Foundations/Philosophy of Physics Seminar
The Foundations of Physics Research Seminar was founded in 2002, and currently takes place every other Friday in (approx.) Sept-Nov and Jan-March, from 15:00-17:00 at the Utrecht Science Park. An external speaker presents their work or an internal presenter presents a published paper by someone else; a draft or paper is sent around beforehand. The seminar is in-person only; staff, students and anyone else are welcome to attend. Please email f.a.muller@uu.nl to be added to the mailing list.
| Date | Presenter | Topic or Paper | Venue |
| 13 Sep | F.A. Muller (EUR & UU) | F.Laudisa, Information-theoretic view of QM and measurement problems (EJPS 13, 2023) | BBG 4.01 |
| 27 Sep | Federico Laudisa (Trento, Italy) | on Bohr and Von Neumann on Universality QM, European Journal for History of Science (2024). | BBG 4.01 |
| 11 Oct | Ruward Mulder (Cambridge, U.K.) | Whether spacetime is curved, Synthese (2024) | BBG 4.01 |
| 25 Oct | L. Kuiper (Utrecht University) | D.Wallace, Decoherence and Ontology (2010), Many Worlds (OUP) | BBG 0.77 |
| 1 Nov | Marij van Strien (RUN) | Marij van Strien, The Challenge of Quantum Mechanics to the Rationality of Science: Philosophers of Science on Bohr. | BBG 1.39 |
| 6 Dec | Caspar Jacobs (Leiden) | In Defence of Dimensions, BJPS (forthcoming) | BBG 4.01 |
| 17 Jan | Jossi Berkovitz (Toronto, Canada) | On the role of intuitive thinking in scientific reasoning | BBG 0.77 |
| 24 Jan | Pablo Acuña (Santiago, Chile) | Deterministic Hidden Variables and Parameter Dependence | BBG 0.77 |
| 21 Feb | James Read (Oxford, U.K.) | Permanent underdetermination in dark energy and inflationary cosmology | BBG 4.01 |
| 7 Mar | Silvester Borsboom (UvA) | Spontaneous Breaking of Global Gauge Symmetries in the Higgs mechanism | BBG 4.01 |
Previous speakers
| Date | Presenter | Topic or Paper |
| 15 Sep | F.A. Muller | O. Lombardi et al. 'What is Quantum Information?' (2016) |
| 13 Oct | Ward Struyve (KU Leuven) | 'Lorentz-invariance and quantum theory' |
| 27 Oct | Alex Fleuren | Marc Holman, 'How Problematic is the Near-Euclidean Spatial Geometry of the Large-Scale Universe?' (2018) |
| 3 Nov | Sanne Vergouwen | Erik Curiel, 'Definitions of Black Holes' (2018) |
| 17 Nov | F.A. Muller | F.J. Boge, 'A Positive Argument Against Scientific Realism' (2023) |
| 9 Feb | Guido Bacciagaluppi | On Local Realism |
| 23 Feb | Antonios Papaioannou | C. Beisbart and T. Jung, 'On Our Place in the World (2006)' |
| 22 Mar | Sebastian de Haro (University of Amsterdam) | Forthcoming book with Jeremy Butterfield on the philosophy and physics of duality |
| 5 Apr | Sean Gryb (University of Groningen) | 'When Scale is Surplus' (2021) |
| 17 May | Raoni Wohnrat Arroyo | 'Fictionalist Metaphysics' (2024) |
| Date | Presenter | Topic or Paper |
| 7 Oct | F.A. Muller | Six Measurement Problems of QM |
| 21 Oct | F.A. Muller | On Uncertainty Principle, Peijnenburg & Atkinson |
| 4 Nov | Matt Farr (Cambridge University) | On initial conditions and past hypothesis (2021) |
| 2 Dec | Damon Moley | `Physics and Reality' (1936) by Einstein |
| 15 Dec | Ruward Muler (Cambridge University) | On Aharanov-Bohm effect and Locality (2021) |
| 3 Feb | Nick Huggett (University of Chicago) | Quantum Gravity Book |
| 17 Feb | Menno Hellinga | Kindergarten Quantum Mechanics (2005), by B. Coecke, lecture notes |
| 24 Feb | Marien Raat | Many Worlds in Quantum Computation (2009), Clare Hewitt-Horsman |
| 10 March | Niels Martens | Doing More with Less: Dark Matter & Modified Gravity |
| 24 March | Sam Fletcher (University of Minnesota) | Singularities and Black Holes |
| 31 March | Gijs Leegwater (EUR) | The Identity Crisis of the Electron |
| Date | Presenter | Topic or Paper |
| 24 Sept | F.A. Muller | S.C. Fletcher, D.E. Taylor, Quantum Indeterminacy and the EigenLink, Synthese (2021) |
| 1 Oct | F.A. Muller | Lazarovici, 'Positions Measurements in Bohmian Mechanics', Philosophy of Science (2021) |
| 15 Oct | Guido Bacciagaluppi | Statistical Interpretation of QM (2021), preprint, historical paper. |
| 29 Oct | Jossi Berkovitz (Montreal) | On mathematical explanation in physics |
| 12 Nov | Pascual Rodriguez | E. Adlam, `Choi-Jamiolkowski Isomorphism', Entropy (2020) |
| 10 Dec | F.A. Muller | Carroll, `Why there is something rather than nothing', in: Routledge Companion to Phil. Phys., 2022 |
| 18 Feb | Ravi Kunjwal (Brussels) | How quantum nonlocality without entanglement witnesses classical communication without causal order |
| 11 March | Marc Holman | On the flatness problem in cosmology |
| 25 March | Jasper van Wezel & Lotte Mertens (Amsterdam) | Quantum measurement: identifying the minimal requirements for any objective collapse theory |
| 29 April | Sanne Vergouwen | `Reduction, Emergence, Renormalisation', J. Butterfield, J. Phil., 2014 |
| 17 June | Elise Crull (City College of New York & CUNY) | Flat Ontology |
| Date | Presenter | Topic or Paper |
| 11 Sept | F.A. Muller | Causation and Time Reversal, by Matt Farr, British Journal for the Phil. Science 71 (2020) 177–204 |
| 25 Sept | Guy Hetzroni (The Open University of Israel) | Gauge and Ghosts |
| 16 Oct | Sam Rijken (UU & EUR) | Thought-Experiments in Physics |
| 30 Oct | F.A. Muller | New Interpretation Problem for QM, A. Heelan, British Journal for the Phil. Science (2020) |
| 20 Nov | Ronnie Hermens & Guido Bacciagaluppi | On the Reverse Bell Theorem |
| 4 Dec | Butterfield & Marsh | On Kent's Lorentzian Quantum Reality |
| 18 Dec | Alisa Bokulich (Boston University) | Beyond Wavefunction Hegemony |
| 15 Jan | Damon Moley | Dragan-Ekert, Quantum Principle of Relativity (2020) |
| 29 Jan | F.A. Muller | Inferential and Dynamical Conceptions of Physical Theories (2017), D. Wallace |
| Date | Presenter | Topic or Paper |
|---|---|---|
| 13 Sept | F.A. Muller | QM not about information (2018), L. Fellline |
| 18 Oct | Richard Gill (Leiden University) | on loopholes in experimental tests of Bell's inequality |
| 1 Nov | Sam Rijken | Substantivalism vs Relationism (2015) by Shamik Dasgupta. |
| 8 Nov | Simon Friederich (University of Groningen) | 'On Epistemic Separability of Everett Branches' |
| 6 Dec | Skander Jaïbi | on quantum state realism, W. Myrvold (2019) |
| 24 Jan | Katie Robertson (University of Birmingham) | 2nd Law ThermoDynamics |
| 21 Feb | Michael Cuffaro | Relativistically Invariant Markovian Dynamical Collapse Theories Must Employ Nonstandard Degrees of Freedom, Wayne Myrvold (2017) |
| 28 Feb | Ruward Mulder | E. Knox on Newton-Cartan, teleparallel gravity, spacetime (2011). |
| 13 March | Marc Holman | on a cosmological problem |
| 17 April | Damon Moley |
| Date | Presenter | Topic or Paper |
| 28 Sept | Ronnie Hermens | On Two-Vector QM: Robertson (2017) |
| 19 Oct | Jim Weatherall (UC Irvine) | |
| 2 Nov | Calosi & Morganti | Coherentist QM |
| 16 Nov | Maaneli Derakhshani | Typicality, Irreverisibility: Lazarovici & Reichert, 2015 |
| 30 Nov | Jos Uffink (Minnesota) | Schrödinger and the EPR argument, |
| 1 Feb | Chris Wüthrich (Geneva) | |
| 15 Feb | Maaneli Derakhshani | Semi-classical QG etc, by A. Kent, 2018 |
| 1 March | Bryan W. Roberts (LSE) | |
| 29 March | Sean Gryb (Groningen) | |
| 5 April | Ronnie Hermens | On super-determinism and related ideas |
| Date | Presenter | Topic or Paper |
| 29 Sept | M. Coelen | Master-thesis talk & discussion of paper on Hamiltonian modal interpretation |
| 6 Oct | Sam Rijken (UU & EUR) | Theory of Everything and Free Will, by 't Hooft, 2017, and exchange with T.Maudlin |
| 27 Oct | Quentin Ruyant (Université catholique de Louvain) | Laudisa on Rovelli's relational interpretation of QM |
| 17 Nov | Quentin Ruyant (Université catholique de Louvain) | on Dieks' perspectival modal interpretation of QM |
| 1 Dec | Alexandre Guay (Université catholique de Louvain) | |
| 15 Dec | Sean Gryb (Bristol) | |
| 19 Jan | Ruward Mulder | On time travel |
| 26 Jan | Nijs van Tuijl, Acuna | On Brown & Pooley vs Janssen on explanation in STR |
| 9 Feb | Chris Wüthrich (Geneva) | |
| 23 Feb | Otto Lange | Individuals in Physics, Saunders |
| Date | Presenter | Topic or Paper |
| 30 Sept | F.A. Muller | W. Myrvold on collapse in QM and relativity, 2002 |
| 14 Oct | Maaneli Derakhshani | Future of Physics, by Arkani-Hamed |
| 28 Oct | Jorge Orozco (Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México) | Quantum Pointillism |
| 18 Nov | Sebastian de Haro | Symmetry and Equivalence, Belot |
| 9 Dec | Martin Jähnert (TU Berlin) | Old Quantum Theory |
| 13 Jan | Leon Loveridge (University of South-Eastern Norway) | Paper on energy conservation of Aharonov et al. |
| 27 Jan | Iulian Toader (University of Vienna) | On Weyl |
| 10 Feb | Noelia Iranzo Ribera | |
| 24 Feb | Paul Tappenden | On many worlds and mind |
| 10 March | Antonella Foligno (Urbino) | On Kant's hands |
| 24 March | Valeriya Chasova (Université catholique de Louvain) | Derivation of conservation laws from theoretical symmetries via Noether’s theorems |
| Date | Presenter | Topic or Paper |
| 18 Sept | F.A. Muller | Landsman paper |
| 2 Oct | Thomas Veloz (Vrije Universiteit Brussel) | Quantum Cognition |
| 23 Oct | Dong L., Dasgupta on Symmetry. | |
| 13 Nov | Carlo Rovelli (Marseille) | On Time's Arrow |
| 27 Nov | Pablo Acuña | On Lorentz and Einstein |
| 22 Jan | Sebastian de Haro, Dennis Dieks & Jeroen van Dongen | On the holographic prinicple |
| 5 Feb | Jeffrey Bub | |
| 4 March | FA. Muller | On Healey |
| 18 March | Ward Struyve (KU Leuven) | |
| 15 April | Kyra | On Aharonov et al. |