Galileo as a commentator on Aristotle?: The reception of Galileo in the Jesuit Collegio Romano and University of Pisa, 1633--1700

Raphael, Renee J Princeton University 2009 해외박사(DDOD)

소속기관이 구독 중이 아닌 경우 오후 4시부터 익일 오전 9시까지 원문보기가 가능합니다.

This dissertation examines the reception of Galileo Galilei's final published work, the 1638 Discorsi e Dimostrazioni Matematiche, intorno a due nuove Scienze ("Two New Sciences"), from its publication to the end of the seventeenth century. In Part One, I rely on extant archival manuscript texts and printed materials in order to trace the incorporation of specific elements of Galileo's Discorsi in teaching at the University of Pisa and Collegio Romano during the seventeenth century. Chapter One examines the reception of the Discorsi at the University of Pisa through 1650. Analysis of manuscript and printed teaching texts composed by Claude Berigard, professor of natural philosophy from 1627 to 1639, and Vincenzio Renieri, professor of mathematics from 1640 to 1648, suggests that early incorporation of the Discorsi focused on Day 1 and ignored Galileo's work on motion. The chapter reveals how Berigard, in particular, found many of Galileo's arguments directly relevant to his own task of explicating Aristotle and shows how Galileo's manipulation of well-known Scholastic arguments could force committed Aristotelians like Berigard to respond to his claims. Chapters Two and Three complement this analysis by examining the teaching of natural philosophy at the Collegio Romano in the last half of the seventeenth century. The analysis begins with a detailed reading of Sylvester Mauro's 1658 Quaestiones Philosophicae, the first teaching text from the Collegio Romano to cite specifically Galileo's Discorsi. I then consider how Mauro's successors dealt with two of the passages from the Discorsi referenced by Mauro. I argue that characteristics inherent to the Jesuit natural philosophical curriculum were at least as important as the content and context of the Discorsi in encouraging professors to include Galileo's work in their teaching. This analysis highlights the willingness of Jesuit professors to incorporate the newest natural philosophical research in their teaching, yet also suggests that such inclusion was limited in some cases by certain inflexibilities intrinsic to the structure and content of the standard curriculum. These findings, in turn, allow for rumination on the compatibility of Galileo's and the traditional Aristotelian-Scholastic approach to the study of nature. Part Two, comprising Chapters Four, Five, and Six, revolves around a series of case studies that nuance the detailed archival analysis presented in the first two chapters. The trends noted in Part One serve as the impetus for a new interpretation of Galileo's Day 1, which is advanced in Chapter Four. Comparing Aristotle's Physics as it was presented in early seventeenth-century teaching commentaries to Galileo's First Day, I argue that Galileo's choice of topics and organizational structure have close parallels with Books 3-8 of Aristotle's Physics as it was traditionally taught in the early modern university. These observations point suggestively to a means for reconciling Galileo's early studies of Aristotelian natural philosophy with his purportedly mature repudiation of Aristotelian natural philosophy in his 1632 Dialogo and 1638 Discorsi. Chapter Five departs from the analysis of this university readership to provide a new interpretation of a well-known reader of Galileo's Discorsi, Marin Mersenne. Mersenne's 1639 translation and adaptation of the Discorsi, his Nouvelles Pensees de Galilee, serves as a window into how Mersenne read and understood Galileo's text. Though Mersenne's interest in Galileo's experiential claims mark him as a distinctly different reader than the university professors of Part One, Mersenne evinces certain similarities with this readership, particularly in the way in which he read and interpreted Galileo's work on local motion. By analyzing Mersenne's treatment of Galileo's experiential claims, the Chapter argues that even readers committed to Galileo's enterprise, like Mersenne, could mischaracterize and misunderstand him. Chapter Six sets the previous examination of Galileo's mechanics in context by considering the effect of Galileo's condemnation on Italian university teaching in this period. Seventeenth-century classroom presentations of Copernicanism form the core of this chapter. I argue that Galileo's condemnation served as a catalyst to propel Copernicanism and related questions, such as that of the earth's motion, to a more central place in the teaching of both mathematics and natural philosophy. This analysis illuminates the nature of early modern university teaching, particularly that of the Jesuits, and provides the means for assessing how the labels of "innovative" or "dangerous" impacted the way in which Galileo's ideas were presented in the classroom. It also serves as an entry-point for considering how Galileo's reputation, both as a well-known mathematician and natural philosopher and as a Copernican condemned by the Catholic Church, influenced the reception of his Discorsi (Abstract shortened by UMI.).

Essays in applied microeconomics

Linsenmeier, David Matthew Princeton University 2003 해외박사(DDOD)

소속기관이 구독 중이 아닌 경우 오후 4시부터 익일 오전 9시까지 원문보기가 가능합니다.

In this dissertation I study economic decision-making in three contexts—retirement, prescription drug insurance take-up, and college enrollment. In the first chapter, I examine the relationship between early retiree health benefits and early retirement. Although there is a positive association between the availability of retiree health benefits and early retirement, this association could be driven by other factors. I show that individuals in poor health and with poor outside insurance options value retiree health benefits more and then use variation along these dimensions to examine whether the estimated correlation between retiree health benefits and early retirement reflects demand for health insurance. The effect of retiree health benefits is not statistically significantly larger for those in poor health, but it is larger for those who lack insurance from other sources, particularly from their spouses. I conclude that retiree health benefits do increase the early retirement hazard and that health insurance demand among the near-elderly is not closely tied to health. Second, I study the market for prescription drug insurance supplements to Medicare (Medigap). Regulations prohibit insurers from using information on customer health to set prices or deny coverage, creating ideal conditions for adverse selection. I test for the presence of adverse selection in this market using the Health and Retirement Study (FIRS). Controlling for a range of demographic and economic characteristics, those in worse health at age 64, before the Medigap purchase decision, are more likely to purchase insurance at age 66. The estimates are large, with the probability of coverage 40% greater for those reporting fair to poor health and 28% greater for those with an additional $1000 of expected prescription drug expenditures. In the final chapter, Harvey Rosen, Cecilia Rouse and I study the effects of a change in financial aid policy introduced by a Northeastern university in 1998. Previously, the university's financial aid packages consisted of grants, loans, and jobs. After the change, all loans for low-income students were replaced with grants. We find the program had a statistically insignificant positive effect on the likelihood of matriculation by low-income students, with a larger, marginally significant effect among minorities.

What to expect: Classical and ambient collisions within this binary universe with "softer shadows" (original music composition)

Molk, David Christopher Princeton University 2016 해외박사(DDOD)

소속기관이 구독 중이 아닌 경우 오후 4시부터 익일 오전 9시까지 원문보기가 가능합니다.

BT's 2006 album, This Binary Universe, represents a major departure in compositional aims for someone whose career up to that point was rooted in EDM (electronic dance music). Here, BT states that he purposefully incorporates classical form within the album. This dissertation investigates the ways in which we might employ a classically oriented listening modality to address functional ambiguities that arise within the respective introductions. These ambiguities manifest from the inclusion of both classical and ambient-oriented processes and the tensions therein. An investigation into listener expectation provides a way to interact with the music, the processes that drive it, and our perception of these processes as we listen to the album. Chapter I examines how the overall cohesion within This Binary Universe enables comparisons not only from point to point within tracks but also across tracks. Chapter II scrutinizes the traditional role of introductions within the classical style, introducing the language of formal function and "becoming." Chapter III offers detailed analyses of the formal function ambiguity within the introductions of "All That Makes Us Human Continues," "The Internal Locus," "See You On The Other Side," and "The Antikythera Mechanism," discussing how the role of expectation within the listening process both engenders and responds to these functional frictions. Chapter IV reframes the specific findings of the four analyses within the context of the album as a whole, concluding with a survey of how the worlds of This Binary Universe continue to resonate in more recent projects by BT. The composition component that completes this dissertation, "softer shadows," incorporates a series of extended techniques that I've harvested slowly throughout my time in Princeton. murmur uses cardboard dowels standing in for more traditional mallets, creating a blurring of pitch and noise and culminating in a ping pong ball chorale. The second movement, fade to light, goes deeper still into these delicate worlds. These two movements allow us access to a softer shadow world. The motivation behind many of the techniques explored in "softer shadows" is my attempt to create novel acoustic analogues for electronic production techniques found within the EDM vocabulary.

The Princeton IQU Experiment and constraints on the polarization of the cosmic microwave background at 90 GHz

Hedman, Matthew McKay Princeton University 2002 해외박사(DDOD)

소속기관이 구독 중이 아닌 경우 오후 4시부터 익일 오전 9시까지 원문보기가 가능합니다.

The polarization anisotropies in the Cosmic Microwave Background provide important information about the structure and dynamics of the early universe. This cosmological polarization has thus far eluded detection, which is not surprising because it should be an extremely small signal (an order of magnitude smaller than the temperature anisotropies, or about 5 μK <italic>rms</italic> variations in 3K thermal radiation). The Princeton IQU Experiment, or PIQUE, is an effort to measure this tiny polarized signal using two correlation polarimeters operating at W-band (84–100 GHz) and Q-band (35–46 GHz). This work describes the construction, characterization, observations and preliminary results from the W-band system, which observed the sky around the north celestial pole over two successive winters (2000 and 2001), and acquired 500 hours of useful data. These data yield one of the tightest constraints on the cosmological polarization to date.

Cooperative vehicle control, feature tracking and ocean sampling

Fiorelli, Edward A Princeton University 2005 해외박사(DDOD)

소속기관이 구독 중이 아닌 경우 오후 4시부터 익일 오전 9시까지 원문보기가 가능합니다.

This dissertation concerns the development of a feedback control framework for coordinating multiple, sensor-equipped, autonomous vehicles into mobile sensing arrays to perform adaptive sampling of observed fields. The use of feedback is central; it maintains the array, i.e. regulates formation position, orientation, and shape, and directs the array to perform its sampling mission in response to measurements taken by each vehicle. Specifically, we address how to perform autonomous gradient tracking and feature detection in an unknown field such as temperature or salinity in the ocean. Artificial potentials and virtual bodies are used to coordinate the autonomous vehicles, modelled as point masses (with unit mass). The virtual bodies consist of linked, moving reference points called virtual leaders. Artificial potentials couple the dynamics of the vehicles and the virtual bodies. The dynamics of the virtual body are then prescribed allowing the virtual body, and thus the vehicle group, to perform maneuvers that include translation, rotation and contraction/expansion, while ensuring that the formation error remains bounded. This methodology is called the Virtual Body and Artificial Potential (VBAP) methodology. We then propose how to utilize these arrays to perform autonomous gradient climbing and front tracking in the presence of both correlated and uncorrelated noise. We implement various techniques for estimation of gradients (first-order and higher), including finite differencing, least squares error minimization, averaging, and Kalman filtering. Furthermore, we illustrate how the estimation error can be used to optimally choose the formation size. To complement our theoretical work, we present an account of sea trials performed with a fleet of autonomous underwater gliders in Monterey Bay during the Autonomous Ocean Sampling Network (AOSN) II project in August 2003. During these trials, Slocum autonomous underwater gliders were coordinated into triangle formations, and various orientation schemes and inter-vehicle spacing sequences were explored. The VBAP methodology, modified for implementation on Slocum underwater gliders, was utilized. Various operational issues such as speed constraints, external currents, communication constraints, asynchronous surfacings and intermittent feedback were addressed. The work contained in this thesis was conducted under the advisement of Naomi Ehrich Leonard at Princeton University.

Towards dark energy: Design, development, and preliminary data from ACT

Niemack, Michael D Princeton University 2008 해외박사(DDOD)

소속기관이 구독 중이 아닌 경우 오후 4시부터 익일 오전 9시까지 원문보기가 가능합니다.

Recent cosmological observations resulted in the surprising discovery that our universe is dominated by a dark energy, causing acceleration of the expansion of the universe. Understanding the dark energy (Λ) and the cosmic acceleration may require a revolution in our understanding of the laws of physics, and more precise data will be critical to this endeavor. The remainder of the universe is dominated by cold dark matter (CDM), while only ∼4% of the universe comprises baryonic matter. To improve our understanding of dark energy and the ΛCDM model of our universe, we have developed a novel telescope and receiver technology to map the universe at millimeter wavelengths on arcminute angular scales. The Atacama Cosmology Telescope (ACT) and its receiver, the Millimeter Bolometer Array Camera (MBAC), are optimized to measure temperature anisotropies in the primordial cosmic microwave background radiation (CMB). On the smallest angular scales measured by ACT the anisotropies are dominated by secondary interactions of CMB photons, such as gravitational interactions and the Sunyaev-Zel'dovich (SZ) effects: the interaction of CMB photons with ionized gas in galaxy clusters. We can use these measurements to probe dark energy in multiple ways. The CMB bispectrum quantifies the non-Gaussian nature of the secondary anisotropies and when combined with measurements from the Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe, will provide constraints on dark energy. By combining and cross-correlating measurements of the SZ effects with galaxy cluster redshifts, we can constrain the equation of state of dark energy and its evolution. In addition, by measuring the CMB on arcminute angular scales, we will probe the details of the ΛCDM cosmological model that describes our universe. This dissertation begins with the development of the optical designs for ACT and MBAC that focus light onto the MBAC bolometer arrays. The kilo-pixel bolometer arrays are the largest ever used for CMB observations. The arrays utilize superconducting transition edge-sensor (TES) bolometers to measure changes in optical power, which are coupled to superconducting quantum interference devices (SQUIDs) for signal measurement and amplification. A model describing the functionality of the TES bolometers is presented in addition to a procedure developed to characterize all bolometers before assembling them into arrays. The capabilities and characterization of the time-domain SQUID multiplexing readout system and electronics are discussed, including the implications of magnetic sensitivity for the readout system and recently developed array characterization techniques. Measurements of the first fully-assembled detector array are presented, including: functionality, efficiency, detector time constants, and noise. Preliminary results from the first season of CMB observations are also discussed. A new approach for measuring photometric redshifts of galaxies using optical and ultraviolet observations is presented. These photometric redshifts will be cross-correlated with SZ cluster measurements from ACT to improve our understanding of dark energy. Finally, predictions are given for the sensitivity of the experiment from both one and two seasons of observations.

Astrophysical uses of CMB lensing

Das, Sudeep Princeton University 2008 해외박사(DDOD)

소속기관이 구독 중이 아닌 경우 오후 4시부터 익일 오전 9시까지 원문보기가 가능합니다.

The future of Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) research lies in exploiting the arcminute scale secondary anisotropies which encode information about the late time interaction of the CMB photons with the structure in the Universe. A specific form of such interaction is the gravitational lensing of the CMB photons by intervening matter---the main topic of this thesis. Upcoming experiments like the Atacama Cosmology Telescope (ACT) and PLANCK will measure these anisotropies with unprecedented resolution and sensitivity. In four separate papers, laid out as four chapters in this thesis, we present new techniques to model and analyze such high resolution data and explore the implications of such measurements on Cosmology, mainly in the context of CMB lensing. The first chapter describes a novel and accurate method for simulating high resolution lensed CMB maps by ray-tracing through a large scale structure simulation. This method does not adopt the flat sky approximation and retains information from large angular scales in the dark matter distribution. Maps simulated through this method will be instrumental in developing the detection and analysis techniques for CMB lensing in high resolution CMB experiments like ACT. In the second chapter, we describe a new and efficient method for measuring the power spectrum of arcminute resolution CMB maps. At these resolutions, the CMB power spectrum is extremely red and is prone to aliasing of power due to hard edges and point source masks. By combining two new techniques, namely, prewhitening and the adaptive multitaper method, we show that these problems can be efficiently remedied and the uncertainties in the final power spectrum estimate can be reduced by several factors over those obtainable by the now standard methods. These techniques will be also useful for estimating higher order statistics from the maps, like the ones related to the detection of CMB lensing and its cross-correlation with large scale structure tracers. In the third chapter, we explore how such cross-correlations can be turned into Cosmological probes. We propose an estimator for cosmological distance ratios based on the cross-correlation of galaxy counts with the gravitational lensing of galaxies and the CMB and show that it can be measured to sufficient accuracy in future experiments so as to provide useful constraints on curvature and dark energy evolution. Finally, we show that CMB lensing can be used to constrain the void and the texture hypotheses that have been put forward for explaining the intriguing Cold Spot anomaly in the WMAP data.

Sonic Playground: The Influence of the Recording Studio on Mike Oldfield's Tubular Bells

O'Halloran, Emma Mary Princeton University ProQuest Dissertations & Thes 2019 해외박사(DDOD)

소속기관이 구독 중이 아닌 경우 오후 4시부터 익일 오전 9시까지 원문보기가 가능합니다.

Featuring a combination of folk, rock, and minimalist influences, Tubular Bells is the 1973 debut album of English composer and multi-instrumentalist Mike Oldfield. Not only was this album a huge commercial success, but it is fascinating on an artistic level being one of the first instances of a large-scale multi-instrumental record largely performed by a single person. Using a detailed original transcription, this dissertation will examine how Tubular Bells was created, why it works, and how Oldfield's studio-based composition process foreshadowed a working method that is now widespread amongst contemporary composers and producers.The original composition that completes my dissertation, Mary Motorhead, is a thirty-minute operatic monodrama for lyric mezzo-soprano and amplified chamber ensemble. The work is adapted from a play by my uncle Mark O'Halloran about the secret life of an incarcerated woman who travels through her memory in search of freedom from her past. In many ways, Mary Motorhead represents the culmination of the studio-based writing process I developed over the course of my time at Princeton. Although it sounds very different from Tubular Bells, I approached the composition process in a similar way, using the recording studio as a compositional tool and this has allowed me to include all the disparate musical elements that make up who I am as a composer.

Gravitational waves and the early universe

Boyle, Latham A Princeton University 2006 해외박사(DDOD)

소속기관이 구독 중이 아닌 경우 오후 4시부터 익일 오전 9시까지 원문보기가 가능합니다.

Can we detect primordial gravitational waves (i.e. tensor perturbations)? If so, what will they teach us about the early universe? These two questions are central to this two part thesis. First, in chapters 2 and 3, we compute the gravitational wave spectrum produced by inflation. We argue that if inflation is correct, then the scalar spectral index ns should satisfy n s ≲ 0.98; and if ns satisfies 0.95 ≲ ns ≲ 0.98, then the tensor-to-scalar ratio r should satisfy r ≳ 0.01. This means that, if inflation is correct, then primordial gravitational waves are likely to be detectable. We compute in detail the "tensor transfer function" Tt(k,tau) which relates the tensor power spectrum at two different times tau1 and tau 2, and the "tensor extrapolation function" Et( k, k*) which relates the primordial tensor power spectrum at two different wavenumbers k and k *. By analyzing these two expressions, we show that inflationary gravitational waves should yield crucial clues about inflation itself, and about the "primordial dark age" between the end of inflation and the start of big bang nucleosynthesis (BBN). Second, in chapters 4 and 5, we compute the gravitational wave spectrum produced by the cyclic model. We examine a surprising duality relating expanding and contracting cosmological models that generate the same spectrum of gauge-invariant Newtonian potential fluctuations. This means that, if the cyclic model is correct, then it cannot be distinguished from inflation by observing primordial scalar perturbations alone. Fortunately, gravitational waves may be used to cleanly discriminate between the inflationary and cyclic scenarios: we show that BBN constrains the gravitational wave spectrum generated by the cyclic model to be so suppressed that it cannot be detected by any known experiment. Thus, the detection of a primordial gravitational wave signal would rule out the cyclic model.

The first luminous objects

Oh, Siang Peng Princeton University 2000 해외박사(DDOD)

소속기관이 구독 중이 아닌 경우 오후 4시부터 익일 오전 9시까지 원문보기가 가능합니다.

This thesis focuses on the epoch 5 < <italic>z</italic> < 40 when the first luminous objects in the universe formed and reionized the intergalactic medium (IGM). I have paid particular attention to observational signatures of these objects with present or upcoming instruments such as the Square Kilometer Array (SKA), Next Generation Space Telescope (NGST), Chandra X-ray Observatory (CXO), and Gamma-Ray Large Area Space Telescope (GLAST). The first supernovae which polluted the IGM with metals seen at lower redshifts also accelerated relativistic electrons. CMB photons can inverse-Compton scatter off these electrons, producing X-rays. Unlike UV photons, these X-rays can escape easily from their host to reionize the universe. Their large mean free path implies that the universe could have been reionized in a homogeneous manner, rather than as a two-phase medium. Furthermore, these photons can inject energy via HeII ionizations to heat the IGM to high temperatures. X-rays also increase the electron fraction in the IGM, promoting gas-phase H₂ formation and cooling. The first ionizing sources should be visible in free-free emission with the SKA. In addition, NGST should be able to detect Balmer-line emission and obtain redshift measurements. Unlike Lyα emission, Hα emission is unattenuated by resonant scattering in the neutral IGM. X-ray emission from the first star clusters is unlikely to be directly observable by CXO, though the integrated emission could constitute a significant fraction of the remaining unresolved X-ray background. Using synchrotron emission measurements with the SKA, one can test for the presence of relativistic electrons and infer the level of X-ray emission. Finally, high-redshift blazars may be detectable with GLAST. Observations of gamma-ray absorption due to pair production against high-redshift UV photons can constrain UV radiation fields and star formation during the reionization epoch.