Description:

There have been many recent discussions of the ‘replication crisis’ in psychology and other social sciences.

This has been attributed, in part, to the fact that researchers hesitate to submit null results and journals fail to publish such results. In this book Allan Franklin and Ronald Laymon analyze what constitutes a null result and present evidence, covering a 400-year history, that null results play significant roles in physics.

Contents:

Acknowledgments

Author biographies

1. Introduction • References

Part I:  Falling bodies and the universality of free fall

2. Galileo and free fall • References

3. Newton’s pendulum experiment and replications by Bessel and Potter • Newton’s pendulum experiment • The experiments of Bessel and of Potter

4. The Eötvös torsional pendulum • References

5. The Fifth Force and Eötvös redux • The rise of the Fifth Force • Its fall • Tests of the weak equivalence principle • References

6. Do falling bodies move south? • References

Part II: Is there an ether?

7. The Michelson–Morley experiments of 1881 and 1887 • The experiments • Reaction to the Michelson-Morley null result • Early replications by Morley and Dayton Miller • Einstein and beyond • Replications by Kennedy, Illingworth, Joos and others • References

8. Dayton Miller and the ‘cosmic’ solution • Miller’s (1933) paper • Shankland’s 1955 reanalysis of Dayton Miller’s data • Roberts’ 2006 analysis of Dayton Miller’s data • References

Part III: Search for ...

9. Physics beyond the standard model • Search for SUSY in multijet events with missing transverse momentum in proton-proton collisions at 13 TeV (Sirunyan et al 2017) • Search for top squarks and dark matter particles in opposite-charge dilepton final states at  vs = 13 TeV (Sirunyan et al 2018) • Discussion • References

10. Neutrinoless double beta decay • The problem • The early experiments • The critics • The second generation experiments • Discussion • References

11. Conclusion • How do we know it is null result • The appraisal of systematic and statistical uncertainty • Sensitivity, calibration and surrogate signals • Idealization and appoximation • Sensitivity with respect to data analysis • The roles of theory • Theories of the phenomena • Theories of the apparatus • replication in physics and the social sciences • References

About the Authors:

Allan Franklin is a professor of physics emeritus at the University of Colorado. He began his career as an experimental high-energy physicist and later changed his research area to history and philosophy of science, particularly on the roles of experiments. He has twice been chair of the Forum on the History of Physics of the American Physical Society and served two terms on the Executive Council of the Philosophy of Science Association. In 2016, Franklin received the Abraham Pais Prize for History of Physics from the American Physical Society. He is the author of eleven books including most recently Shifting Standards: Experiments in Particle Physics in the Twentieth Century, What Makes a Good Experiment?: Reasons and Roles in Science, and Is It the Same Result? Replication in Physics.

Ronald Laymon is professor of philosophy emeritus at the Ohio State University where he specialized in the history and philosophy of science. He has published widely, was the recipient of multiple National Science Foundation research grants, was a fellow at the Center for the Philosophy of Science at the University of Pittsburgh, and a resident scholar at the Rockefeller Foundation’s villa in Bellagio. In 1995, he took advantage of an early retirement option and completed a law degree at the University of Chicago School of Law in 1997. He then went on to practice large-scale commercial litigation at the Jones Day law firm, where he had the good fortune to serve as second chair on a case before the United States Supreme Court. Now retired from the full time practice of law, Laymon does consulting work for a biotech, intellectual property firm that facilitates the open source creation of therapeutic technologies. Retirement has also made it possible for Laymon to resurrect his interest and earlier work in the history and philosophy of science.

Target Audience:

Students and academicians of physics.