Quantum Foundations and the Problems of Time

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Quantum Foundations and the Problems of Time

19th January 2016

Institute for Advanced Studies, Royal Fort House, University of Bristol 

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Time is a concept of central concern to both physicists and philosophers. It is thus, unsurprisingly, a topic of particular interest to the community of `foundations of physics’ researchers, working in the borderlands between the two disciplines. Two prominent questions relating to time in the foundations of modern physics are: i) the status of the `causal arrow of time’ in quantum theory; and ii) the supposed `disappearance of time’ in theories of quantum gravity. This workshop will bring together researches working at the cutting edge of each of these two `problems of time’, with a view towards the cross-pollination of ideas and the forging of interdisciplinary links.

Speakers: Julian Barbour (Oxford), Eliahu Cohen (Bristol), Peter Evans (Queensland), Sean Gryb (Radboud), Huw Price (Cambridge), Karim Thébault (Bristol).

Organizers: James Ladyman (Bristol), Karim Thébault (Bristol), 

Please email: [email protected] to register for participation.

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SCHDULE

10:00 - 11:00 Pete Evans (Queensland). Quantum causal models, faithfulness and retrocausality

11:00 - 11:30 Coffee Break

11:30 - 12:30 Eliahu Cohen (Bristol). Quantum to classical transitions via weak measurements and robustness under time reversal.

12:30 - 13:30 Lunch Break

13:30 - 14:30 Karim Thébault (Bristol). Relational quantization and the problem of time.

14:30 - 15:30 Sean Gryb (Radbound). Schrödinger evolution for the universe. 

15:30 - 16:00 Coffee Break

16:00 - 17:00 Julian Barbour (Oxford). Arrows of time in unconfined systems.

17:00 - 18:00 Huw Price (Cambridge). Eddington Meets the Parisian Zigzag

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