Dresden 2011 – scientific programme

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GP: Fachverband Geschichte der Physik

GP 10: Sowjetunion

GP 10.3: Talk

Wednesday, March 16, 2011, 10:25–10:50, HSZ 204

Cold War, Quantum Foundations, and East-West Collaboration — •Anja Skaar-Jacobsen — Niels Bohr Archive, Copenhagen

It is well-known that the cultural cold war changed the ideological line in the Soviet Union from the late 1940s and that this had serious implications for the autonomy of research in genetics and quantum foundations in the East bloc. However, besides the more narrow concern from the point of view of research in quantum foundations, I want to suggest that the ideological impact on quantum foundations also constituted an obstacle for attempts by Western physicists to bring about a rapprochement between physics in the east and west in general. In connection with re-establishing East-West co-operation between physicists after Stalin's death in 1953 this obstacle needed to be cleared away. In my talk I will discuss these issues and how the Institute for Theoretical Physics in Copenhagen came to be an important meeting place for physicists from the East and West from the mid-1950s.