11 found
Order:
  1.  15
    (1 other version)The limitations of intertial frame spacetime functionalism.Tushar Menon & James Read - 2019 - Synthese 1 (Suppl 2):229-251.
    For Knox, ‘spacetime’ is to be defined functionally, as that which picks out a structure of local inertial frames. Assuming that Knox is motivated to construct this functional definition of spacetime on the grounds that it appears to identify that structure which plays the operational role of spacetime—i.e., that structure which is actually surveyed by physical rods and clocks built from matter fields—we identify in this paper important limitations of her approach: these limitations are based upon the fact that there (...)
    Direct download  
     
    Export citation  
     
    Bookmark   12 citations  
  2.  73
    Algebraic Fields and the Dynamical Approach to Physical Geometry.Tushar Menon - 2019 - Philosophy of Science 86 (5):1273-1283.
    Brown and Pooley’s ‘dynamical approach’ to physical theories asserts, in opposition to the orthodox position on physical geometry, that facts about physical geometry are grounded in, or explained by, facts about dynamical fields, not the other way round. John Norton has claimed that the proponent of the dynamical approach is illicitly committed to spatiotemporal presumptions in ‘constructing’ space-time from facts about dynamical symmetries. In this article, I present an abstract, algebraic formulation of field theories and demonstrate that the proponent of (...)
    Direct download (4 more)  
     
    Export citation  
     
    Bookmark   10 citations  
  3.  66
    On algebraic naturalism and metaphysical indeterminacy in quantum mechanics.Tushar Menon - 2024 - Studies in History and Philosophy of Science Part A 105 (C):1-16.
  4.  53
    Taking up superspace: the spacetime structure of supersymmetric field theory.Tushar Menon - 2021 - In Christian Wüthrich, Baptiste Le Bihan & Nick Huggett, Philosophy Beyond Spacetime: Implications From Quantum Gravity. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
    Supersymmetry (SUSY) is a proposed symmetry between bosons and fermions. The structure of the space of SUSY generators is such that the distinction between internal and spacetime symmetries is blurred. As a result, there are two viable candidates for the correct spacetime setting for a flat supersymmetric field theory---Minkowski spacetime and superspace. an extension of four- dimensional Minkowski spacetime to include (at least) four new dimensions, coordinatised by mathematical objects known as supernumbers. These objects are, in one significant way, quite (...)
    Direct download  
     
    Export citation  
     
    Bookmark   5 citations  
  5. Clocks and Chronogeometry: Rotating Spacetimes and the Relativistic Null Hypothesis.Tushar Menon, Niels Linnemann & James Read - 2018 - British Journal for the Philosophy of Science 71 (4):1287-1317.
    Recent work in the physics literature demonstrates that, in particular classes of rotating spacetimes, physical light rays in general do not traverse null geodesics. Having presented this result, we discuss its philosophical significance, both for the clock hypothesis (and, in particular, a recent purported proof thereof for light clocks), and for the operational meaning of the metric field. 1Introduction 2Fletcher's Theorem 2.1Maudlin on the clock hypothesis in special relativity 2.2Fletcher’s result in special relativity 2.3Fletcher’s theorem in general relativity 3Electromagnetism and (...)
    Direct download (8 more)  
     
    Export citation  
     
    Bookmark   5 citations  
  6. On the viability of the No Alternatives Argument.Tushar Menon - 2019 - Studies in History and Philosophy of Science Part A 76 (C):69-75.
    If we cannot directly empirically test the claims of particular scientific theory, then it would be nice to have some other criteria with which to assess its viability. In his 2013 book, String Theory and the Scientific Method, Richard Dawid aims to develop such criteria, with an eye to vindicating research programs in disciplines where direct empirical data is scant or non-existent. In an accompanying paper, Dawid, Hartmann and Sprenger formalise Dawid’s so-called ‘No Alternatives Argument’ using a generalised Bayesian framework, (...)
    No categories
    Direct download (6 more)  
     
    Export citation  
     
    Bookmark   6 citations  
  7. Missing the point in noncommutative geometry.Nick Huggett, Tushar Menon & Fedele Lizzi - unknown - Synthese 199 (1-2):4695-4728.
    Noncommutative geometries generalize standard smooth geometries, parametrizing the noncommutativity of dimensions with a fundamental quantity with the dimensions of area. The question arises then of whether the concept of a region smaller than the scale—and ultimately the concept of a point—makes sense in such a theory. We argue that it does not, in two interrelated ways. In the context of Connes’ spectral triple approach, we show that arbitrarily small regions are not definable in the formal sense. While in the scalar (...)
    Direct download (7 more)  
     
    Export citation  
     
    Bookmark   4 citations  
  8.  64
    Spacetime functionalists should be inferentialists.Tushar Menon - forthcoming - British Journal for the Philosophy of Science.
  9.  54
    Some Remarks on Recent Formalist Responses to the Hole Argument.Tushar Menon & James Read - 2023 - Foundations of Physics 54 (1):1-20.
    In a recent article, Halvorson and Manchak (Br J Philos Sci, Forthcoming) claim that there is no basis for the Hole Argument, because (in a certain sense) hole isometries are unique. This raises two important questions: (a) does their argument succeed?; (b) how does this formalist response to the Hole Argument relate to other recent responses to the Hole Argument in the same tradition—in particular, that of Weatherall (Br J Philos Sci 69(2):329–350, 2018)? In this article, _ad_ (a), we argue (...)
    Direct download (3 more)  
     
    Export citation  
     
    Bookmark  
  10.  9
    (1 other version)Clocks and Chronogeometry: Rotating Spacetimes and the Relativistic Null Hypothesis.Tushar Menon, Niels Linnemann & James Read - 2018 - British Journal for the Philosophy of Science 71 (4):1287-1317.
    Recent work in the physics literature demonstrates that, in particular classes of rotating spacetimes, physical light rays in general do not traverse null geodesics. Having presented this result, we discuss its philosophical significance, both for the clock hypothesis (and, in particular, a recent purported proof thereof for light clocks), and for the operational meaning of the metric field. 1Introduction 2Fletcher's Theorem 2.1Maudlin on the clock hypothesis in special relativity 2.2Fletcher’s result in special relativity 2.3Fletcher’s theorem in general relativity 3Electromagnetism and (...)
    Direct download (2 more)  
     
    Export citation  
     
    Bookmark  
  11.  60
    Regarding `Regarding the `Hole Argument''.Tushar Menon, Thomas Moller-Nielsen & James Read - unknown
    In his paper, ‘Regarding the ‘Hole Argument”, Weatherall suggests that models of general relativity related by a hole diffeomorphism must be regarded as being physically equivalent. At a later stage in the paper, however, he also argues that there is a sense in which two such models may be regarded as being empirically distinct—a fortiori physically distinct. We attempt to delineate the logic behind these two prima facie contradictory claims. We argue that the latter sense rests upon a misunderstanding of (...)
    No categories
    Direct download (2 more)  
     
    Export citation  
     
    Bookmark