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Since general relativity may be regarded as a non-Abelian gauge theory obtained by gauging the Lorentz group, one may obtain its q-deformation by gauging the q-Lorentz group. The q-dependent action resulting from this construction describes interacting gravitational and spinor fields. This action is invariant under nonlocal q-transformations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It is well known that, following the emergence of the first evidence for an expanding universe, Albert Einstein banished the cosmological constant term from his cosmology. Indeed, he is reputed to have labelled the term, originally introduced to the field equations of general relativity in 1917 in order to predict a static universe, his "biggest blunder." However, serious doubts about this reported statement have been raised in recent years. We interrogate the legend of Einstein's "biggest blunder" statement in the context of our recent studies of Einstein's cosmology in his later years. We find that the remark is highly compatible with Einstein's cosmic models of the 1930s, with his later writings on cosmology, and with independent reports by at least three physicists. We conclude that there is little doubt that Einstein came to view the introduction of the cosmological constant term as a serious error and that he very likely labelled the term his "biggest blunder" on at least one occasion. This finding may be of some relevance for those theoreticians today who seek to describe the recently discovered acceleration in cosmic expansion without the use of a cosmological constant term. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Social constructionists believe that experimental evidence plays a minimal role in the production of scientific knowledge, while rationalists such as myself believe that experimental evidence is crucial in it. As one historical example in support of the rationalist position, I trace in some detail the theoretical and experimental research that led to our understanding of beta decay, from Enrico Fermi’s pioneering theory of 1934 to George Sudarshan and Robert Marshak’s and Richard Feynman and Murray Gell-Mann’s suggestion in 1957 and 1958, respectively, of the V– A theory of weak interactions. This is not a history of an unbroken string of successes, but one that includes incorrect experimental results, incorrect experiment-theory comparisons, and faulty theoretical analyses. Nevertheless, we shall see that the constraints that Nature imposed made the V– A theory an almost inevitable outcome of this theoretical and experimental research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Presents a list of papers presented at the 1977 annual meetings of the Public Choice Society held at Braniff Place in New Orleans, Louisiana from March 11 to 13, 2005.

Although there is no empirical motivation for replacing the commutators of dynamically conjugate operators in quantum mechanics by q-commutators, it appears possible to construct a consistent mathematical formulism based on this idea. To examine such a possibility further, we have studied the relation of this proposal to the Schwinger action principle, since the entire quantum mechanical formulism may be inferred from this principle. In particular, we have discussed the quantum transformation theory within this framework. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]