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"Philosophysics" at the University of Vienna: The (Pre-)History of Foundations of Quantum Physics in the Viennese Cultural Context - PubMed

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"Philosophysics" at the University of Vienna: The (Pre-)History of Foundations of Quantum Physics in the Viennese Cultural Context

Flavio Del Santo et al. Phys Perspect. 2022.

Abstract

Vienna today is one of the capitals of research on foundations of quantum physics. We reconstruct the development of modern physics in Vienna, with a focus on foundations of quantum mechanics (FQM), which is a sub-field of quantum mechanics. We show that the influence of Erwin Schrödinger and, in more recent years, the initiatives of Anton Zeilinger-the two main intuitive reasons-cannot alone account for today's outstanding research landscape on FQM in Vienna. We highlight four additional factors that played a crucial role in the development of foundational research in Vienna: 1) the Viennese heritage of the cultural golden age just before World War II; 2) the long-lasting institutional connection between the faculty of physics and philosophy; 3) a rise of several initiatives that gave forum to the interplay of physics and philosophy; and 4) the influence of several external scholars in the Viennese scientific landscape. Our analysis is informed by interviews with the most pertinent scientists, a detailed survey of the relevant social networks, and review of the main primary literature.

Keywords: History of modern foundations of quantum mechanics; history of physics in Vienna; oral history; physics and philosophy; postwar physics.

© The Author(s) 2022.

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Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1

Timeline of selected events on matters of physics (and philosophy) in Vienna as recollected in the main text. The purple strips represent extended periods

Fig. 2
Fig. 2

Academic “family tree” of the relevant personalities mentioned in this work. The links between them indicate a supervisor-doctoral student relation (or in the rare cases in which it was not possible to certify this, an acknowledged major influence). The link between Eduard Haschek and Gustav Ortner is dotted because we have inconclusive evidence as to whether there was a strong connection between them

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References

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