ESHS/HSS Annual Meeting

Shifting Perspectives on Histories of Gravity and Mass 3

Session Submission Type: Organized Session

English Abstract

Investigations of gravity and mass have continually reshaped the methods, boundaries, and ambitions of physical inquiry. From classical gravitation to general relativity, from unified field theories to quantum gravity, the pursuit of these problems has transformed both the substance and the structure of physics. At the same time, historians of science have begun to re-examine how these transformations have been narrated, questioning canonical periodizations, highlighting neglected contexts, and revealing theplural trajectories through which research on gravity and mass has developed. This symposium explore how work on gravity and mass has reflected and driven changes in modern physics. Its contributions reassess established historiographies, challenge conventional narratives, and highlight the diverse intellectual, material, and institutional settings in which these lines of inquiry have evolved.

This symposium is sponsored by the Inter-Union Commission for the History and Philosophy of Physics (IUCHPP), a commission of the IUPAP and the DHST/IUHPST.

Sub Unit

• Organized Session

Chair

• Bernadette Lessel, Uni Bonn

Individual Presentations

• Shifting Perspectives on the Self-Energy Problem. The Contribution from the Early Years of Quantum Gravity (1930-1950) - ALESSIO ROCCI, Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB) and International Solvay Institutes

• Gravity in the Wake of the Standard Model: Dual String Theory, Supergravity, and Unification - Robert van Leeuwen, University of Amsterdam

• The Heuristic Influence of Mathematical Symmetries on 20th-Century Conceptions of Mass - Victoria Zwierzyk-Teles, University of Bonn & St Andrews

Session Organizers

• Jean-Philippe Martinez, Max Planck Institute for Gravitational Physics (Albert Einstein Institute)

• Bernadette Lessel, Uni Bonn

• Robert van Leeuwen, University of Amsterdam