University of California, Irvine
The Department of Logic and Philosophy of Science
PhD, 2009
Irvine, California, United States of America
Areas of Specialization
General Relativity
Areas of Interest
General Relativity
PhilPapers Editorships
General Relativity
  •  146
    No no-go: A remark on time machines
    Studies in History and Philosophy of Science Part B: Studies in History and Philosophy of Modern Physics 42 (1): 74-76. 2011.
    We present a counterexample to Krasnikov's much discussed time machine no-go result. In addition, we prove a positive statement: a time machine existence theorem under a modest "no holes" assumption.
  •  158
    Can we know the global structure of spacetime?
    Studies in History and Philosophy of Science Part B: Studies in History and Philosophy of Modern Physics 40 (1): 53-56. 2009.
    Here, we briefly review the notion of observational indistinguishability within the context of classical general relativity. We settle a conjecture given by Malament (1977) concerning the subject and then strengthen the result considerably. The upshot is this: There seems to be a robust sense in which the global structure of every cosmological model is underdetermined
  •  123
    What Is a Physically Reasonable Space-Time?
    Philosophy of Science 78 (3): 410-420. 2011.
    Cosmologists often use certain global properties to exclude "physically unreasonable" cosmological models from serious consideration. But, on what grounds should these properties be regarded as "physically unreasonable" if we cannot rule out, even with a robust type of inductive reasoning, the possibility of the properties obtaining in our own universe?
  •  82
    On Space-Time Singularities, Holes, and Extensions
    Philosophy of Science 81 (5): 1066-1076. 2014.
    Here, we clarify the relationship among three space-time conditions of interest: geodesic completeness, hole-freeness, and inextendibility. In addition, we introduce a related fourth condition: effective completeness.
  •  110
    Is prediction possible in general relativity?
    Foundations of Physics 38 (4): 317-321. 2008.
    Here we briefly review the concept of "prediction" within the context of classical relativity theory. We prove a theorem asserting that one may predict one's own future only in a closed universe. We then question whether prediction is possible at all (even in closed universes). We note that interest in prediction has stemmed from considering the epistemological predicament of the observer. We argue that the definitions of prediction found thus far in the literature do not fully appreciate this p…Read more