January 2020 - philphysmunich

CFP: Conceptual and Phenomenological Reflections on Gauge Symmetries, the Brout-Englert-Higgs Mechanism, Particles, and Observables
by Neil Dewar Jan. 24, 2020

Jan. 24, 2020

Call for Papers Conceptual and Phenomenological Reflections on Gauge Symmetries, the Brout- Englert-Higgs Mechanism, Particles, and Observables November 5-6, 2020 University of Graz, Austria Organizing Team: Philipp Berghofer and Axel Maas Keynote speakers: Neil Dewar (Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich) Simon Friederich (University College Groningen) Henrique Gomes (University of Cambridge) Michael Krämer (RWTH Aachen University) Submission details: Submissions should not exceed 500 words, must be written in English (conference language), and should be prepared for blind review. Please send your submissions and general inquiries to philipp.berghofer(a)uni-graz.at. Women and members of other traditionally underrepresented groups are especially encouraged to apply. The submission deadline is April 30, 2020. Conference summary: The foundations of modern particle physics rely heavily on gauge symmetries. In fact, they became a heuristically indispensable tool. However, their mathematical content is that of a redundancy in the description. Thus, any object on which gauge symmetries act non-trivially contains redundant information. Conceptually, this is not an immanent problem, as this only requires to extract the relevant information from a redundant description, as is already the case e.g. in classical mechanics. This aspect concerns merely a technical problem. Where this yields a profound conceptual challenge is when discussing the observables and the particle concept. In standard approaches to particle physics, especially perturbation theory, the elementary degrees of freedom are the particles, and their dynamics describe observable physics. Of course, even at that level these entities are mathematically described as localized excitations of fields. The problem we want to focus on is that these entities transform non-trivially under the gauge symmetry, and therefore necessarily contain redundant information. This raises the question, what are the physical entities perceived as particles? This problem is easily overlooked. In the strong interaction, this problem is alleviated by confinement, as due to confinement only hadrons are required to be observable. They are at the same time without redundant information, they are gauge-invariant. This problem is even far less obvious in the electromagnetic and weak interactions, where a description in terms of the elementary degrees of freedom, like electrons or Z bosons, is extremely successful. However, a more detailed investigation reveals that a suitable dressing of the elementary degrees of freedom, in electromagnetism by the photons and in the weak interactions by the Higgs bosons, yields physical objects, akin to hadrons, which no longer contain redundant information. It is a quirk of the standard model that a description using these physical objects gives quantitatively almost the same results as in perturbation theory. One aim of this conference is to compare and contrast different versions of such manifestly gauge invariant approaches and reflect on their virtues and investigate their ontological implications. For instance, what implications do such approaches have on our understanding of the nature of elementary particles and their relationship to quantum fields? Can we conceive of particles as excitations of fields? What do such manifestly gauge invariant fields look like? These reflections lead us to a more general question: To what degree has the undeniable success of quantum physics in general and of perturbation theory in particular shrouded and overshadowed a lack of conceptual clarity in physics? One might argue that a new generation of physicists is learning how to apply certain concepts, methods, and theories in order to solve suitable problems, but that the meaning of these concepts, their historical embeddedness, and their relationship to our real world is more and more lost. This alienation of physical theory and physical reality may not only be a philosophical problem but hinder the progress of physics. In a similar context, Edmund Husserl said: “Are science and its method not like a machine, reliable in accomplishing obviously very useful things, a machine everyone can learn to operate correctly without in the least understanding the inner possibility and necessity of this sort of accomplishment?” (Crisis, § 9h) “And it is precisely for this reason that a theoretical task and achievement like that of a natural science [...] can only be and remain meaningful in a true and original sense if the scientist has developed in himself the ability to inquire back into the original meaning of all his meaningstructures and methods, i.e., into the historical meaning of their primal establishment, and especially into the meaning of all the inherited meanings taken over unnoticed in this primal establishment, as well as those taken over later on.” (Crisis, § 9k) Accordingly, the conference will be organized around four topical areas: 1) Has the success of quantum physics in general and of perturbation theory in particular blinded us with respect to conceptual problems? Do textbook presentations represent genuine physical theories or are they more like recipes for solving suitable problems in which the success of the theory and the relationship to the real world remain somehow obscure? What can we gain from restoring conceptual clarity? 2) How to ontologically interpret gauge symmetries? Are they mere descriptive redundancy or do they have physical meaning? What does it mean to say that a gauge symmetry is spontaneously broken? 3) What candidates for manifestly gauge invariant approaches to the Brout-Englert-Higgs mechanism do we have? What are their virtues and shortcomings? What insights do we gain from comparing and contrasting different versions? 4) What are the ontological implications of manifestly gauge invariant approaches? How to conceive of particles? How to conceive of the relationship between particles and fields? -- Neil Dewar Assistant Professor Munich Center for Mathematical Philosophy Lehrstuhl für Wissenschaftstheorie Fakultät für Philosophie, Wissenschaftstheorie und Religionswissenschaft Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität Ludwigstraße 31 80539 München, Deutschland neildewar.wordpress.com <http://neildewar.wordpress.com/>

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"Quantum Gravity 2020" at the Perimeter Institute
by Erik Curiel Jan. 21, 2020

Jan. 21, 2020

On behalf of the Scientific Advisory Committee, I announce the forthcoming "Quantum Gravity 2020" conference at the Perimeter Institute, Monday, July 13, to Friday, July 17, 2020. The conference hopes to reach researchers from all current approaches to quantum gravity, as well as researchers working on the phenomenology of quantum gravity. The main goal of the meeting is to assess the progress made and to constructively and openly discuss open questions in our understanding of quantum gravity. We hope that Quantum Gravity 2020 can make a contribution to bridging the gaps between quantum gravity approaches, and bring the entire community together for a constructive and fruitful exchange. Thus, it should be an important event both for purely scientific reasons and for bringing together different QG communities. Registration for the conference is now open on the conference webpage: https://www.perimeterinstitute.ca/conferences/quantum-gravity-2020, as well as more information about the conference. We would be grateful if you could forward this link and information about the conference to colleagues who might be interested. -- Erik Curiel http://strangebeautiful.com Assistant Professor Munich Center for Mathematical Philosophy Lehrstuhl für Wissenschaftstheorie Fakultät für Philosophie, Wissenschaftstheorie und Religionswissenschaft Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität Ludwigstraße 31 80539 München, Deutschland http://www.mcmp.philosophie.uni-muenchen.de BHI Research Fellow Black Hole Initiative Harvard University http://bhi.fas.harvard.edu Research Fellow Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory Radio and Geoastronomy Division https://www.cfa.harvard.edu/rg

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Fwd: LPS Summer Diversity Program
by Neil Dewar Jan. 16, 2020

Jan. 16, 2020

Dear all, The below may be of interest to list members. All the best Neil -- Neil Dewar Assistant Professor Munich Center for Mathematical Philosophy Lehrstuhl für Wissenschaftstheorie Fakultät für Philosophie, Wissenschaftstheorie und Religionswissenschaft Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität Ludwigstraße 31 80539 München, Deutschland neildewar.wordpress.com <http://neildewar.wordpress.com/> > Begin forwarded message: > > From: "Cailin O'Connor" <cailino(a)uci.edu> > Subject: LPS Summer Diversity Program > Date: 13 January 2020 at 21:13:49 CET > To: "PSA Women's Caucus" <psawomenscaucus(a)ucdavis.edu> > > Dear Women's Caucus Members, > > I'd be so grateful if you could share this with undergrads and MA students you think might be interested! > > The Department of Logic and Philosophy of Science will host a five-day Summer Program for students from underrepresented groups who are planning to undertake graduate study in logic and philosophy of science. The program is intended to provide students with skills for undertaking graduate study and in the processes of application for such work. > > The program will take place at the University of California, Irvine August 3-8, 2020. If accepted students will be provided with transportation and accommodation. The application deadline will be March 13. > > For more information, please go to our website: > > https://lpssdp.com/?fbclid=IwAR1ObXTvPcQ5PLWkFThUsVsejGh9r-vNMDsWxxEN58UZrY… <https://lpssdp.com/?fbclid=IwAR1ObXTvPcQ5PLWkFThUsVsejGh9r-vNMDsWxxEN58UZrY…> > Best, > > Cailin > > > -- > Cailin O'Connor > Associate Professor, Logic and Philosophy of Science > Director, Philosophy, Political Science, and Economics MA program > University of California, Irvine

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Fwd: [quantum-foundations] UK and European conference on Foundations of Physics (Paris, 8 to 10 July 2020)
by Neil Dewar Jan. 8, 2020

Jan. 8, 2020

Dear all, As announced below, the call for papers for Foundations of Physics 2020 has a new submission deadline: February 1, 2020. All the best Neil > Begin forwarded message: > > From: "Dr J.N. Butterfield" <jb56(a)hermes.cam.ac.uk> > Subject: [quantum-foundations] UK and European conference on Foundations of Physics (Paris, 8 to 10 July 2020) > Date: 8. January 2020 at 12:26:27 CET > To: hpscam <hps-discussion(a)lists.cam.ac.uk>, CamPhilosophyResearchBulletin <phil-bulletin(a)lists.cam.ac.uk>, "quantumfdns.list" <quantum-foundations(a)maillist.ox.ac.uk> > Reply-To: "Dr J.N. Butterfield" <jb56(a)hermes.cam.ac.uk> > > Dear all: > The biennial UK and European conference on Foundations of Physics (Paris, 8 to 10 July 2020) is accepting abstracts for talks a while longer: until 1 February. Please spread the word! > Go to: > > https://foundations2020.sciencesconf.org > > details for abstracts are at: > > https://foundations2020.sciencesconf.org/resource/page/id/9 > > Best, Jeremy > > ------ > Jeremy Butterfield: > Trinity College, Cambridge CB2 1TQ: Tel: 07557-668413 (mobile) > > > >

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2 Postdoctoral and 5 Doctoral positions; philosophy of science, history of science, social studies of science, and physics; Aachen (GER), Bonn (GER), Karlsruhe (GER), Klagenfurt (AUT), Wuppertal (GER).
by Neil Dewar Jan. 3, 2020

Jan. 3, 2020

Sent on behalf of Niels Martens: The Research Unit “The Epistemology of the LHC”, funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG) and the Austrian Science Fund (FWF), invites applications for <>2 Postdoctoral and 5 Doctoral positions in the fields of philosophy of science, history of science, social studies of science, and physics. Established in 2016, the Research Unit has forged a unique cooperation between physicists, philosophers, historians, and social scientists. Its aim is to collectively investigate the epistemology of the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at CERN. With its six individual projects cooperating closely and its teams located at universities across Germany and Austria, the Research Unit covers a broad variety of issues concerning the forefront of research on experimental and theoretical physics at one of the largest scientific facilities worldwide. It addresses key questions in philosophy, history, and the social sciences from an interdisciplinary perspective. <> <>After a successful first phase, the Research Unit has been extended for a second phase of 36 months. We would like to fill the following positions: Project (A1) “The formation and development of the concept of virtual particles”: - 1 postdoctoral position at the RWTH Aachen University. Project (A2) “The hierarchy, fine tuning, and naturalness problem from a philosophical perspective”: - 1 position for a doctoral researcher at the University of Wuppertal. Project (A3) “LHC and gravity”: - 1 position for a doctoral researcher at the University of Bonn and the RWTH Aachen University. Project (B1) “The impact of computer simulations and machine learning on the epistemic status of LHC data”: - 1 position for a doctoral researcher at the KIT (Karlsruhe). Project (B2) “Model building and dynamics”: - 1 position for a doctoral researcher at the University of Bonn. Project (B3) “Producing novelty and securing credibility in LHC experiments”: - 1 position for a doctoral researcher at the University of Klagenfurt (Austria). - 1 postdoctoral position at the University of Klagenfurt (Austria). Each project is directed jointly by a principal investigator from physics and investigators from the philosophy of science, history of science, or social studies of science (STS). <> <> <> <>We are looking for candidates from the aforementioned fields who are interested in engaging in interdisciplinary work and who have experience in one or more of the relevant fields of expertise. We are committed to diversity and equal opportunity, and would like to encourage applications from scholars who would diversify the Research Unit, and the academic community more generally. Positions are funded for three years and will typically start on May 1, 2020. Deadline for applications: January 31, 2020. Descriptions of the individual projects can be found at <>http://www.lhc-epistemologie.uni-wuppertal.de <http://www.lhc-epistemologie.uni-wuppertal.de/>. Please send applications electronically to lhc.epistemology(a)uni-wuppertal.de <mailto:lhc.epistemology@uni-wuppertal.de>. Applications should include a letter of motivation with a ranked list of the project(s) (A1-A3, B1-B3) applied for, a curriculum vitae, a list of publications and presentations, copies of your degree certificates, and the names and addresses of referees (two for the postdoctoral positions and one for the doctoral positions) who can be contacted directly.

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