FINAL ANNOUNCEMENT

Einstein and the Changing World Views of Physics, 1905/2005


HGR7. Seventh International Conference on the History of General Relativity,
La Orotava, March 9-15, 2005

Schedule / Abstracts
Wednesday
3.09.2005
Arrival
Thursday
3.10.2005
The Centenary of Einstein’s Annus Mirabilis. The day is devoted to Einstein’s revolutionary work of 1905, its roots in classical physics and its non-classical outcome.
Morning
session
 
9.00-9.30 Documentation delivery
9.30–10.00 CONFERENCE OPENING
10.00–10.40 Hidden Bonds in Einstein's 1905 Papers J. RENN
Max Planck Institute for the History of Science
R. RYNASIEWICZ
John Hopkins University
10.40–11.10
Coffee
11.10–11.50 Einstein's Electrodynamical Pathway to Special Relativity J. NORTON
University of Pittsburgh
11.50–12.30 Review Talk
Patent Disagreements in the Histories of Special Relativity
A. MARTÍNEZ
California Institute of Technology
12.30-13.00 Discussion
13.00–14.30 Lunch
Afternoon
session
 
14.30–15.10
Tilling the Seedbed of Einstein's Politics: A pre-1905 Harbinger? R. SCHULMANN
California Institute of Technology
15.10–15.50 Review Talk
Relativity: the Roots
J. EISENSTAEDT
CNRS, Observatoire de Paris
15.50–16.20
Coffee
16.20–17.00 A Personal and Biased View of the Major Developments & Failures of GR over the Century E. NEWMANN
University of Pittsburgh
17.00–17.30 Discussion
17.45–19.00 Round Table:
Einstein and the Changing World Views of Physics, 1905/2005
Chair Speakers/participants
John Stachel Michel Janssen
E. Newmann
John Norton
James E. Peebles
Don Howard
19.15–20.00 Pre-dinner lecture:
Cosmos and Cartoons
C. V. VISHVESHWARA
Indian Institute of Astrophysics
20.15 Exhibition Opening: Sociedad, Cultura y Ciencia en la Época de Einstein
(Convento de Santo Domingo)
or Bus to Hotel
Friday
3.11.2005
General relativity: the second revolution and its open ends. The day is devoted to the history of the conceptual problems in classical physics that led to the emergence of general relativity. The aim is to connect detailed historical analysis of the history of general relativity with a discussion of conceptual challenges presented by that theory today. The topics to be discussed will include: the role of symmetries in historical and current research on gravitation; the problem of equations of motion in general relativity, an important hinge between point mechanics and field theory, and present approaches to the particle-field duality; the question of the origin and meaning of inertia from historical and contemporary perspectives; empirical tests of general relativity and the challenges presented to modern theory by observation; the role of special solutions to Einstein’s field equations in the history of general relativity and in contemporary research into quantum gravity, the context and reception of the second revolution.
Morning
session
 
9.00–9.40
General Relativity in the Last Decades: the Revenge of Geometry and Physics S. BERGIA
Università degli Studi di Bologna
9.40–10.20 "Déjà Vu" All Over Again: How Einstein Found His Field Equations M. JANSSEN
University of Minnesota
J. RENN
Max Planck Institute for the History of Science
10.20–10.45 Coffee
10.45–11.20 Continuities and Discontinuities in Einstein's Heuristics T. SAUER
California Institute of Technology
11.20–12.00 Background-Independent Physics: Einstein's Greatest Legacy J. STACHEL
Boston University
12.00–12.45 Discussion
12.45–14.15 Lunch
Afternoon
session
The Consequences of the Relativity Revolution
14.15–14.55 Review Talk
Mathematicians Engage with Physics: Examples from Unified Theory Work in the 1920s
J. RITTER
Université de Paris VIII
C. GOLDSTEIN
CNRS, Institut de Mathématiques de Jussieu. Paris
14.55–15.35 Einstein, Philosophy and Philosophers in the 1920s: the Bristish and Spanish Cases J. SANCHEZ RON
Universidad Autónoma de Madrid
15.35–16.15 Repercussions of Einstein visit in the South American countries A. TOLMASQUIM
Museum of Astronomy and Related Sciences
16.15 Coffee
16.45-17.25 The Theory of Relativity in Brazil - Acceptance or Rejection? C.M. SILVA DA SILVA
Federal University of Espírito Santo
17.25-18.15 Discussion
Evening
session
 
18.30-20.00 Einstein: From Relativity to Celebrity
The Einstein Papers Project Participants:
Jeroen van Dongen, Associate Editor
Daniel J. Kennefick, Scientific Editor
Tilman Sauer, Senior Scientific Editor
Diana K. Buchwald, General Editor
20.15 Bus to Hotel
Saturday
3.12.2005
From genesis to big bang: the integration and disintegration of knowledge about the universe. This day is devoted to the development of human thinking on the universe as a whole, ranging from the early myths to modern cosmology. Topics to be addressed are, in particular, the transfer of local knowledge to attempts at understanding the universe, such as the application of the black body model to the entire universe, and also the repercussion of global theories on local knowledge, as may be illustrated by the impact of the Copernican world view on the emergence of classical mechanics or the implications of big bang cosmology on particle physics.
Morning
session
 
9.00–9.40
The Large Perspective: from Genesis to Big Bang H. KRAGH
University of Aarhus
9.40–10.20 General Relativity as Physics: Evolution of a Conceptual Framework for Relativistic Gravity B. SCHUTZ
Max Planck Institute for Gravitational Physics
10.20–11.00
Coffee
11.00–11.40 How Cosmology Became Empirically Established J. PEEBLES
Princeton University
11.40–12.45 Discussion
12.45–14.15 Lunch
Afternoon
session
 
14.15
Contributed Talk 01/08
14.45 Contributed Talk 02/09
15.15
Contributed Talk 03/10
15.45 Coffee
16.15 Contributed Talk 04/11
16.45 Contributed Talk 05/12
17.15 Contributed Talk 06/13
17.45 Contributed Talk 07/14
18.30–20.00 Cultural Event
20.15 Bus to Hotel
Sunday
3.13.2005
Cosmology in the making: the tension between theory and practice. The focus of this day’s session, to be held at the Astrophysical Observatory, is the relation of observation and theory in today’s cosmological research. The topics to be discussed include distance measurement and the expansion of the universe, microwave observations and the inflationary model, active galaxies and black holes, and dark matter—observation and theory.
Morning
session
 
9.00–9.40
Observational Tests of General Relativity J. BECKMAN
Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias
9.40–10.20 Primordial Magnetic Fields and Cosmic Microwave Background E. BATTANER
Universidad de Granada
10.20–10.45
Coffee
10.45–11.25 Exploring the Bending of Light: Applications of Gravitational Lensing
P. SCHNEIDER
University of Bonn
11.25-12.00 Discussion
12.00 Lunch
Departure to the Astronomical Observatory and Las Cañadas National Park
Monday
3.14.2005
The dream of a final theory: borderline problems of physics in 1905 and 2005. This day’s aim is a comparative presentation of the problems on the borderline between different fields of physics today and a hundred years ago, and the possible consequences of such borderline problems on conceptual foundations. The treatment of borderline problems such as black-body radiation or the electrodynamics of moving bodies led, at the beginning of the last century, to the emergence of modern physics.
What kind of new concepts are required by comparable problems in today’s physics, such as the thermodynamics of black holes or the quantum structure of space time, demand and how will the resulting physics represent a final theory?
Morning
session
 
9.00–9.40
What is a Particle? Quantum Field Theory Meets General Relativity W. UNRUH
University of British Columbia
9.40–10.20 Geometry, Gravity and the Quantum A. ASHTEKAR
Pennsylvania State University
10.20–10.45
Coffee
10.45–11.25 The Border between Relativity and Quantum Theory T. DRAY
Oregon State University
11.25–12.05 The History and Present Status of Quantum Field Theory in Curved Spacetime R. WALD
University of Chicago
12.05-12.45 Discussion
12.45–14.15 Lunch
Afternoon
session
 
14.15
Contributed Talk 15/19
14.45 Contributed Talk 16/20
15.15 Contributed Talk 17/21
15.45 Contributed Talk 18/22
16.15 Coffee
16.45–18.15 Session dedicated to the memory of P. Havas and P. Bergmann
Evening
session
 
18.30–20.00 Final Round Table
21.00 Conference Dinner
Tuesday
3.15.2005
Departure
   

 

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