Shows
MCMP – Philosophy of PhysicsQuantisation as a guide to ontic structureKarim Thébault (MCMP/LMU) gives a talk at the MCMP Colloquium (9 January, 2013) titled "Quantisation as a guide to ontic structure". Abstract: The ontic structural realist stance is motivated by a desire to do philosophical justice to the success of science, whilst withstanding the metaphysical undermining generated by the various species of ontological underdetermination. We are, however, as yet in want of general principles to provide a scaffold for the explicit construction of structural ontologies. Here we will attempt to bridge this gap by utilising the formal procedure of quantisation as a guide to ontic structure of modern physical theory. T...2019-04-1800 minMCMPWhat can we learn from Analogue Experiments?Karim Thebault (MCMP/LMU) gives a talk at the Workshop on "Why trust a Theory?" (7-9 December, 2015) titled "What can we learn from Analogue Experiments?". Abstract: In 1981 Unruh proposed that fluid mechanical experiments could be used to probe key aspects of the quantum phenomenology of black holes. In particular, he claimed that an analogue to Hawking radiation could be created within a fluid mechanical 'dumb hole'. Since then an entire sub-field of 'analogue gravity' has been created. In 2014 Steinhauer reported the experimental observation of Hawking radiation within a Bose-Einstein condensate dumb hole. What can we learn from such analogue experiments...2018-03-1300 minMCMP – Philosophy of PhysicsA New Prescription for the Quantization of Refoliation Invariant Field TheoriesKarim Thebault (MCMP/LMU) gives a talk at the Irvine-Munich Workshop on the Foundations of Classical and Quantum Field Theories (14 December, 2014) titled "A New Prescription for the Quantization of Refoliation Invariant Field Theories". Abstract: Imagine a loaf of bread that we can irregularly cut up into a sequence of slices. The loaf is spacetime and the slices are instantaneous spatial surfaces. A foliation is a parameterization of a spacetime by a time ordered sequence of spatial slices. In a field theory such a parametrization can be local in the sense that it is defined for every point on every spatial...2014-12-3100 minMCMP – Philosophy of ScienceReduction and Emergence in PhysicsSebastian Lutz (MCMP/LMU) and Karim Thébault (MCMP/LMU) give a talk at the CAS Research Focus Series „Reduction and Emergence“ (13 November, 2013) titled "Reduction and Emergence in Physics" (host: Stephan Hartmann (MCMP/LMU)). Abstract: Matter is composed of small elementary particles whose behavior is predicted very accurately by modern physics. This has led to the suggestion that the fundamental theories of physics are ‘theories of everything’, since in principle they describe the evolution of all matter in the universe. But does the behavior of molecules, magnets and proteins really reduce to that of quarks, gluons and electrons? It often rather se...2014-02-2141 minMCMP – Philosophy of PhysicsTime RemainsKarim Thébault (MCMP/LMU) gives a talk at the MCMP Workshop "Quantum Gravity in Perspective" (31 May-1 June, 2013) titled "Time Remains". Abstract: Even classically, it is not entirely clear how one should understand the implications of general covariance for the role of time in physical theory. On one popular view, the essential lesson is that change is relational in a strong sense, such that all that it is for a physical degree of freedom to change is for it to vary with regard to a second physical degree of freedom. This implies that there is no unique parameterziation of time s...2013-10-0900 min