Research
The UPAC group is involved in various collaborative projects & networks, including:
For research initiatives by individual group members, see the People pages.
Our main current research focus is the philosophy of black holes and spacetime curvature/ singularities more generally, which cuts across the majority of our projects:
- Does the concept of a black hole put pressure on the traditional spacetime-matter dichotomy? (COSMO-MASTER Project, Sanne Vergouwen)
- How to optimise collaborative research regarding black hole observations? (ngEHT)
- How should we interpret Kerr black hole singularities? (Sam Meijer)
- Do singularities threaten indeterminism in our universe? (Anna Sajgó)
- How far does the analogy go between optical lenses focusing light rays and spacetime curvature focusing geodesic trajectories of test particles and light rays? Wat is the motivation/justification for imposing energy conditions (in, for instance, the singularity theorems)? Do gravitational waves carry energy? (Thijs Hogenkamp, Diederik Bots, Fenna Roovers)
- What is the effect of AGN feedback on dark matter, and which modeling assumptions need to be made? (Jaydy Bellaard)
We recently organised a philosophy of black holes workshop.
Master thesis projects
Master students (HPS Master, Twin Masters, etc.) are welcome to do their Master thesis project as a member of the UPAC research group (and potentially also the ngEHT collaboration). See here for sample theses. Feel free to contact n.c.m.martens@uu.nl for a list of 20 possible Master thesis projects within philosophy of astronomy or cosmology, or to discuss possible master thesis projects within philosophy of physics more broadly or as part of one of the twin Master programmes. For projects on quantum foundations you'd be better off with Guido Bacciagaluppi.