It is frequently stated in the literature that the first attempt to unify gravitation and electromagnetism through a theory in higher dimensions was attempted by Kaluza and Klein. Yet, today I have realized that this is not true. The first such attempt was done by Nordstrom in 1914
http://arxiv.org/abs/physics/0702221
BEFORE Einstein constructed his general theory of relativity.

The idea is surprisingly simple. It is a Maxwell theory in 5 dimensions, with the ansatz that...

Here I attach the slides of my talk (with the title above) recently presented at a conference. I hope some people could find it useful.

GENERAL:

Only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I'm not sure about the former.
Albert Einstein

Common sense is the collection of prejudices acquired by age eighteen.
Albert Einstein

The fear of death is the most unjustified of all fears, for there's no risk of accident for someone who's dead.
Albert Einstein



SCIENCE - GENERAL:

The most incomprehensible thing...

Let me continue with my criticism and demystification of weak measurements.

In most cases, the essence of weak measurements is hidden behind relatively complicated cases considered in practice. So let us consider the simplest (and the most honnest) case in which no final experimental outcomes are discarded. In other words, let us consider the case in which the post-selected state is equal to the pre-selected state. In this case, the weak value is nothing but the well-understood average...

Here I criticize the whole concept of weak measurements and weak values in quantum mechanics, first proposed by Aharonov, Albert and Vaidman:
http://prola.aps.org/abstract/PRL/v60/i14/p1351_1

1. By a suitable choice of the post-selected state, the weak value can be made ARBITRARILY large. In particular, the title of the paper above reads:
"How the result of a measurement of a component of the spin of a spin-1/2 particle can turn out to be 100"
I don't...