Directeur de recherches - CNRS/Université Paris Cité
Thèmes de recherche
Histoire de la physique, surtout au XIXe et XXe siècles. Physique et philosophie.
Cursus
- Ancien élève de l’ENS Ulm (1975-1979)
- Agrégation de physique (1978)
- Thèse de troisième cycle sur l’histoire de la théorie quantique des champs
(Paris 1, 1982) - Habilitation en histoire des sciences (Paris 7, 1992).
Collaborations – séjours à l’étranger
Fréquent visiteur de l’Office for History of Science and Technology à UC-Berkeley.
Distinctions
- Prix Pictet de la Société de Physique et d’Histoire Naturelle de Genève (2000)
- Prix Grammaticakis-Neumann de l’Académie des Sciences (2004).
- Prix Georges Charpak de l’Académie des Sciences (2018).
- Estoire Prize décerné par ECHOPHYSICS—European Centre for History of Physics et European Physical Society (2022)
Publications
Livres
- Relativity principles and theories from Gaileo to Einstein (Oxford : Oxford University Press, 2022).
- Atoms, Mechanics and Probability. Ludwig Boltzmann’s Statistico-Mechanical Writings – An Exegesis (Oxford : Oxford University Press, 2018)
- Physics and necessity : Rationalist pursuits from the Cartesian past to the quantum present (Oxford : Oxford University Press, 2014).
- A history of optics from Greek antiquity to the nineteenth century (Oxford : Oxford University Press, 2012)
- Worlds of flow : A history of hydrodynamics from the Bernoullis to Prandtl (Oxford : Oxford University Press, 2005).
- Les équations de Maxwell, de MacCullagh à Lorentz (Paris : Belin, 2005).
- Electrodynamics from Ampère to Einstein (Oxford : Oxford University Press, 2000).
- From c-numbers to q-numbers : The classical analogy in the history of quantum theory (Berkeley : University of California Press, 1992).
- Les débuts de la théorie quantique des champs, 1925-1948 : Thèse de troisième cycle, Paris, 1982.
Articles
- "A history of the relation between fluctuation and dissipation," EPJH, 48:10 (2023) [68 pages].
- "Poincaré and the reaction principle in electrodynamics," Philosophia Scientiæ, 27 ( 2023), 63–125.
- "La Société Française de Physique et la physique d’avant-garde (1890-1920)," in P. Aubourg, C. Bracco, C. de Novion, O. Emile, A. Henri, N. Nio and Y. Sacquin (eds.), Les 150 ans de la Société Française de Physique : panorama historique et scientifique (Paris : EDP Sciences, 2023), 11-44. [Bibliographie et abréviations se trouvent sur https://www.sfp150ans.fr/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/Bibliographie-.pdf et sur https://www.sfp150ans.fr/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/Abbreviations.pdf ]. Pour une version préliminaire de cet article, voir http://www.sphere.univ-paris-diderot.fr/IMG/pdf/sfp.pdf .
- "Geometry, mechanics, and experience : A historico‑philosophical musing," European journal for philosophy of science, 12 (2022), article #60.
- "Natural reconstructions of quantum mechanics." In Olival Freire (ed.) The Oxford handbook of the history of quantum interpretations (Oxford : Oxford University Press, 2022), 437-472.
- "Boltzmann’s reply to the Loschmidt paradox : A commented translation." The European physical journal H(2021), https://doi.org/10.1140/epjh/s13129-021-00029-2
- "Can we trust Einstein’s accounts of the genesis of special relativity ?" Studies in history and philosophy of science, Part A, 89 (2021), 138-154.
- "The magic of Feynman’s QED : From fieldless electrodynamics to the Feynman diagrams," The European physical journal H, 44 (2019), 349-369.
- "Frames and stresses in Einstein’s quest for a generalized theory of relativity," Studies in the history and philosophy of modern physics (2019), https://doi.org/10.1016/j.shpsb.2019.06.002
- "Deducing Newton’s second law from relativity principles : A forgotten history," in Archive for history of exact sciences (2019), https://doi.org/10.1007/s00407-019-00230-2.
- "Stokes’s optics," in Mark McCartney, Andrew Whitaker, Alastair Wood (eds.), George Gabriel Stokes : Life, science, and faith (Oxford : Oxford University Press, 2019), 63-114.
- "Constitutive principles versus comprehensibility conditions in post-Kantian physics," Synthese (2018) https://doi.org/10.1007/s11229-018-01948-2
- "The Gibbs paradox : Early history and solutions," Entropy, 20 (2018), 443, https://doi.org/10.3390/e20060443
- "The unnamed structuralism of four nineteenth-century philosopher-physicists," in Maria de Paz and João Principe (eds.), Évora studies in the philosophy and history of science. Vol.2 : From ontology to structure(Casal de Cambra : Caleidoscópio, 2018), https://dspace.uevora.pt/rdpc/handle/10174/23129
- "Joseph Boussinesq’s legacy in fluid mechanics," Comptes rendus mécanique, 345 (2017), 427-445, online on 9 June 2017, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.crme.2017.05.008
- "Bohr’s trilogy of 1913," in Olivier Darrigol, Bertrand Duplantier, Jean-Michel Raimond, and Vincent Rivasseau, Niels Bohr, 1913-2013 : Poincaré seminar 2013 (Basel : Birkhäuser, 2016), 1-12.
- "Models, structure, and generality in Clerk Maxwell’s theory of electromagnetism," in Karine Chemla, David Rabouin, and Renaud Chorlay (eds.), The Oxford handbook of generality in mathematics and the sciences(Oxford : Oxford University Press, 2016), 345-358.
- "Why some physical theories should never die," http://www.sphere.univ-paris-diderot.fr/IMG/pdf/Martins_paper.pdf in João Principe (ed.), Évora studies in the philosophy and history of science. In memoriam Hermínio Martins (Casal de Cambra : Caleidoscópio, 2015), 319-368.
- "‘Shut up and comtemplate !’ : Lucien Hardy’s reasonable axioms
for quantum theory," Studies in the history and philosophy of modern physics, 52 (2015), 328-342. - "Mesh and measure in early general relativity," Studies in the history and philosophy of modern physics, 52 (2015), 163-187.
- "Georges Sagnac : A life for optics," Académie des sciences, physique, Comptes rendus, 15 (2014), 789-840.
- "The mystery of Riemann’s curvature," Historia mathematica (2014), 47-83.
- "The quantum enigma," in Michel Janssen and Christoph Lehner, The Cambridge companion to Einstein(Cambridge : Cambridge University Press, 2014), 117-142.
- "The emergence of statistical mechanics," in Jed Buchwald and Robert Fox (eds.), The Oxford companion for the history of physics (Oxford : Oxford University Press, 2013), 765-788.
- "Maurice de Broglie : El descenso en el átomo," in José Manuel Sánchez Ron (ed.), Creadores cientificós : La física en la residencia de estudiantes [1910-1936] (Madrid : Publicationes de la Residencia de Estudiantes, 2013), 145-162.
- "A few reasons why Louis de Broglie discovered matter waves and yet did not discover Schrödinger’s equation," in Wolfgang Reiter et al. (eds.), Erwin Schrödinger—50 years after (Zürich : European Mathematical Society, 2013), 166-174.
- "For a philosophy of hydrodynamics," in Robert Batterman (ed.), The Oxford handbook of philosophy of physics (Oxford : Oxford University Press, 2013), 12-42.
- "Poincaré’s light," in Poincaré, 1912-2012. Séminaire Poincaré. Samedi 24 novembre 2012, 1-43. URL = http://www.bourbaphy.fr/darrigolpoin.pdf . Version définitive dans in B. Duplantier and V. Rivasseau (eds.), Henri Poincaré, 1912–2012 : Poincaré Seminar 2012 (Basel : Birkhäuser, 2015), 1-50.
- "Electrodynamics in the physics of Walther Ritz," in Jean-Claude Pont (ed.), Le destin douloureux de Walther Ritz, physicien théoricien de génie (Sion : Vallesia, 2012), 207-240.
- "La radiazione e il quanto," in Storia della scienza, vol. 8 : La seconda rivoluzione scientifica (Roma : Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana, 2012), 408-412.
- "James MacCullagh’s ether : An optical route to Maxwell’s equations ?" The European Physical Journal H, 35 (2010), 133-172.
- "The analogy between light and sound in the history of optics from Malebranche to Thomas Young," Physis, 46 (2009), 111-217.
- "The analogy between light and sound in the history of optics
from the ancient Greeks to Isaac Newton," Centaurus, 52 (2010), 117-155 ; 206-257. - "Stueckelberg’s united field-theory of matter, 1936-39," in Jan Lacki, Henri Ruegg, and Gerar Wanders (eds.), E.C.G. Stueckelberg, an unconventional figure of twentieth century physics. Selected scientific papers with commentaries (Berlin : Springer, 2009).
- "A simplified genesis of quantum mechanics," Studies in the history and philosophy of modern physics, 40 (2009), 151-166.
- "From Newton’s mechanics to Euler’s equations" (avec Uriel Frisch), Physica D : Nonlinear Phenomena, 237 (2008), 1855-1869.
- "Empirical challenges and concept formation in the history of hydrodynamics," Centaurus, 50 (2008), 214-232.
- "The modular structure of physical theories," Synthese, 162 (2008), 195-223.
- "For a history of knowledge," in Costas Gavroglu and Jürgen Renn (eds.), Positioning the history of science [in honor of Silvan Schweber] (Dordrecht : Springer, 2007), 33-34.
- "Diversité et harmonie de la physique mathématique dans les préfaces de Henri Poincaré," in Jean-Claude Pont et al. (eds.), Pour comprendre le XIXe : Histoire et philosophie des sciences à la fin du siècle (Florence : Olschi, 2007), 221-240.
- "On the necessary truth of the laws of classical mechanics," Studies in the history and philosophy of modern physics, 38 (2007), 757-800.
- "A Helmholtzian approach to space and time," Studies in the history and philosophy of science, 38 (2007), 528-542.
- "A Faradayan principle for selecting classical field theories," International studies in the philosophy of science, 21 (2007), 35-55.
- "The acoustic origins of harmonic analysis," Archive for the history of exact sciences, 61 (2007), 343-424.
- "The genesis of the theory of relativity," in T. Damour, O. Darrigol, B. Duplantier, V. Rivasseau (eds.), Einstein 1905-2005 : Poincaré seminar 2005 (Basel : Birkhäuser, 2006), 1-31. Early version at URL = http://www.bourbaphy.fr/darrigol2.pdf
- "1905 : Un nouvel élan," in M. Leduc and M. Le Bellac (eds.), Einstein aujourd’hui (Paris : EDP Sciences/ CNRS Éditions, 2005), 1-38.
- "Faut-il réviser l’histoire de la relativité," Lettre de l’Académie des Sciences, 14 (2004), 6-7. Repris dans le Bulletin de la Société Française de Physique et dans le Bulletin de l’Union des Physiciens.
- "The mystery of the Einstein-Poincaré connection," Isis, 95 (2004), 614-626.
- "The origins of the entropy concept," in J. Dalibard, B. Duplantier, V. Rivasseau (eds.), Poincaré seminar 2003 : Bose-Einstein condensation, Entropy (Basel : Birkhäuser, 2004), 101-118. Early version at URL = http://www.bourbaphy.fr/darrigol.pdf
- "The spirited horse, the engineer, and the mathematician : water waves in nineteenth-century fluid mechanics," Archive for the history of exact sciences, 58 (2003), 21-95.
- "Number and measure : Hermann Helmholtz at the crossroads of mathematics, physics, and psychology," Studies in history and philosophy of science, 34 (2003), 515-573.
- "The Voltaic origins of Helmholtz’s physics of ions." In Fabio Bevilacqua and Enrico Gianetto (eds), Volta and the history of electricity (Milano : Hoepli, 2003), 2-16.
- "The origin of the entropy concept," Séminaire Poincaré : L’entropie (December 2003). Early version at http://www.bourbaphy.fr/darrigol.pdf
- "La nascita della meccanica statistica" (with Jürgen Renn), in Storia della scienza, vol. 7 : L’ottocento(Roma : Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana, 2003), 496-507.
- "La termodinamica," in Storia della scienza, vol. 7 :L’ottocento (Roma : Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana, 2003), 470–481.
- "Quantum theory and atomic structure, 1900-1927," in Mary Jo Nye (ed.) The Cambridge history of science, vol. 5 : The modern physical and mathematical sciences (Cambridge : Cambridge University Press, 2003), 331-349.
- "Stability and instability in nineteenth-century fluid mechanics," Revue d’histoire des mathématiques, 8 (2002), 5-65.
- "Turbulence in nineteenth-century hydrodynamics," Historical studies in the physical sciences, 32 (2002), 207-262.
- "Between hydrodynamics and elasticity theory : The first five births of the Navier-Stokes equation," Archive for the history of exact sciences, 56 (2002), 95-150.
- "Genève, centre de diffusion de l’électrodynamique nouvelle," Archives des sciences naturelles de Genève, 54 (2001), 103-112.
- "God, waterwheels, and molecules : Saint-Venant’s anticipation of the energy principle," Historical studies in the physical and biological sciences, 31 (2001), 285-353.
- "The historians’ disagreements over the meaning of Planck’s quantum," Centaurus, 43 (2001), 219-239.
- "Continuities and discontinuities in Planck’s Akt der Verzweiflung," Annalen der Physik, 9 (2000), 951-960.
- "Poincaré, Einstein, et l’inertie de l’énergie," Comptes rendus de l’Académie des sciences, 1 (2000), 143-153.
- "Statistical mechanics," en collaboration avec Jürgen Renn ; preprint 139 (Berlin, 2000) du Max Planck-Institut für Wissenschaftsgeschichte (see above for the publication in Italian in 2003 by the Enciclopedia Italiana)
- "Baconian bees in the electromagnetic fields : Experimenter-theorists in nineteenth-century electrodynamics," Studies in the history and philosophy of modern physics, 30 (1999), 307-345.
- "Toward a new topology of scientific practice" (essay review of Peter Galison, Image and logic : a material culture of microphysics, Chicago, 1997), Historical studies in the physical and biological sciences, 28 (1998), 337-351.
- "From Organ pipes to atmospheric motion : Helmholtz’s works on hydrodynamics," Historical studies in the physical and biological sciences, 29 (1998), 1-51.
- "Aux confins de l’électrodynamique maxwellienne : Ions et électrons vers 1897," Revue d’histoire des sciences, 51 (1998), 5-34.
- "Classical concepts in Bohr’s atomic theory (1913-1925)," Physis, 34 (1997), 545-567.
- "Histoires de pratiques, pratiques de l’histoire," Revue d’histoire des sciences, 50 (1997), 195-206.
- "The electrodynamic origins of relativity theory," Historical studies in the physical and biological sciences, 26 (1996), 241-312.
- "Patterns of oblivion : The case of Guido Beck," Anais da Academia Brasileira de Ciencias, 67 (1995), supl. 1 : 37-47.
- "Henri Poincaré’s criticism of fin de siècle electrodynamics," Studies in history and philosophy of modern physics, 26 (1995), 1-44.
- "Emil Cohn’s electrodynamics of moving bodies," American journal of physics, 63 (1995), 908-915.
- "Nihon ni okeru rironbutsurigaku no kenkyû," in Seimitsukagaku no shisô, vol. 11 : Gendaishisô (Tôkyô : Iwanamishoten, 1995), 211-230.
- "The electron theories of Larmor and Lorentz : A comparative study," Historical studies in the physical and biological sciences, 24 (1994), 265-336.
- "Helmholtz’s electrodynamics and the comprehensibility of nature," in L. Krüger (ed.), Universalgenie Helmholtz (Berlin, 1994), 216-242.
- "Les premier travaux de Louis de Broglie," in La découverte des ondes de matière, Académie des sciences (Paris, 1994).
- "Strangeness and soundness in Louis de Broglie’s early work," Physis, 30 (1993), 303-372.
- "The electrodynamic revolution in Germany as documented by early German expositions of `Maxwell’s theory’," Archive for the history of exact sciences, 45 (1993), 189-280.
- "The electrodynamics of moving bodies from Faraday to Hertz,"
Centaurus, 36 (1993), 245-360. - "Schrödinger’s statistical physics and some related themes," in M. Bitbol et O. Darrigol, éds., Erwin Schrödinger. Philosophy and the birth of quantum mechanics (Gif sur Yvette, 1992), 237-276.
- "Cohérence et complétude de la mécanique quantique : l’exemple de Bohr-Rosenfeld," Revue d’histoire des sciences, 44:2 (1991), 137-179.
- "Statistics and combinatorics in early quantum theory, II : early symptoms of indistinguishability and holism," Historical studies in the physical sciences, 21:2 (1991), 237-298.
- "Dirac, Paul, Adrien, Maurice," Dictionary of scientific biography, Supt. 2 (New York, 1989), 104-109.
- "Brillouin, Léon," Dictionary of scientific biography, Supt. 2 (New York, 1989), 224-233.
- "The quantum electrodynamical analogy in early nuclear theory or the roots of the Yukawa theory," Revue d’histoire des sciences, 16 (1988), 225-297.
- "Statistics and combinatorics in early quantum theory," Historical studies in the physical sciences, 19 (1988), 17-80.
- "Elements of a scientific biography of Tomonaga Sin-Itiro," Historia scienciarum, 35 (1988), 1-29.
- "The origins of quantized matter waves," Historical studies in the physical sciences, 16 (1986), 197-253.
- "La complémentarité comme argument d’autorité (1927-1934)," Revue d’histoire des sciences, 38 (1985), 309-323.
- "A history of the question : Can free electrons be polarized ?", Historical studies in the physical sciences, 15:1 (1984), 39-79.
- "La genèse du concept de champ quantique," Annales de physique, 9 (1984), 433-501.
Direction d’ouvrages
- M. Bitbol et O. Darrigol (eds.), Erwin Schrödinger. Philosophy and the birth of quantum mechanics (Gif sur Yvette : Frontières, 1992).
- T. Damour, O. Darrigol, B. Duplantier, V. Rivasseau (eds.), Einstein 1905-2005 : Poincaré seminar 2005(Basel : Birkhäuser, 2006).
- O. Darrigol, B. Duplantier, J.-M. Raimond, V. Rivasseau (eds.). Niels Bohr, 1913-1013 : Poincaré seminar 2013 (Basel : Birkhäuser, 2016).
Direction de séminaire
- Séminaire d’histoire et philosophie de la physique organisé en collaboration avec Nadine de Courtenay, Sara Franceschelli et Jan Lacki.