in collaboration with the Doctoral Programme of the VUB invites everyone to the 36th of its interdisciplinary seminars in the Foundations series. In this series CLEA invites scholars that are actively engaged in the research on the foundations of a particular discipline. Their lectures will always be directed to an interdisciplinary audience, and the discussions aim at confronting the foundations of the different disciplines.

New Aspects in Relativity

by Prof. Dr. Constantin Piron

(Professor at the Département de Physique Théorique, Université de Genève)

Thursday, May 20, 1999 at 5 p.m. in room 4/C 301 (building C, 4 th floor)

Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Campus Oefenplein

About the lecture

Relativity was elaborated by A. Einstein at the very beginning of this century. The incredible precision of the measurements in relativity not only confirmed basic principles but also revealed what was unclear even for Einstein himself. Indeed, the role of the Minkowski space, the interpretation of active Lorentz transformations, and the coherence of causality with quantum phenomena have now been clarified. We will explain such progress, and in particular the definition of the time coordinate. This changes our window on what is the reality of the physical world in which we live.

About the speaker

Constantin Piron was trained as a physicist at the Ecole Polytechnique de Lausanne. His work lies at the basis of an influential axiomatic approach to quantum mechanics. Philosophically speaking he is a realist, and the last decade he works at the elaboration of a realist approach to relativity theory. He has published two books 'Foundations of Quantum Physics' (1976) and 'Mécanique quantique, bases et applications' (1990), and many scientific articles. Currently he is professor of theoretical physics at the University of Geneva, Switzerland.

The presentation with questions will last about an hour. Afterwards, an hour or more is reserved for an in-depth, group discussion of the topic.

More info at the CLEA office: phone 02-644 26 77 or via the Web-page: http://cleamc11.vub.ac.be/CLEA/