Reminder: upcoming philosophy of physics mini-workshop on June 20th

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Guy Hetzroni

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Jun 6, 2024, 4:16:34 AMJun 6
to Philosophy of Physics Discussion Club
Dear friends, 

This is to remind you of our upcoming mini-workshop, the second 2024 meeting of our philosophy of physics discussion club. See below for an updated program and abstracts. 

* Participants who wish to present their paper\work-in-progress in the philosophy of physics discussion club meetings (next year, or possibly even as  a third talk in our upcoming meeting) should send an email to gu...@openu.ac.il. 

Mini-Workshop on the philosophical foundations of contemporary physics
Time: Thursday, June 20th, 14:00-16:30 
Venue: The Open University of Israel, Ra'anana, at the seminar room of the Astrophysics Research Center (ARCO), Academia building, room 202. 
(The campus is accessible by public transportation to Kefar-Saba-Ra'anana-North interchange. Parking is also available).  

Program
Avi Levy (University of Haifa):  Locality, Determinism, Contextuality and Hidden Variable Models
Guy Hetzroni (The Open University of Israel):  The projectability of theoretical heuristics: Invariance vs. symmetry breaking in the Higgs mechanism

 Abstracts
Locality, Determinism, Contextuality and Hidden Variable Models  
Avi Levy, Philosophy Department, University of Haifa

In this talk I analyze the concepts of locality, determinism, contextuality and no-signaling within the mathematical frameworks called Empirical Models (EM) and Hidden Variable Models (HVM). In these frameworks, which are fit to describe stochastic measurements scenarios, the above concepts, which come up in the philosophical foundations of Quantum Mechanics (QM) and Quantum Field Theory (QFT), can be defined in a rigorous way and relations between them can be derived.
It turns out that there are two types of stochastic measurements scenarios – non-contextual (local, strongly deterministic) and contextual (weakly deterministic, and non-local). Using the EM and HVM framework the EPR experiment (related to the 2022 Nobel Prize in physics) is proved to be a contextual scenario. Finally, I prove that a Lorenz invariant contextual HVM must be no-signaling and hence genuinely stochastic. Then I argue that Bell’s definition of locality, that renders QFT and QM, non-local theories, is too strict and I propose a different definition of locality for relativistic theories.


The projectability of theoretical heuristics: Invariance vs. symmetry breaking in the Higgs mechanism
Guy Hetzroni, The Open University of Israel

Meta-inductive argumentation is a suggested way of evaluating the epistemic status and pursuit-worthiness of proposed theories and research programs, based on the similarity of the theoretical methods they apply to theoretical methods that have led to empirically successful theories. Meta-induction, together with other suggested approaches to theory assessment in the absence of empirical input, has invoked controversy, reflecting on the compatibility of theoretical practices in certain approaches to fundamental physics with familiar empirical standards of science. This research proposes a refined approach, aiming to distinguish between "projectable" and "non-projectable" meta-inductive arguments, and arguing that naturalist philosophy of science (i.e. the aim to understand scientific process using epistemological standards extrapolated from science itself), puts constraints on which meta-inductive arguments should be considered projectable. The implications of the account will be demonstrated through different accounts of the Higgs mechanism in particle physics. The familiar account involving gauge-symmetry breaking  and alternative invariant approaches are understood as competing heuristic frameworks, each motivated by different meta-inductive arguments.


Looking forward to seeing you there, 
Guy. 

Dr. Guy Hetzroni
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