Talk by Elena Castellani at MCMP (Jan 28)

Speaker: Elena Castellani (Florence) Date: Wed., January 28 Location: Ludwigstr. 31, ground floor, room 021 Time: 18:15 - 19:45 Title: Dual Objects Abstract: The talk elaborates on Ashoke Sen's view that the discovery of physical dualities in the context of quantum field theory and string theory has radically changed our understanding of the ultimate constituents of matter “by bringing in a sort of democracy between all particles, elementary and composite” (Sen, 1996). I argue that such apparently puzzling ontological features of dualities can be better understood by following a structural approach to the objects of physics. The background is the current discussion on structuralist stances in physics.