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Theoretical physics

January 20, 2023

Theoretical physics is a branch of physics that employs mathematical models and abstractions of physical objects and systems to rationalize, explain and predict natural phenomena. This is in contrast to experimental physics, which uses experimental tools to probe these phenomena.

Visual representation of a Schwarzschild wormhole. Wormholes have never been observed, but they are predicted to exist through mathematical models and scientific theory.

The advancement of science generally depends on the interplay between experimental studies and theory. In some cases, theoretical physics adheres to standards of mathematical rigour while giving little weight to experiments and observations.[a] For example, while developing special relativity, Albert Einstein was concerned with the Lorentz transformation which left Maxwell's equations invariant, but was apparently uninterested in the Michelson–Morley experiment on Earth's drift through a luminiferous aether.[1] Conversely, Einstein was awarded the Nobel Prize for explaining the photoelectric effect, previously an experimental result lacking a theoretical formulation.[2]

Overview

A physical theory is a model of physical events. It is judged by the extent to which its predictions agree with empirical observations. The quality of a physical theory is also judged on its ability to make new predictions which can be verified by new observations. A physical theory differs from a mathematical theorem in that while both are based on some form of axioms, judgment of mathematical applicability is not based on agreement with any experimental results.[3][4] A physical theory similarly differs from a mathematical theory, in the sense that the word "theory" has a different meaning in mathematical terms.[b]

  The equations for an Einstein manifold, used in general relativity to describe the curvature of spacetime

A physical theory involves one or more relationships between various measurable quantities. Archimedes realized that a ship floats by displacing its mass of water, Pythagoras understood the relation between the length of a vibrating string and the musical tone it produces.[5][6] Other examples include entropy as a measure of the uncertainty regarding the positions and motions of unseen particles and the quantum mechanical idea that (action and) energy are not continuously variable.

Theoretical physics consists of several different approaches. In this regard, theoretical particle physics forms a good example. For instance: "phenomenologists" might employ (semi-) empirical formulas and heuristics to agree with experimental results, often without deep physical understanding.[c] "Modelers" (also called "model-builders") often appear much like phenomenologists, but try to model speculative theories that have certain desirable features (rather than on experimental data), or apply the techniques of mathematical modeling to physics problems.[d] Some attempt to create approximate theories, called effective theories, because fully developed theories may be regarded as unsolvable or too complicated. Other theorists may try to unify, formalise, reinterpret or generalise extant theories, or create completely new ones altogether.[e] Sometimes the vision provided by pure mathematical systems can provide clues to how a physical system might be modeled;[f] e.g., the notion, due to Riemann and others, that space itself might be curved. Theoretical problems that need computational investigation are often the concern of computational physics.

Theoretical advances may consist in setting aside old, incorrect paradigms (e.g., aether theory of light propagation, caloric theory of heat, burning consisting of evolving phlogiston, or astronomical bodies revolving around the Earth) or may be an alternative model that provides answers that are more accurate or that can be more widely applied. In the latter case, a correspondence principle will be required to recover the previously known result.[7][8] Sometimes though, advances may proceed along different paths. For example, an essentially correct theory may need some conceptual or factual revisions; atomic theory, first postulated millennia ago (by several thinkers in Greece and India) and the two-fluid theory of electricity[9] are two cases in this point. However, an exception to all the above is the wave–particle duality, a theory combining aspects of different, opposing models via the Bohr complementarity principle.

 
Relationship between mathematics and physics

Physical theories become accepted if they are able to make correct predictions and no (or few) incorrect ones. The theory should have, at least as a secondary objective, a certain economy and elegance (compare to mathematical beauty), a notion sometimes called "Occam's razor" after the 13th-century English philosopher William of Occam (or Ockham), in which the simpler of two theories that describe the same matter just as adequately is preferred (but conceptual simplicity may mean mathematical complexity).[10] They are also more likely to be accepted if they connect a wide range of phenomena. Testing the consequences of a theory is part of the scientific method.

Physical theories can be grouped into three categories: mainstream theories, proposed theories and fringe theories.

History

Further information: History of physics

Theoretical physics began at least 2,300 years ago, under the Pre-socratic philosophy, and continued by Plato and Aristotle, whose views held sway for a millennium. During the rise of medieval universities, the only acknowledged intellectual disciplines were the seven liberal arts of the Trivium like grammar, logic, and rhetoric and of the Quadrivium like arithmetic, geometry, music and astronomy. During the Middle Ages and Renaissance, the concept of experimental science, the counterpoint to theory, began with scholars such as Ibn al-Haytham and Francis Bacon. As the Scientific Revolution gathered pace, the concepts of matter, energy, space, time and causality slowly began to acquire the form we know today, and other sciences spun off from the rubric of natural philosophy. Thus began the modern era of theory with the Copernican paradigm shift in astronomy, soon followed by Johannes Kepler's expressions for planetary orbits, which summarized the meticulous observations of Tycho Brahe; the works of these men (alongside Galileo's) can perhaps be considered to constitute the Scientific Revolution.

The great push toward the modern concept of explanation started with Galileo, one of the few physicists who was both a consummate theoretician and a great experimentalist. The analytic geometry and mechanics of Descartes were incorporated into the calculus and mechanics of Isaac Newton, another theoretician/experimentalist of the highest order, writing Principia Mathematica.[11] In it contained a grand synthesis of the work of Copernicus, Galileo and Kepler; as well as Newton's theories of mechanics and gravitation, which held sway as worldviews until the early 20th century. Simultaneously, progress was also made in optics (in particular colour theory and the ancient science of geometrical optics), courtesy of Newton, Descartes and the Dutchmen Snell and Huygens. In the 18th and 19th centuries Joseph-Louis Lagrange, Leonhard Euler and William Rowan Hamilton would extend the theory of classical mechanics considerably.[12] They picked up the interactive intertwining of mathematics and physics begun two millennia earlier by Pythagoras.

Among the great conceptual achievements of the 19th and 20th centuries were the consolidation of the idea of energy (as well as its global conservation) by the inclusion of heat, electricity and magnetism, and then light. The laws of thermodynamics, and most importantly the introduction of the singular concept of entropy began to provide a macroscopic explanation for the properties of matter. Statistical mechanics (followed by statistical physics and Quantum statistical mechanics) emerged as an offshoot of thermodynamics late in the 19th century. Another important event in the 19th century was the discovery of electromagnetic theory, unifying the previously separate phenomena of electricity, magnetism and light.

The pillars of modern physics, and perhaps the most revolutionary theories in the history of physics, have been relativity theory and quantum mechanics. Newtonian mechanics was subsumed under special relativity and Newton's gravity was given a kinematic explanation by general relativity. Quantum mechanics led to an understanding of blackbody radiation (which indeed, was an original motivation for the theory) and of anomalies in the specific heats of solids — and finally to an understanding of the internal structures of atoms and molecules. Quantum mechanics soon gave way to the formulation of quantum field theory (QFT), begun in the late 1920s. In the aftermath of World War 2, more progress brought much renewed interest in QFT, which had since the early efforts, stagnated. The same period also saw fresh attacks on the problems of superconductivity and phase transitions, as well as the first applications of QFT in the area of theoretical condensed matter. The 1960s and 70s saw the formulation of the Standard model of particle physics using QFT and progress in condensed matter physics (theoretical foundations of superconductivity and critical phenomena, among others), in parallel to the applications of relativity to problems in astronomy and cosmology respectively.

All of these achievements depended on the theoretical physics as a moving force both to suggest experiments and to consolidate results — often by ingenious application of existing mathematics, or, as in the case of Descartes and Newton (with Leibniz), by inventing new mathematics. Fourier's studies of heat conduction led to a new branch of mathematics: infinite, orthogonal series.[13]

Modern theoretical physics attempts to unify theories and explain phenomena in further attempts to understand the Universe, from the cosmological to the elementary particle scale. Where experimentation cannot be done, theoretical physics still tries to advance through the use of mathematical models.

Mainstream theories

Mainstream theories (sometimes referred to as central theories) are the body of knowledge of both factual and scientific views and possess a usual scientific quality of the tests of repeatability, consistency with existing well-established science and experimentation. There do exist mainstream theories that are generally accepted theories based solely upon their effects explaining a wide variety of data, although the detection, explanation, and possible composition are subjects of debate.

Examples

Proposed theories

The proposed theories of physics are usually relatively new theories which deal with the study of physics which include scientific approaches, means for determining the validity of models and new types of reasoning used to arrive at the theory. However, some proposed theories include theories that have been around for decades and have eluded methods of discovery and testing. Proposed theories can include fringe theories in the process of becoming established (and, sometimes, gaining wider acceptance). Proposed theories usually have not been tested. In addition to the theories like those listed below, there are also different interpretations of quantum mechanics, which may or may not be considered different theories since it is debatable whether they yield different predictions for physical experiments, even in principle. For example, AdS/CFT correspondence, Chern–Simons theory, graviton, magnetic monopole, string theory, theory of everything.


Fringe theories

Fringe theories include any new area of scientific endeavor in the process of becoming established and some proposed theories. It can include speculative sciences. This includes physics fields and physical theories presented in accordance with known evidence, and a body of associated predictions have been made according to that theory.

Some fringe theories go on to become a widely accepted part of physics. Other fringe theories end up being disproven. Some fringe theories are a form of protoscience and others are a form of pseudoscience. The falsification of the original theory sometimes leads to reformulation of the theory.

Examples

Thought experiments vs real experiments

Main article: Thought experiment

"Thought" experiments are situations created in one's mind, asking a question akin to "suppose you are in this situation, assuming such is true, what would follow?". They are usually created to investigate phenomena that are not readily experienced in every-day situations. Famous examples of such thought experiments are Schrödinger's cat, the EPR thought experiment, simple illustrations of time dilation, and so on. These usually lead to real experiments designed to verify that the conclusion (and therefore the assumptions) of the thought experiments are correct. The EPR thought experiment led to the Bell inequalities, which were then tested to various degrees of rigor, leading to the acceptance of the current formulation of quantum mechanics and probabilism as a working hypothesis.

See also

Notes

  1. ^ There is some debate as to whether or not theoretical physics uses mathematics to build intuition and illustrativeness to extract physical insight (especially when normal experience fails), rather than as a tool in formalizing theories. This links to the question of it using mathematics in a less formally rigorous, and more intuitive or heuristic way than, say, mathematical physics.
  2. ^ Sometimes the word "theory" can be used ambiguously in this sense, not to describe scientific theories, but research (sub)fields and programmes. Examples: relativity theory, quantum field theory, string theory.
  3. ^ The work of Johann Balmer and Johannes Rydberg in spectroscopy, and the semi-empirical mass formula of nuclear physics are good candidates for examples of this approach.
  4. ^ The Ptolemaic and Copernican models of the Solar system, the Bohr model of hydrogen atoms and nuclear shell model are good candidates for examples of this approach.
  5. ^ Arguably these are the most celebrated theories in physics: Newton's theory of gravitation, Einstein's theory of relativity and Maxwell's theory of electromagnetism share some of these attributes.
  6. ^ This approach is often favoured by (pure) mathematicians and mathematical physicists.

References

  1. ^ van Dongen, Jeroen (2009). "On the role of the Michelson-Morley experiment: Einstein in Chicago". Archive for History of Exact Sciences. 63 (6): 655–663. arXiv:0908.1545. doi:10.1007/s00407-009-0050-5.
  2. ^ "The Nobel Prize in Physics 1921". The Nobel Foundation. Retrieved 2008-10-09.
  3. ^ Theorems and Theories 2014-08-19 at the Wayback Machine, Sam Nelson.
  4. ^ Mark C. Chu-Carroll, March 13, 2007:Theorems, Lemmas, and Corollaries.[permanent dead link] Good Math, Bad Math blog.
  5. ^ Singiresu S. Rao (2007). Vibration of Continuous Systems (illustrated ed.). John Wiley & Sons. 5,12. ISBN 978-0471771715. ISBN 9780471771715
  6. ^ Eli Maor (2007). The Pythagorean Theorem: A 4,000-year History (illustrated ed.). Princeton University Press. pp. 18–20. ISBN 978-0691125268. ISBN 9780691125268
  7. ^ Bokulich, Alisa, "Bohr's Correspondence Principle", The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Spring 2014 Edition), Edward N. Zalta (ed.)
  8. ^ Enc. Britannica (1994), pg 844.
  9. ^ Enc. Britannica (1994), pg 834.
  10. ^ Simplicity in the Philosophy of Science (retrieved 19 Aug 2014), Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy.
  11. ^ See 'Correspondence of Isaac Newton, vol.2, 1676–1687' ed. H W Turnbull, Cambridge University Press 1960; at page 297, document #235, letter from Hooke to Newton dated 24 November 1679.
  12. ^ Penrose, R (2004). The Road to Reality. Jonathan Cape. p. 471.
  13. ^ Penrose, R (2004). "9: Fourier decompositions and hyperfunctions". The Road to Reality. Jonathan Cape.

Further reading

  • Physical Sciences. Encyclopædia Britannica (Macropaedia). Vol. 25 (15th ed.). 1994.
  • Duhem, Pierre. La théorie physique - Son objet, sa structure, (in French). 2nd edition - 1914. English translation: The physical theory - its purpose, its structure. Republished by Joseph Vrin philosophical bookstore (1981), ISBN 2711602214.
  • Feynman, et al. The Feynman Lectures on Physics (3 vol.). First edition: Addison–Wesley, (1964, 1966).
Bestselling three-volume textbook covering the span of physics. Reference for both (under)graduate student and professional researcher alike.
Famous series of books dealing with theoretical concepts in physics covering 10 volumes, translated into many languages and reprinted over many editions. Often known simply as "Landau and Lifschits" or "Landau-Lifschits" in the literature.
A set of lectures given in 1909 at Columbia University.
A series of lessons from a master educator of theoretical physicists.

External links

 
Wikibooks has a book on the topic of: Introduction to Theoretical Physics
  • MIT Center for Theoretical Physics
  • How to become a GOOD Theoretical Physicist, a website made by Gerard 't Hooft

January 20, 2023
theoretical, physics, branch, physics, that, employs, mathematical, models, abstractions, physical, objects, systems, rationalize, explain, predict, natural, phenomena, this, contrast, experimental, physics, which, uses, experimental, tools, probe, these, phen. Theoretical physics is a branch of physics that employs mathematical models and abstractions of physical objects and systems to rationalize explain and predict natural phenomena This is in contrast to experimental physics which uses experimental tools to probe these phenomena Visual representation of a Schwarzschild wormhole Wormholes have never been observed but they are predicted to exist through mathematical models and scientific theory The advancement of science generally depends on the interplay between experimental studies and theory In some cases theoretical physics adheres to standards of mathematical rigour while giving little weight to experiments and observations a For example while developing special relativity Albert Einstein was concerned with the Lorentz transformation which left Maxwell s equations invariant but was apparently uninterested in the Michelson Morley experiment on Earth s drift through a luminiferous aether 1 Conversely Einstein was awarded the Nobel Prize for explaining the photoelectric effect previously an experimental result lacking a theoretical formulation 2 Contents 1 Overview 2 History 3 Mainstream theories 3 1 Examples 4 Proposed theories 5 Fringe theories 5 1 Examples 6 Thought experiments vs real experiments 7 See also 8 Notes 9 References 10 Further reading 11 External linksOverviewA physical theory is a model of physical events It is judged by the extent to which its predictions agree with empirical observations The quality of a physical theory is also judged on its ability to make new predictions which can be verified by new observations A physical theory differs from a mathematical theorem in that while both are based on some form of axioms judgment of mathematical applicability is not based on agreement with any experimental results 3 4 A physical theory similarly differs from a mathematical theory in the sense that the word theory has a different meaning in mathematical terms b R i c k g displaystyle mathrm Ric kg The equations for an Einstein manifold used in general relativity to describe the curvature of spacetime A physical theory involves one or more relationships between various measurable quantities Archimedes realized that a ship floats by displacing its mass of water Pythagoras understood the relation between the length of a vibrating string and the musical tone it produces 5 6 Other examples include entropy as a measure of the uncertainty regarding the positions and motions of unseen particles and the quantum mechanical idea that action and energy are not continuously variable Theoretical physics consists of several different approaches In this regard theoretical particle physics forms a good example For instance phenomenologists might employ semi empirical formulas and heuristics to agree with experimental results often without deep physical understanding c Modelers also called model builders often appear much like phenomenologists but try to model speculative theories that have certain desirable features rather than on experimental data or apply the techniques of mathematical modeling to physics problems d Some attempt to create approximate theories called effective theories because fully developed theories may be regarded as unsolvable or too complicated Other theorists may try to unify formalise reinterpret or generalise extant theories or create completely new ones altogether e Sometimes the vision provided by pure mathematical systems can provide clues to how a physical system might be modeled f e g the notion due to Riemann and others that space itself might be curved Theoretical problems that need computational investigation are often the concern of computational physics Theoretical advances may consist in setting aside old incorrect paradigms e g aether theory of light propagation caloric theory of heat burning consisting of evolving phlogiston or astronomical bodies revolving around the Earth or may be an alternative model that provides answers that are more accurate or that can be more widely applied In the latter case a correspondence principle will be required to recover the previously known result 7 8 Sometimes though advances may proceed along different paths For example an essentially correct theory may need some conceptual or factual revisions atomic theory first postulated millennia ago by several thinkers in Greece and India and the two fluid theory of electricity 9 are two cases in this point However an exception to all the above is the wave particle duality a theory combining aspects of different opposing models via the Bohr complementarity principle Relationship between mathematics and physics Physical theories become accepted if they are able to make correct predictions and no or few incorrect ones The theory should have at least as a secondary objective a certain economy and elegance compare to mathematical beauty a notion sometimes called Occam s razor after the 13th century English philosopher William of Occam or Ockham in which the simpler of two theories that describe the same matter just as adequately is preferred but conceptual simplicity may mean mathematical complexity 10 They are also more likely to be accepted if they connect a wide range of phenomena Testing the consequences of a theory is part of the scientific method Physical theories can be grouped into three categories mainstream theories proposed theories and fringe theories HistoryFurther information History of physics Theoretical physics began at least 2 300 years ago under the Pre socratic philosophy and continued by Plato and Aristotle whose views held sway for a millennium During the rise of medieval universities the only acknowledged intellectual disciplines were the seven liberal arts of the Trivium like grammar logic and rhetoric and of the Quadrivium like arithmetic geometry music and astronomy During the Middle Ages and Renaissance the concept of experimental science the counterpoint to theory began with scholars such as Ibn al Haytham and Francis Bacon As the Scientific Revolution gathered pace the concepts of matter energy space time and causality slowly began to acquire the form we know today and other sciences spun off from the rubric of natural philosophy Thus began the modern era of theory with the Copernican paradigm shift in astronomy soon followed by Johannes Kepler s expressions for planetary orbits which summarized the meticulous observations of Tycho Brahe the works of these men alongside Galileo s can perhaps be considered to constitute the Scientific Revolution The great push toward the modern concept of explanation started with Galileo one of the few physicists who was both a consummate theoretician and a great experimentalist The analytic geometry and mechanics of Descartes were incorporated into the calculus and mechanics of Isaac Newton another theoretician experimentalist of the highest order writing Principia Mathematica 11 In it contained a grand synthesis of the work of Copernicus Galileo and Kepler as well as Newton s theories of mechanics and gravitation which held sway as worldviews until the early 20th century Simultaneously progress was also made in optics in particular colour theory and the ancient science of geometrical optics courtesy of Newton Descartes and the Dutchmen Snell and Huygens In the 18th and 19th centuries Joseph Louis Lagrange Leonhard Euler and William Rowan Hamilton would extend the theory of classical mechanics considerably 12 They picked up the interactive intertwining of mathematics and physics begun two millennia earlier by Pythagoras Among the great conceptual achievements of the 19th and 20th centuries were the consolidation of the idea of energy as well as its global conservation by the inclusion of heat electricity and magnetism and then light The laws of thermodynamics and most importantly the introduction of the singular concept of entropy began to provide a macroscopic explanation for the properties of matter Statistical mechanics followed by statistical physics and Quantum statistical mechanics emerged as an offshoot of thermodynamics late in the 19th century Another important event in the 19th century was the discovery of electromagnetic theory unifying the previously separate phenomena of electricity magnetism and light The pillars of modern physics and perhaps the most revolutionary theories in the history of physics have been relativity theory and quantum mechanics Newtonian mechanics was subsumed under special relativity and Newton s gravity was given a kinematic explanation by general relativity Quantum mechanics led to an understanding of blackbody radiation which indeed was an original motivation for the theory and of anomalies in the specific heats of solids and finally to an understanding of the internal structures of atoms and molecules Quantum mechanics soon gave way to the formulation of quantum field theory QFT begun in the late 1920s In the aftermath of World War 2 more progress brought much renewed interest in QFT which had since the early efforts stagnated The same period also saw fresh attacks on the problems of superconductivity and phase transitions as well as the first applications of QFT in the area of theoretical condensed matter The 1960s and 70s saw the formulation of the Standard model of particle physics using QFT and progress in condensed matter physics theoretical foundations of superconductivity and critical phenomena among others in parallel to the applications of relativity to problems in astronomy and cosmology respectively All of these achievements depended on the theoretical physics as a moving force both to suggest experiments and to consolidate results often by ingenious application of existing mathematics or as in the case of Descartes and Newton with Leibniz by inventing new mathematics Fourier s studies of heat conduction led to a new branch of mathematics infinite orthogonal series 13 Modern theoretical physics attempts to unify theories and explain phenomena in further attempts to understand the Universe from the cosmological to the elementary particle scale Where experimentation cannot be done theoretical physics still tries to advance through the use of mathematical models Mainstream theoriesMainstream theories sometimes referred to as central theories are the body of knowledge of both factual and scientific views and possess a usual scientific quality of the tests of repeatability consistency with existing well established science and experimentation There do exist mainstream theories that are generally accepted theories based solely upon their effects explaining a wide variety of data although the detection explanation and possible composition are subjects of debate Examples Analog models of gravity Big Bang Causality Chaos theory Classical field theory Classical mechanics Condensed matter physics including solid state physics and the electronic structure of materials Conservation law Conservation of angular momentum Conservation of energy Conservation of mass Conservation of momentum Continuum mechanics Cosmic censorship hypothesis Cosmological Constant CPT symmetry Dark matter Dynamics Dynamo theory Electromagnetism Electroweak interaction Field theory Fluctuation theorem Fluid dynamics Fluid mechanics Fundamental interaction General relativity Gravitational constant Heisenberg s uncertainty principle Kinetic theory of gases Laws of thermodynamics Maxwell s equations Newton s laws of motion Pauli exclusion principle Perturbation theory quantum mechanics Physical cosmology Planck constant Poincare recurrence theorem Quantum biology Quantum chaos Quantum chromodynamics Quantum complexity theory Quantum computing Quantum dynamics Quantum electrochemistry Quantum electrodynamics Quantum field theory Quantum field theory in curved spacetime Quantum geometry Quantum information theory Quantum logic Quantum mechanics Quantum optics Quantum physics Quantum thermodynamics Relativistic quantum mechanics Scattering theory Solid mechanics Special relativity Spin statistics theorem Spontaneous symmetry breaking Standard Model Statistical mechanics Statistical physics Theory of relativity Thermodynamics Wave particle duality Weak interactionProposed theoriesThe proposed theories of physics are usually relatively new theories which deal with the study of physics which include scientific approaches means for determining the validity of models and new types of reasoning used to arrive at the theory However some proposed theories include theories that have been around for decades and have eluded methods of discovery and testing Proposed theories can include fringe theories in the process of becoming established and sometimes gaining wider acceptance Proposed theories usually have not been tested In addition to the theories like those listed below there are also different interpretations of quantum mechanics which may or may not be considered different theories since it is debatable whether they yield different predictions for physical experiments even in principle For example AdS CFT correspondence Chern Simons theory graviton magnetic monopole string theory theory of everything Fringe theoriesFringe theories include any new area of scientific endeavor in the process of becoming established and some proposed theories It can include speculative sciences This includes physics fields and physical theories presented in accordance with known evidence and a body of associated predictions have been made according to that theory Some fringe theories go on to become a widely accepted part of physics Other fringe theories end up being disproven Some fringe theories are a form of protoscience and others are a form of pseudoscience The falsification of the original theory sometimes leads to reformulation of the theory Examples Aether classical element Luminiferous aether Digital physics Electrogravitics Stochastic electrodynamics Tesla s dynamic theory of gravityThought experiments vs real experimentsMain article Thought experiment Thought experiments are situations created in one s mind asking a question akin to suppose you are in this situation assuming such is true what would follow They are usually created to investigate phenomena that are not readily experienced in every day situations Famous examples of such thought experiments are Schrodinger s cat the EPR thought experiment simple illustrations of time dilation and so on These usually lead to real experiments designed to verify that the conclusion and therefore the assumptions of the thought experiments are correct The EPR thought experiment led to the Bell inequalities which were then tested to various degrees of rigor leading to the acceptance of the current formulation of quantum mechanics and probabilism as a working hypothesis See alsoList of theoretical physicists Philosophy of physics Symmetry in quantum mechanics Timeline of developments in theoretical physicsNotes There is some debate as to whether or not theoretical physics uses mathematics to build intuition and illustrativeness to extract physical insight especially when normal experience fails rather than as a tool in formalizing theories This links to the question of it using mathematics in a less formally rigorous and more intuitive or heuristic way than say mathematical physics Sometimes the word theory can be used ambiguously in this sense not to describe scientific theories but research sub fields and programmes Examples relativity theory quantum field theory string theory The work of Johann Balmer and Johannes Rydberg in spectroscopy and the semi empirical mass formula of nuclear physics are good candidates for examples of this approach The Ptolemaic and Copernican models of the Solar system the Bohr model of hydrogen atoms and nuclear shell model are good candidates for examples of this approach Arguably these are the most celebrated theories in physics Newton s theory of gravitation Einstein s theory of relativity and Maxwell s theory of electromagnetism share some of these attributes This approach is often favoured by pure mathematicians and mathematical physicists References van Dongen Jeroen 2009 On the role of the Michelson Morley experiment Einstein in Chicago Archive for History of Exact Sciences 63 6 655 663 arXiv 0908 1545 doi 10 1007 s00407 009 0050 5 The Nobel Prize in Physics 1921 The Nobel Foundation Retrieved 2008 10 09 Theorems and Theories Archived 2014 08 19 at the Wayback Machine Sam Nelson Mark C Chu Carroll March 13 2007 Theorems Lemmas and Corollaries permanent dead link Good Math Bad Math blog Singiresu S Rao 2007 Vibration of Continuous Systems illustrated ed John Wiley amp Sons 5 12 ISBN 978 0471771715 ISBN 9780471771715 Eli Maor 2007 The Pythagorean Theorem A 4 000 year History illustrated ed Princeton University Press pp 18 20 ISBN 978 0691125268 ISBN 9780691125268 Bokulich Alisa Bohr s Correspondence Principle The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy Spring 2014 Edition Edward N Zalta ed Enc Britannica 1994 pg 844 Enc Britannica 1994 pg 834 Simplicity in the Philosophy of Science retrieved 19 Aug 2014 Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy See Correspondence of Isaac Newton vol 2 1676 1687 ed H W Turnbull Cambridge University Press 1960 at page 297 document 235 letter from Hooke to Newton dated 24 November 1679 Penrose R 2004 The Road to Reality Jonathan Cape p 471 Penrose R 2004 9 Fourier decompositions and hyperfunctions The Road to Reality Jonathan Cape Further readingPhysical Sciences Encyclopaedia Britannica Macropaedia Vol 25 15th ed 1994 Duhem Pierre La theorie physique Son objet sa structure in French 2nd edition 1914 English translation The physical theory its purpose its structure Republished by Joseph Vrin philosophical bookstore 1981 ISBN 2711602214 Feynman et al The Feynman Lectures on Physics 3 vol First edition Addison Wesley 1964 1966 Bestselling three volume textbook covering the span of physics Reference for both under graduate student and professional researcher alike Landau et al Course of Theoretical Physics Famous series of books dealing with theoretical concepts in physics covering 10 volumes translated into many languages and reprinted over many editions Often known simply as Landau and Lifschits or Landau Lifschits in the literature Longair MS Theoretical Concepts in Physics An Alternative View of Theoretical Reasoning in Physics Cambridge University Press 2d edition 4 Dec 2003 ISBN 052152878X ISBN 978 0521528788 Planck Max 1909 Eight Lectures on theoretical physics Library of Alexandria ISBN 1465521887 ISBN 9781465521880 A set of lectures given in 1909 at Columbia University Sommerfeld Arnold Vorlesungen uber theoretische Physik Lectures on Theoretical Physics German 6 volumes A series of lessons from a master educator of theoretical physicists External links Wikibooks has a book on the topic of Introduction to Theoretical Physics MIT Center for Theoretical Physics How to become a GOOD Theoretical Physicist a website made by Gerard t Hooft Retrieved from https en wikipedia org w index php title Theoretical physics amp oldid 1121519130, wikipedia, wiki, book, books, library,

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