Some thoughts on theoretical physics

Abstract

Some thoughts are presented on the inter-relation between beauty and truth in science in general and theoretical physics in particular. Some conjectural procedures that can be used to create new ideas, concepts and results are illustrated in both Boltzmann-Gibbs and nonextensive statistical mechanics. The sociological components of scientific progress and its unavoidable and benefic controversies are, mainly through existing literary texts, briefly addressed as well.

arXiv commentShort essay based on the plenary talk given at the International Workshop on Trends and Perspectives in Extensive and Non-Extensive Statistical Mechanics, held in November 19-21, 2003, in Angra dos Reis, Brazil. To appear in a Physica A special volume (2004) edited by E.M.F. Curado, H.J. Herrmann and M. Barbosa. 23 pages, including 3 figures. The new version has 25 pages and the same figures. The texts by Saramago and by Bersanelli are now translated into English. A few typos and minor improvements are included as well

References in corpus (11)

• Anomalous diffusion in the presence of external forces: exact time-dependent solutions and entropy
• Nonextensivity and multifractality in low-dimensional dissipative systems
• Superdiffusion and Out-of-equilibrium Chaotic Dynamics with Many Degrees of Freedoms
• Universal renormalization-group dynamics at the onset of chaos in logistic maps and nonextensive statistical mechanics
• Nonextensive Pesin identity. Exact renormalization group analytical results for the dynamics at the edge of chaos of the logistic map
• The rate of entropy increase at the edge of chaos
• Nonequilibrium Probabilistic Dynamics of the Logistic Map at the Edge of Chaos
• Multiplicative noise: A mechanism leading to nonextensive statistical mechanics
• Convergence of the critical attractor of dissipative maps: Log-periodic oscillations, fractality and nonextensivity
• Convergence to the critical attractor of dissipative maps: Log-periodic oscillations, fractality and nonextensivity
• Comment on "Critique of q-entropy for thermal statistics" by M. Nauenberg

Cited by in corpus (10)

• Measurement of neutral mesons in p+p collisions at sqrt(s) = 200 GeV and scaling properties of hadron production
• Nonextensive hydrodynamics for relativistic heavy-ion collisions
• Multiplicity fluctuations due to the temperature fluctuations in high-energy nuclear collisions
• Modified Hagedorn formula including temperature fluctuation - Estimation of temperatures at RHIC experiments -
• Connections between Tsallis' formalisms employing the standard linear average energy and ones employing the normalized $q$-average energy
• A generalization of the central limit theorem consistent with nonextensive statistical mechanics
• Predictions of bond percolation thresholds for the kagomé and Archimedean $(3,12^2)$ lattices
• Extended Gaussian ensemble or q-statistics in hadronic production processes?
• Nonextensive thermal sources of cosmic rays?
• Physical Picture of the Insurance Market