Quantum Times
Subtitle: Physics, Philosophy, and Time in the Postwar United States
Contributors: Galison, Peter L.; Kaiser, David; Canales, Jimena
Published: 2013
Language: eng
Description: The concept of time in physics underwent significant changes in the decades following World War II. This dissertation considers several ways in which American physicists grappled with these changes, analyzing the extent to which philosophical methods and questions played a role in physicists' engagement with time. Two lines of questioning run through the dissertation. The first asks about the professional identities of postwar American physicists in relation to philosophy, as exemplified by their engagement with the concept of time. The second analyzes the heterogeneous nature of time in physics, and the range of presuppositions and assumptions that have constituted this "fundamental" physical concept.
Notes: Keywords: Atomic Clocks, CP Violation, Physics, Quantum Gravity, Time, United States.

Thesis Ph.D. Harvard University 2013