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87Effective field theoriesIn Robert Batterman (ed.), The Oxford Handbook of Philosophy of Physics, Oup Usa. pp. 224. 2013.
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581Category-Theoretic Structure and Radical Ontic Structural RealismSynthese 190 (9): 1621-1635. 2013.Radical Ontic Structural Realism (ROSR) claims that structure exists independently of objects that may instantiate it. Critics of ROSR contend that this claim is conceptually incoherent, insofar as, (i) it entails there can be relations without relata, and (ii) there is a conceptual dependence between relations and relata. In this essay I suggest that (ii) is motivated by a set-theoretic formulation of structure, and that adopting a category-theoretic formulation may provide ROSR with more suppo…Read more
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13Emergence and mechanism in the fractional quantum Hall effectStudies in History and Philosophy of Science Part B: Studies in History and Philosophy of Modern Physics 56 27-38. 2016.
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148CPT Invariance, the Spin-Statistics Connection, and the Ontology of Relativistic Quantum Field TheoriesErkenntnis 78 (4): 797-821. 2013.CPT invariance and the spin-statistics connection are typically taken to be essential properties in relativistic quantum field theories (RQFTs), insofar as the CPT and Spin-Statistics theorems entail that any state of a physical system characterized by an RQFT must possess these properties. Moreover, in the physics literature, they are typically taken to be properties of particles. But there is a Received View among philosophers that RQFTs cannot fundamentally be about particles. This essay cons…Read more
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55In this essay, I consider what condensed matter physics has to say about the nature of spacetime. In particular, I consider the extent to which spacetime can be modeled as a quantum liquid, with matter and force fields described by effective field theories of the low-energy excitations of the liquid. After a brief review of effective field theories in 2-dim highly-correlated condensed matter systems, I evaluate analogies in the recent physics literature between spacetime and superfluid Helium, a…Read more
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59Algebraic substantivalism, as an interpretation of general relativity formulated in the Einstein algebra formalism, avoids the hole argument against manifold substantivalism. In this essay, I argue that this claim is well-founded. I first identify the hole argument as an argument against a specific form of semantic realism with respect to spacetime. I then consider algebraic substantivalism as an alternative form of semantic realism. In between, I justify this alternative form by reviewing the E…Read more
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157This essay considers the prospects of modeling spacetime as a phenomenon that emerges in the low-energy limit of a quantum liquid. It evaluates three examples of spacetime analogues in condensed matter systems that have appeared in the recent physics literature, indicating the extent to which they are viable, and considers what they suggest about the nature of spacetime.
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9Cpt Invariance and the Spin-Statistics ConnectionOxford University Press UK. 2016.This book seeks to answer the question "What explains CPT invariance and the spin-statistics connection?" These properties play foundational roles in relativistic quantum field theories, are supported by high-precision experiments, and figure into explanations of a wide range of phenomena, from antimatter, to the periodic table of the elements, to superconductors and superfluids. They can be derived in RQFTs by means of the famous CPT and Spin-Statistics theorems; but, the author argues, these t…Read more
Areas of Specialization
2 more
Structural Realism |
Quantum Field Theory |
Condensed Matter Physics |
General Relativity |
Quantum Gravity |
History of Physics |
History of Science, Misc |
Areas of Interest
Condensed Matter Physics |
Quantum Gravity |
Quantum Field Theory |
Structural Realism |