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28It is plausible that the models of our scientific theories correspond to possibilities. But exactly which models of which scientific theories stand in this correspondence? The answers to this question hinted at so far in the literature are too restrictive: they don't support the idea that the models of many of our best scientific theories correspond to physical possibilities. The paper thus provides a novel proposal for guiding belief about physical possibilities based on physics. The proposal d…Read more
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Shifts and referenceIn Antonio Vassallo (ed.), The Foundations of Spacetime Physics: Philosophical Perspectives, Routledge. 2022.
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41Euclidean spacetime functionalismSynthese 200 (6): 1-22. 2022.We explore the significance of physical theories set in Euclidean spacetimes. In particular, we explore the use of these theories in contemporary physics at large, and the sense in which there can be a notion of temporal evolution in these theories. Having achieved these tasks, we proceed to reflect on the lessons that one can take from such theories for Knox’s ‘inertial frame’ version of spacetime functionalism, which seems to issue incorrect verdicts in the case of theories with Euclidean metr…Read more
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33Why Not a Sound Postulate?Foundations of Physics 51 (3): 1-20. 2021.What, if anything, would be wrong with replacing the light postulate in Einstein’s 1905 formulation of special relativity with a ‘sound postulate’, stating that the speed of sound is independent of the speed of the source? After reviewing the historical reasons underlying the particular focus on light in the special theory, we consider the circumstances under which such a theory of ‘sonic relativity’ would be justified on empirical grounds. We then consider the philosophical upshots of ‘sonic re…Read more
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34How to Teach General RelativityBritish Journal for the Philosophy of Science. forthcoming.Supposing that one is already familiar with special relativistic physics, what constitutes the best route via which to arrive at the architecture of the general theory of relativity? Although the later Einstein would stress the significance of mathematical and theoretical principles in answering this question, in this article we follow the lead of the earlier Einstein (circa 1916) and stress instead how one can go a long way to arriving at the general theory via inductive and empirical principle…Read more
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26Some Remarks on Recent Formalist Responses to the Hole ArgumentFoundations of Physics 54 (1): 1-20. 2023.In a recent article, Halvorson and Manchak (Br J Philos Sci, Forthcoming) claim that there is no basis for the Hole Argument, because (in a certain sense) hole isometries are unique. This raises two important questions: (a) does their argument succeed?; (b) how does this formalist response to the Hole Argument relate to other recent responses to the Hole Argument in the same tradition—in particular, that of Weatherall (Br J Philos Sci 69(2):329–350, 2018)? In this article, _ad_ (a), we argue tha…Read more
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325Causation and the conservation of energy in general relativityThe British Journal for the Philosophy of Science. forthcoming.Consensus in the contemporary philosophical literature has it that conserved quantity theories of causation such as that of Dowe [2000]—according to which causation is to be analysed in terms of the exchange of conserved quantities (e.g., energy)—face damning problems when confronted with contemporary physics, where the notion of conservation becomes delicate. In particular, in general relativity it is often claimed that there simply are no conservation laws for (say) total-stress energy. If thi…Read more
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71The World in the Wave Function: A Metaphysics for Quantum Physics, by Alyssa NeyMind 133 (530): 560-571. 2024.
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35Testing Spacetime OrientabilityFoundations of Physics 53 (1): 1-25. 2022.Historically, a great deal of attention has been addressed to the question of what it would take to test experimentally the metrical structure of spacetime. Arguably, however, consideration of this question has been at the expense of comparable investigations into what it would take to test other structural features of spacetime. In this article, we critique and expand substantially upon an article by Hadley (Hadley in Class Quantum Gravity, 19:4565–4571, 2002), which constitutes one of the best…Read more
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25Miracles persist: a reply to SusEuropean Journal for Philosophy of Science 12 (1): 1-10. 2022.In a recent article in this journal, Sus purports to account for what have been identified as the ‘two miracles’ of general relativity—that (1) the local symmetries of all dynamical equations for matter fields coincide, and (2) the symmetries of the dynamical equations governing matter fields coincide locally with the symmetries of the metric field—by application of the familiar result that every symmetry of the action is also a symmetry of the resulting equations of motion. In this reply, we ar…Read more
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45Newtonian Equivalence PrinciplesErkenntnis 88 (8): 3479-3503. 2023.The equivalence principle has constituted one of the cornerstones of discussions in the foundations of spacetime theories over the past century. However, up to this point the principle has been considered overwhelmingly only within the context of relativistic physics. In this article, we demonstrate that the principle has much broader, super-theoretic significance: to do so, we present a unified framework for understanding the principle in its various guises, applicable to both relativistic and …Read more
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57Motivating dualitiesSynthese 197 (1): 263-291. 2020.There exists a common view that for theories related by a ‘duality’, dual models typically may be taken ab initio to represent the same physical state of affairs, i.e. to correspond to the same possible world. We question this view, by drawing a parallel with the distinction between ‘interpretational’ and ‘motivational’ approaches to symmetries.
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34On the Status of Newtonian Gravitational RadiationFoundations of Physics 51 (2): 1-16. 2021.We discuss the status of gravitational radiation in Newtonian theories. In order to do so, we consider various options for interpreting the Poisson equation as encoding propagating solutions, reflect on the extent to which limit considerations from general relativity can shed light on the Poisson equation’s conceptual status, and discuss various senses in which the Poisson equation counts as a dynamical equation.
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123The epistemology of spacetimePhilosophy Compass 17 (4). 2022.Philosophy Compass, Volume 17, Issue 4, April 2022.
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225Edge Modes and Dressing Fields for the Newton–Cartan Quantum Hall EffectFoundations of Physics 53 (1): 1-24. 2022.It is now well-known that Newton–Cartan theory is the correct geometrical setting for modelling the quantum Hall effect. In addition, in recent years edge modes for the Newton–Cartan quantum Hall effect have been derived. However, the existence of these edge modes has, as of yet, been derived using only orthodox methodologies involving the breaking of gauge-invariance; it would be preferable to derive the existence of such edge modes in a gauge-invariant manner. In this article, we employ recent…Read more
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19Clocks and Chronogeometry: Rotating Spacetimes and the Relativistic Null HypothesisBritish Journal for the Philosophy of Science 71 (4): 1287-1317. 2018.Recent work in the physics literature demonstrates that, in particular classes of rotating spacetimes, physical light rays in general do not traverse null geodesics. Having presented this result, we discuss its philosophical significance, both for the clock hypothesis (and, in particular, a recent purported proof thereof for light clocks), and for the operational meaning of the metric field. 1Introduction 2Fletcher's Theorem 2.1Maudlin on the clock hypothesis in special relativity 2.2Fletcher’s …Read more
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270Respecting boundaries: theoretical equivalence and structure beyond dynamicsEuropean Journal for Philosophy of Science 13 (4): 1-28. 2023.A standard line in the contemporary philosophical literature has it that physical theories are equivalent only when they agree on their empirical content, where this empirical content is often understood as being encoded in the equations of motion of those theories. In this article, we question whether it is indeed the case that the empirical content of a theory is exhausted by its equations of motion, showing that (for example) considerations of boundary conditions play a key role in the empiri…Read more
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26Geometric Objects and PerspectivalismIn James Read & Nicholas J. Teh (eds.), The Philosophy and Physics of Noether's Theorems, Cambridge University Press. pp. 257-273. 2022.
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91Teaching and learning guide for: The epistemology of spacetimePhilosophy Compass 17 (10). 2022.Philosophy Compass, Volume 17, Issue 10, October 2022.
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32The limitations of inertial frame spacetime functionalismSynthese 199 (2): 229-251. 2021.For Knox, ‘spacetime’ is to be defined functionally, as that which picks out a structure of local inertial frames. Assuming that Knox is motivated to construct this functional definition of spacetime on the grounds that it appears to identify that structure which plays theoperationalrole of spacetime—i.e., that structure which is actually surveyed by physical rods and clocks built from matter fields—we identify in this paper important limitations of her approach: these limitations are based upon…Read more
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490On the Mathematics and Metaphysics of the Hole ArgumentThe British Journal for the Philosophy of Science. forthcoming.We make some remarks on the mathematics and metaphysics of the hole argument, in response to a recent article in this journal by Weatherall ([2018]). Broadly speaking, we defend the mainstream philosophical literature from the claim that correct usage of the mathematics of general relativity `blocks' the argument.
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32Hypothesis-driven science in large-scale studies: the case of GWASBiology and Philosophy 36 (5): 1-21. 2021.It is now well-appreciated by philosophers that contemporary large-scale ‘-omics’ studies in biology stand in non-trivial relationships to more orthodox hypothesis-driven approaches. These relationships have been clarified by Ratti (2015); however, there remains much more to be said regarding how an important field of genomics cited in that work—‘genome-wide association studies’ (GWAS)—fits into this framework. In the present article, we propose a revision to Ratti’s framework more suited to stu…Read more
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740The Landscape and the Multiverse: What’s the Problem?Synthese 199 (3-4): 7749-7771. 2021.As a candidate theory of quantum gravity, the popularity of string theory has waxed and waned over the past four decades. One current source of scepticism is that the theory can be used to derive, depending upon the input geometrical assumptions that one makes, a vast range of different quantum field theories, giving rise to the so-called landscape problem. One apparent way to address the landscape problem is to posit the existence of a multiverse; this, however, has in turn drawn heightened att…Read more
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8The limitations of intertial frame spacetime functionalismSynthese 1 (Suppl 2): 229-251. 2019.For Knox, ‘spacetime’ is to be defined functionally, as that which picks out a structure of local inertial frames. Assuming that Knox is motivated to construct this functional definition of spacetime on the grounds that it appears to identify that structure which plays the operational role of spacetime—i.e., that structure which is actually surveyed by physical rods and clocks built from matter fields—we identify in this paper important limitations of her approach: these limitations are based up…Read more
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21Conformal Invariance of the Newtonian Weyl TensorFoundations of Physics 50 (11): 1418-1425. 2020.It is well-known that the conformal structure of a relativistic spacetime is of profound physical and conceptual interest. In this note, we consider the analogous structure for Newtonian theories. We show that the Newtonian Weyl tensor is an invariant of this structure.
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56Geometrical Constructivism and Modal Relationalism: Further Aspects of the Dynamical/Geometrical DebateInternational Studies in the Philosophy of Science 33 (1): 23-41. 2020.I draw together some recent literature on the debate between dynamical versus geometrical approaches to spacetime theories, in order to argue that there exist defensible versions of the geometr...
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59Sophistry about symmetries?Synthese 199 (1-2): 315-344. 2020.A common adage runs that, given a theory manifesting symmetries, the syntax of that theory should be modified in order to construct a new theory, from which symmetry-variant structure of the original theory has been excised. Call this strategy for explicating the underlying ontology of symmetry-related models reduction. Recently, Dewar has proposed an alternative to reduction as a means of articulating the ontology of symmetry-related models—what he calls sophistication, in which the semantics o…Read more
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63Redundant epistemic symmetriesStudies in History and Philosophy of Science Part B: Studies in History and Philosophy of Modern Physics 70 88-97. 2020.
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