Zichert, Michael and Wüthrich, Adrian (2024) Tracing the Development of the Virtual Particle Concept Using Semantic Change Detection. [Preprint]
![[img]](https://philsci-archive.pitt.edu/style/images/fileicons/text.png) |
Text (To be published in Proceedings of the Computational Humanities Research Conference 2024)
scdvp.pdf - Accepted Version Available under License Creative Commons Attribution. Download (1MB) |
Abstract
Virtual particles are peculiar objects. They figure prominently in much of theoretical and experimental research in elementary particle physics. But exactly what they are is far from obvious. In particular, to what extent they should be considered "real" remains a matter of controversy in philosophy of science. Also their origin and development has only recently come into focus of scholarship in the history of science. In this study, we propose using the intriguing case of virtual particles to discuss the efficacy of Semantic Change Detection (SCD) based on contextualized word embeddings from a domain-adapted BERT model in studying specific scientific concepts. We find that the SCD metrics align well with qualitative research insights in the history and philosophy of science, as well as with the results obtained from Dependency Parsing to determine the frequency and connotations of the term "virtual." Still, the metrics of SCD provide additional insights over and above the qualitative research and the Dependency Parsing. Among other things, the metrics suggest that the concept of the virtual particle became more stable after 1950 but at the same time also more polysemous.
| Export/Citation: | EndNote | BibTeX | Dublin Core | ASCII/Text Citation (Chicago) | HTML Citation | OpenURL |
| Social Networking: |
| Item Type: | Preprint | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Creators: |
|
|||||||||
| Keywords: | Semantic change detection, digital conceptual history, history and philosophy of science, virtual particle | |||||||||
| Subjects: | Specific Sciences > Physics > Fields and Particles General Issues > History of Science Case Studies Specific Sciences > Physics > Quantum Field Theory |
|||||||||
| Depositing User: | Unnamed user with email m.zichert@tu-berlin.de | |||||||||
| Date Deposited: | 22 Oct 2024 12:12 | |||||||||
| Last Modified: | 23 Oct 2024 17:40 | |||||||||
| Item ID: | 24098 | |||||||||
| Subjects: | Specific Sciences > Physics > Fields and Particles General Issues > History of Science Case Studies Specific Sciences > Physics > Quantum Field Theory |
|||||||||
| Date: | October 2024 | |||||||||
| URI: | https://philsci-archive.pitt.edu/id/eprint/24098 |
Monthly Views for the past 3 years
Monthly Downloads for the past 3 years
Plum Analytics
Actions (login required)
 |
View Item |
![[feed]](http://philsci-archive.pitt.edu/style/images/feed-icon-32x32.png){kind=icon}