Shaping Mathematics as a Tool: The Search for a Mathematical Model for Quasi-crystals

Henrik Kragh Sørensen

doi:10.1007/978-3-319-54469-4_5

Shaping Mathematics as a Tool: The Search for a Mathematical Model for Quasi-crystals

Abstract

Although the use of mathematical models is ubiquitous in modern science, the involvement of mathematical modeling in the sciences is rarely seen as cases of interdisciplinary research. Often, mathematics is “applied” in the sciences, but mathematics also features in open-ended, truly interdisciplinary collaborations. The present paper addresses the role of mathematical models in the open-ended process of conceptualizing new phenomena. It does so by suggesting a notion of cultures of mathematization, stressing the potential role of the mathematical model as a boundary object around which negotiations of different desiderata can take place. This framework is then illustrated by a case study of the early efforts to produce a mathematical model for quasi-crystals in the first two decades after Dan Shechtman’s discovery of this new phenomenon in 1984.

Original language	English
Title of host publication	Mathematics as a Tool. Tracing New Roles of Mathematics in the Sciences
Editors	Johannes Lenhard, Martin Carrier
Number of pages	22
Publisher	Springer
Publication date	2017
Pages	69-90
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-54469-4_5
Publication status	Published - 2017

Series	Boston Studies in the Philosophy and History of Science
Volume	327
ISSN	0068-0346

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10.1007/978-3-319-54469-4_5

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Shaping Mathematics as a Tool : The Search for a Mathematical Model for Quasi-crystals. / Sørensen, Henrik Kragh.

Mathematics as a Tool. Tracing New Roles of Mathematics in the Sciences. ed. / Johannes Lenhard; Martin Carrier. Springer, 2017. p. 69-90 (Boston Studies in the Philosophy and History of Science, Vol. 327).

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Book chapter › Research › peer-review

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Shaping Mathematics as a Tool: The Search for a Mathematical Model for Quasi-crystals

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