EPJ H Special Issue: History for Physics: Contextualizing modern developments in the foundations of quantum theory

Details

Published on 15 November 2021

Update on 14 February 2025: This special issue of EPJ H on "History for Physics: Contextualizing modern developments in the foundations of quantum theory" has been published and all articles can be found here. As the Editorial refers and links to the original Call for Papers we have kept it here on the website for further information.

Call for Papers (Closed)

The aim of this special issue is to create an opportunity for mutually beneficial collaboration between professional historians of physics and active researchers in physics by welcoming submissions of "tandem papers". A tandem paper jointly features two parts; a part written by a historian of physics and a part written by a physicist. Both of these parts are supposed to treat one and the same aspect of a foundational issue involving quantum theory in a broad sense. In their respective parts, each author treats this aspect from their own respective perspective: The physicist contributes to the description of the state of the art of an open problem or debated phenomenon related to quantum physics, whereas the historian provides an appropriate historical account related to this actual case. The two parts, when being joined, should in particular present a form of togetherness. However, the precise shaping and proportioning of the parts are left to the authors. The responsible guest editors for this special issue offer help in finding matching co-authors for a tandem paper.

By bridging contemporary topics in physics with their historical context in this way, this special issue hopes to draw attention to the history of physics as a subject of study and research for the active practitioner in physics; but also hopes to encourage historians of physics to engage with contemporary questions in physics, to possibly draw from this inspiration, or recognize need, for further historical research.

This special issue welcomes tandem papers covering any topic dealing with conceptual problems involving quantum theory. Such topics can for example be taken from, but are not limited to, the fields of quantum foundations, quantum information, quantum field theory, quantum gravity, quantum thermodynamics, or mathematical aspects of quantum theory.

Manuscripts should be prepared following the instructions for authors. We would appreciate receiving one column articles prepared in LaTeX and encourage authors to use the Springer Nature LaTeX template but Word files are also accepted.

Articles should be submitted to the Editorial Office of EPJ H via the submission system, and should be clearly identified as intended for the topical issue “History for Physics: Contextualizing modern developments in the foundations of quantum theory”.

Tandems interested in contributing to this special issue are kindly asked to contact the guest editors beforehand.

Guest editors
Bernadette Lessel, Max Planck Institute for the History of Science, This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Flavio Del Santo, Institute for Quantum Optics and Quantum Information, Austrian Academy of Sciences, This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Open Access: EPJ H is a hybrid Transformative Journal (TJ), offering Open Access publication via the Open Choice programme and a growing number of Springer Compact “Publish and Read” arrangements which enable authors to publish OA at no direct cost (all costs are paid centrally). Independently of the authors’ choice, the guest editors of this special issue fully support open accessibility of knowledge and therefore strongly encourage authors to upload their preprints to open online repositories such as [ArXiv:physics.hist-ph].