures, prompted by the ideas and practices of Edouard Seguin, an educator of ‘idiot’ children, whose own words provide additional ‘empirical’ weight to an emerging argument. Reading the unabridged English translation of Madness and Civilization, a final claim is that Foucault’s phenomenology of ‘madness’ depends upon unruly mobilities within the asylum, the very stuff of ‘unstable and dangerous coagulation’. The overall ambition is to furnish an alternative account of Foucault and mobilities, concentrating on those Foucauldian texts initially seeming the least promising for scholars of mobilities
Misleading signposts along the de Broglie-Bohm road to quantum mechanics
Eighty years after de Broglie's, and a little more than half a century after
Bohm's seminal papers, the de Broglie--Bohm theory (a.k.a. Bohmian mechanics),
which is presumably the simplest theory which explains the orthodox quantum
mechanics formalism, has reached an exemplary state of conceptual clarity and
mathematical integrity. No other theory of quantum mechanics comes even close.
Yet anyone curious enough to walk this road to quantum mechanics is soon being
confused by many misleading signposts that have been put up, and not just by
its detractors, but unfortunately enough also by some of its proponents.
This paper outlines a road map to help navigate ones way.Comment: Dedicated to Jeffrey Bub on occasion of his 65th birthday. Accepted
for publication in Foundations of Physics. A "slip of pen" in the
bibliography has been corrected -- thanks go to Oliver Passon for catching
it
Bowdoin College Catalogue (1988-1989)
https://digitalcommons.bowdoin.edu/course-catalogues/1269/thumbnail.jp
Problem of Time in Quantum Gravity
The Problem of Time occurs because the `time' of GR and of ordinary Quantum
Theory are mutually incompatible notions. This is problematic in trying to
replace these two branches of physics with a single framework in situations in
which the conditions of both apply, e.g. in black holes or in the very early
universe. Emphasis in this Review is on the Problem of Time being multi-faceted
and on the nature of each of the eight principal facets. Namely, the Frozen
Formalism Problem, Configurational Relationalism Problem (formerly Sandwich
Problem), Foliation Dependence Problem, Constraint Closure Problem (formerly
Functional Evolution Problem), Multiple Choice Problem, Global Problem of Time,
Problem of Beables (alias Problem of Observables) and Spacetime
Reconstruction/Replacement Problem. Strategizing in this Review is not just
centred about the Frozen Formalism Problem facet, but rather about each of the
eight facets. Particular emphasis is placed upon A) relationalism as an
underpinning of the facets and as a selector of particular strategies
(especially a modification of Barbour relationalism, though also with some
consideration of Rovelli relationalism). B) Classifying approaches by the full
ordering in which they embrace constrain, quantize, find time/history and find
observables, rather than only by partial orderings such as "Dirac-quantize". C)
Foliation (in)dependence and Spacetime Reconstruction for a wide range of
physical theories, strategizing centred about the Problem of Beables, the
Patching Approach to the Global Problem of Time, and the role of the
question-types considered in physics. D) The Halliwell- and
Gambini-Porto-Pullin-type combined Strategies in the context of semiclassical
quantum cosmology.Comment: Invited Review: 26 pages including 2 Figures. This v2 has a number of
minor improvements and correction
Address: job insecurity and technology
Technology ; Employment (Economic theory)
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