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arXiv2024

Transient Phenomena of Mercury

The similarity of Mercury to the Moon raises the question on mercurian analogues of lunar transient phenomena. However, since the mid-1960s, this topic has remained out of attention. Nevertheless, the discoveries of the 21st century and the BepiColombo mission give hope for the registration of Mercury transient phenomena. In this regard, it is shown that there are forgotten earth-based observations of anomalous phenomena on Mercury, which now fit into modern knowledge about this planet. Therefore, ALPO could contribute to this mysterious aspect of space exploration.

physics.hist-ph↗

arXiv2025

The localization problem: an antinomy between measurability and causal dynamics

The localization problem in relativistic quantum theory has persisted for more than seven decades, yet it is largely unknown and continues to perplex even those well-versed in the subject. At the heart of this problem lies a fundamental conflict between localizability and relativistic causality, which can also be construed as part of the broader dichotomy between measurement and unitary dynamics. This article provides a historical review of the localization problem in one-particle relativistic quantum mechanics, clarifying some persistent misconceptions in the literature, and underscoring the antinomy between causal dynamics and localized observables.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2026

Peer Review as Structured Commentary: Immutable Identity, Public Dialogue, and Reproducible Scholarship

This paper reconceptualises peer review as structured public commentary. Traditional academic validation is hindered by anonymity, latency, and gatekeeping. We propose a transparent, identity-linked, and reproducible system of scholarly evaluation anchored in open commentary. Leveraging blockchain for immutable audit trails and AI for iterative synthesis, we design a framework that incentivises intellectual contribution, captures epistemic evolution, and enables traceable reputational dynamics. This model empowers fields from computational science to the humanities, reframing academic knowledge as a living process rather than a static credential.

cs.CY↗

arXiv2026

The Curious Case of Max Planck retracted papers. When past scientific practices meet contemporary publishing norms

This article examines the case of two papers published in Naturwissenschaften by the physicist Max Planck that were retrospectively marked as "retracted" on Springer digital platform. Rather than originating in scientific fraud, these withdrawals appear to result from contemporary digitization and copyright-management procedures applied anachronistically to historical publications. Through an investigation of the circulation history of Planck 1940 and 1942 philosophical essays, the article shows that republication across multiple formats was a common and legitimate practice within the scientific publishing culture of the early 20th century. Such practices only became problematic with the later transformation of the scientific article into a countable and proprietary unit within systems of bibliometric evaluation and commercial academic publishing. This article argues that contemporary notions such as "duplicate publication" and "self-plagiarism" are historically situated categories that cannot be applied retrospectively without distorting the historical record. More broadly, the Planck case reveals how digital scholarly infrastructures controlled by large commercial publishers can limit the accessibility of the scientific past.

cs.DL↗

arXiv2026

Jodrell Bank and the British Astronomical Association: The Making of a Generation of Scientists

The discovery of radar echoes from meteor trains at Jodrell Bank in 1945 marked the beginning of a new era in meteor astronomy and laid the foundations for the subsequent development of radio astronomy. This paper examines the close relationship between Bernard Lovell's emerging research group at Jodrell Bank and the British Astronomical Association (BAA) during the formative years, 1946-1951. It explores the contributions of the individuals who connected these two communities. Particular attention is given to the lives and scientific careers of Michael Ovenden, Gerald Hawkins, John Clegg, John Davies, Victor Hughes and Mary Almond, all of whom were BAA members. Their later achievements demonstrate the remarkable talents of this generation of scientists, whose work extended across radio astronomy, planetary science, palaeomagnetism, archaeomagnetism and computer science.

physics.hist-ph↗

arXiv2026

Unbounded Operators, Physicality, and Modality in Quantum Theories

In this paper, I address the problem regarding the physicality of Hilbert space in quantum mechanics, a topic brought into focus by Carcassi et al.'s paper "The unphysicality of Hilbert spaces" recently. I argue for the physicality of the Hilbert space in quantum mechanics, and demonstrate that there are inevitable ambiguity and arbitrariness if we want to identify the set of physical states with a proper subset of it. Moreover, I distinguish the ontological and modal reading of physicality from the pragmatic and operational reading of physicality, and then develop what I call the hierarchical view of physicality. According to this view, physicality is not a monolithic concept, but a layered one that admits degrees. I show the connection between the concept of physicality and modal metaphysics, and finally explain how it can be used to address the interpretational problem of quantum field theory brought by the existence of inequivalent representations.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2026

The Price of Removing the Scaffolding: Maxwell wrote something about Ampère that years later would be done to him

In the history of physics, the name scaffolding has been given to whatever served to raise a theory and is afterwards removed because, it is said, it is no longer needed. This article documents, from the originals, what it cost Maxwell's theory when that method was applied to it: what was removed from it, who did it, with what argument, and how over the years it had to be recovered because it was understood that it was needed after all. It also records what Maxwell himself missed in Ampère, what he calls the traces of the scaffolding: the template with which Ampère himself had given shape to his work.

physics.hist-ph↗

arXiv2026

Piezoelectricity: A Brief History of its Discovery and Physical Principles Using the Example of Low Quartz

Piezoelectricity is a key phenomenon in solid-state physics and has significant technological relevance. In teaching, however, it is often treated either without a historical context or an explicit link to the microscopic crystal structure, meaning that a crucial level of understanding remains untapped. This study combines the history of the discovery of piezoelectricity with its physical description within a didactically coherent framework. Building on the work of the brothers, Jacques and Pierre Curie (1880 - 1882), it demonstrated how investigations into pyroelectricity led to the identification of polarization induced by mechanical compression in hemihedral crystals such as tourmaline and quartz. The development from early qualitative experiments towards the first quantitative determination of piezoelectric constants is traced in a structured manner. Using low quartz as an example, the microscopic cause of piezoelectricity was attributed to the asymmetric displacements of silicon and oxygen ions within the orthosilicate ion tetrahedral network. This leads to the formation of macroscopic polarization owing to uncompensated dipole moments in the crystal lattice. The direct and reciprocal piezoelectric effects are qualitatively distinguished and discussed in the context of mechanical-electrical coupling. The article is aimed at students in physics and engineering as well as lecturers. It was conceived as a didactic review article (tutorial article) and serves as a structured introduction to the physical and historical foundations of piezoelectricity.

physics.hist-ph↗

arXiv2026

$δ$-flatness and its natural extension

What, if anything, makes Minkowski spacetime a privileged local reference geometry in General Relativity? Recent work by \cite{WeatherallFletcher} argues: nothing. In response, I proposed a criterion of ``$δ$-flatness'', which bounds the magnitude of tidal acceleration within a tubular neighborhood by $δ$, and showed that Minkowski uniquely saturates the bound. Here I ask how $δ$-flatness generalises, and distinguish two kinds of extension. Reference-metric generalisations compare physical tidal acceleration with a reference tidal-force term constructed from another metric. Lorentzian signature obstructs every such comparison in which the reference fails to share the lightcones of the physical metric. Criterion modifications instead build the criterion from the physical geometry alone. The space of such modifications is wide, and I focus on those closest to $δ$-flatness, where one bounds the deviation of tidal acceleration from a non-zero target. The minimal candidate, which I call $δ$-MSS, has a singular limit that picks out the maximally symmetric spacetimes (Minkowski, de Sitter, Anti-de Sitter) via Schur's theorem. A restricted variant, which compares $g$ with a conformal rescaling of itself, either collapses to $δ$-MSS or fails to pick out a unique geometry. The chief result is that $δ$-flatness distinguishes Minkowski with no free parameter. $δ$-MSS, a weaker variant, picks out the maximally symmetric family at the cost of an externally supplied scalar.

physics.hist-ph↗

arXiv2022

Einsteinian blunders

The World Year of Physics 2005 celebrates Einstein 1905. Too much celebration of a single character may be hazardous as an example for the younger generation. With such a motto in mind, I comment on some episodes in Einstein's scientific career that are at some extent characterized by what could be dubbed {\it blundering behavior}. The final purpose is obviously to {\it humanize} the personage as opposed tore the current trend of {\it deification}.

physics.gen-ph↗

arXiv2018

Reconstructed sunspot positions in the Maunder Minimum based on the correspondence of Gottfried Kirch

We present reconstructed sunspot positions based on observations reported in letters between Gottfried Kirch and other contemporary astronomers from AD 1680 to 1709, i.e. in the last decades of the Maunder Minimum. The letters were compiled and edited by Herbst (2006). The letters (and observations) from Kirch are mostly by Gottfried Kirch, but some also by his 2nd wife Maria M. Kirch (married 1692) and their son Christfried Kirch (born 1694). Using excerpts from the letters, some with drawings, we found some 35 sunspot groups (often for several days in a row or with interruptions) by Kirch and/or his letter partners (in three cases, only the month is given: 1704 Jan, Feb, 1707 Mar, otherwise always the exact dates) - usually one group at a time. We also found 17 explicit spotless days, several of them new (previously without any known observations). We could constrain the heliographic latitude by Bayesian inference for 19 sunspot groups - five of them completely new (one group 1680 May 20-22 from Kirch and Ihle, one to two groups 1680 Jun 15-23 for Kirch, one group 1684 May 6 from Ihle, and one group 1688 Dec 14-15 from Kirch), while the others mostly agree (within 2sigma) with previously published values for those dates by others. With these data, we then amend the butterfly diagram for the Maunder Minimum. By comparison of our data with the sunspot group catalog in Hoyt & Schatten (1998), we noticed a number of discrepancies, e.g. that dates for British observers in the Maunder Minimum (Flamsteed, Caswell, Derham, Stannyan, Gray, and Sharp) as listed in Hoyt & Schatten (1998) are their original Julian dates, not converted to the Gregorian calendar (10-11 day offset in Hoyt & Schatten). Most of these modifications also apply to the modified sunspot group catalog in Vaquero et al. (2016). We also present two aurorae observed by the Kirchs in 1707 and 1716.

physics.hist-ph↗

arXiv2014

On the concept of exergy and available enthalpy: Application to atmospheric energetics

The available enthalpy is an early form of the modern thermodynamic concept of exergy, which is the generic name for the amount of work obtainable when some matter is brought to a state of equilibrium with its surroundings by means of reversible processes. It is shown in this paper that a study of the hydrodynamic properties of available enthalpy leads to a generalization of the global meteorological available energies previously introduced by Lorenz, Dutton and Pearce. A local energy cycle is derived without approximation. Moreover, static instabilities or topography do not prevent this theory from having practical applications. The concept of available enthalpy is also presented in terms of the potential change in total entropy. Using the hydrostatic assumption, limited-area energetics is then rigorously defined, including new boundary fluxes and new energy components. This innovative approach is especially suitable for the study of energy conversions between isobaric layers of an open limited atmospheric domain. Numerical evaluations of various energy components are presented for a hemispheric field of zonal-average temperature. It is further shown that this new energetic scheme realizes a hierarchical partition of the components so that the smallest of those available enthalpy reservoirs are almost of the same magnitude as the kinetic energy. This is actually the fundamental property that induced Margules to define the primary concept of available kinetic energy in meteorology.

physics.ao-ph↗

arXiv2014

The Preferred System of Reference Reloaded

According to Karl Popper assumptions are statements used to construct theories. During the construction of a theory whether the assumptions are either true or false turn out to be irrelevant in view of the fact that, actually, they gain their scientific value when the deductions derived from them suffice to explain observations. Science is enriched with assumptions of all kinds and physics is not exempted. Beyond doubt, some assumptions have been greatly beneficial for physics. They are usually embraced based on the kind of problems expected to be solved in a given moment of a science. Some have been quite useful and some others are discarded in a given moment and reconsidered in a later one. An illustrative example of this is the conception of light; first, according to Newton, as particle; then, according to Huygens, as wave; and then, again, according to Einstein, as particle. Likewise, once, according to Newton, a preferred system of reference (PSR) was assumed; then, according to Einstein, rejected; and then, here the assumption is reconsidered. It is claimed that the assumption that there is no PSR can be fundamentally wrong.

physics.class-ph↗

arXiv2011

Limits to the Universality of Quantum Mechanics

Niels Bohr's arguments indicating the non-applicability of quantum methodology to the study of the ultimate details of life given in his book "Atomic physics and human knowledge" conflict with the commonly held opposite view. The bases for the usual beliefs are examined and shown to have little validity. Significant differences do exist between the living organism and the type of system studied successfully in the physics laboratory. Dealing with living organisms in quantum-mechanical terms with the same degree of rigour as is normal for non-living systems would seem not to be possible without considering also questions of the origins of life and of the universe.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2026

Henri Poincare Saint Louis Lecture of 1904: Publication, Dissemination, and Historiographical Implications

Henri Poincare Saint Louis lecture of 1904 occupies an important place in the prehistory of relativity. In it, Poincare formulated the principle of relativity in general terms and presented it as one of the guiding principles of mathematical physics, together with the principles of least action and energy conservation. This article reconstructs the early publication and international dissemination of the lecture before the end of June 1905, through La Revue des idees, the Bulletin des sciences mathématiques, The Monist, and La valeur de la science. Drawing on library records, accession data, booksellers' advertisements, press notices, and correspondence, it shows that Poincare text circulated rapidly through scholarly, commercial, and institutional channels in Europe and North America. The significance of this circulation is not merely bibliographical. It bears directly on the documentary landscape within which Einstein 1905 relativity paper should be historically situated. The early availability of Poincare lecture and of La valeur de la science shifts attention toward the concrete conditions under which texts, concepts, and problems circulated in the months and weeks preceding Einstein's June 1905 paper. Evidence from Einstein Bern milieu further supports this view. Joseph Sauter later testimony and the possibility of redating the Habicht letter to 1 June 1905, on the basis of several converging chronological and documentary arguments, suggest that the intellectual environment of 1905 was denser than simplified narratives of solitary discovery imply. Availability is not influence; but without reconstructing availability, the historical problem of Einstein relation to Poincaré and Lorentz remains ill posed.

physics.hist-ph↗

arXiv2018

The Motion of Small Bodies in Space-time

We consider the motion of small bodies in general relativity. The key result captures a sense in which such bodies follow timelike geodesics (or, in the case of charged bodies, Lorentz-force curves). This result clarifies the relationship between approaches that model such bodies as distributions supported on a curve, and those that employ smooth fields supported in small neighborhoods of a curve. This result also applies to "bodies" constructed from wave packets of Maxwell or Klein-Gordon fields. There follows a simple and precise formulation of the optical limit for Maxwell fields.

gr-qc↗

arXiv2007

Nova Geminorum 1912 and the Origin of the Idea of Gravitational Lensing

Einstein's early calculations of gravitational lensing, contained in a scratch notebook and dated to the spring of 1912, are reexamined. A hitherto unknown letter by Einstein suggests that he entertained the idea of explaining the phenomenon of new stars by gravitational lensing in the fall of 1915 much more seriously than was previously assumed. A reexamination of the relevant calculations by Einstein shows that, indeed, at least some of them most likely date from early October 1915. But in support of earlier historical interpretation of Einstein's notes, it is argued that the appearance of Nova Geminorum 1912 (DN Gem) in March 1912 may, in fact, provide a relevant context and motivation for Einstein's lensing calculations on the occasion of his first meeting with Erwin Freundlich during a visit in Berlin in April 1912. We also comment on the significance of Einstein's consideration of gravitational lensing in the fall of 1915 for the reconstruction of Einstein's final steps in his path towards general relativity.

physics.hist-ph↗

arXiv2010

Einstein's quantum theory of the monatomic ideal gas: non-statistical arguments for a new statistics

In this article, we analyze the third of three papers, in which Einstein presented his quantum theory of the ideal gas of 1924-1925. Although it failed to attract the attention of Einstein's contemporaries and although also today very few commentators refer to it, we argue for its significance in the context of Einstein's quantum researches. It contains an attempt to extend and exhaust the characterization of the monatomic ideal gas without appealing to combinatorics. Its ambiguities illustrate Einstein's confusion with his initial success in extending Bose's results and in realizing the consequences of what later became to be called Bose-Einstein statistics. We discuss Einstein's motivation for writing a non-combinatorial paper, partly in response to criticism by his friend Ehrenfest, and we paraphrase its content. Its arguments are based on Einstein's belief in the complete analogy between the thermodynamics of light quanta and of material particles and invoke considerations of adiabatic transformations as well as of dimensional analysis. These techniques were well-known to Einstein from earlier work on Wien's displacement law, Planck's radiation theory, and the specific heat of solids. We also investigate the possible role of Ehrenfest in the gestation of the theory.

physics.hist-ph↗