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9Independent evidence in multi-messenger astrophysicsStudies in History and Philosophy of Science Part A 104 (C): 119-129. 2024.
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13Theory Testing in Gravitational-Wave AstrophysicsIn Nora Mills Boyd, Siska De Baerdemaeker, Kevin Heng & Vera Matarese (eds.), Philosophy of Astrophysics: Stars, Simulations, and the Struggle to Determine What is Out There, Springer Verlag. pp. 2147483647-2147483647. 2023.The LIGO-Virgo Collaboration achieved the first ‘direct detection’ of gravitational waves in 2015, opening a new “window” for observing the universe. Since this first detection (‘GW150914’), dozens of detections have followed, mostly produced by binary black hole mergers. However, the theory-ladenness of the LIGO-Virgo methods for observing these events leads to a potentially-vicious circularity, where general relativistic assumptions may serve to mask phenomena that are inconsistent with genera…Read more
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46The Next Generation Event Horizon Telescope Collaboration: History, Philosophy, and CultureGalaxies 11 (1): 32. 2023.This white paper outlines the plans of the History Philosophy Culture Working Group of the Next Generation Event Horizon Telescope Collaboration.
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Black Hole Coalescence: Observation and Model ValidationIn Lydia Patton & Erik Curiel (eds.), Working Toward Solutions in Fluid Dynamics and Astrophysics: What the Equations Don’t Say, Springer Verlag. pp. 79-104. 2023.This paper will discuss the recent LIGO-Virgo observations of gravitational waves and the binary black hole mergers that produce them. These observations rely on having prior knowledge of the dynamical behaviour of binary black hole systems, as governed by the Einstein Field Equations (EFEs). However, we currently lack any exact, analytic solutions to the EFEs describing such systems. In the absence of such solutions, a range of modelling approaches are used to mediate between the dynamical equa…Read more
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66Defending stance voluntarismPhilosophical Studies 176 (11): 3019-3039. 2019.In this paper, I argue that stance voluntarism is a coherent and useful view for understanding debates about the ontological commitments warranted by science. To do so, I first engage in a defensive move: I rescue stance voluntarism from what I take to be the most pressing objection to have emerged in recent literature, which I call the ‘irrationality objection’. According to this objection, an agent courts irrationality by simultaneously holding an epistemic stance and believing that stance vol…Read more
Medford and Somerville, Massachusetts, United States of America
Areas of Specialization
Philosophy of Physical Science |
Astrophysics |
General Relativity |
Science, Logic, and Mathematics |