Rutgers-Columbia Workshop on the Metaphysics of Science: Quantum Field Theories

Rutgers-Columbia Workshop on the Metaphysics of Science: Quantum Field Theories
May 17 - 18, 2018

Description: What is the metaphysical status of quantum field theory (QFT)? How should field theories be interpreted? These questions have received considerable attention over the past few decades in various research projects in physics, mathematics, and philosophy, but there is no clear consensus on any of them. One finds a variety of different approaches to understanding QFTs --- Algebraic QFT, conventional QFT, Bell-type Bohmian QFT, etc. --- and different interpretations --- realism, instrumentalism, and structuralism. What are the advantages and disadvantages of these approaches? What is the status of the measurement problem in these theories? And more generally, how should QFT inform the metaphysics of science?

The two-day workshop aims to bring together researchers who work on these different approaches. It will provide opportunities for in-depth discussions about metaphysical issues in QFT.

Organizers: Eddy Chen (Rutgers), Sébastien Rivat (Columbia), Isaac Wilhelm (Rutgers)

Conference website: https://www.eddykemingchen.net/rutgers-columbia-workshop-on-qft.html

Sponsors: Marc Sanders Foundation, Rutgers University Philosophy Department, Columbia University Philosophy Department, Rutgers Graduate Student Association

Workshop Location:
106 Somerset Street
5th Floor, Rutgers Philosophy Department (seminar room)
New Brunswick, NJ 08901

Registration: As we have limited seating in the seminar room, RSVP is required; please send an email [email protected] if you’d like to attend.

Conference Schedule:

Thursday, May 17
9:45 - 10:00. David Baker (Michigan), "Introduction to the Ontology of QFT"
10:00 - 11:30. David Baker (Michigan), "Interpreting Supersymmetry"
11:45 - 1:15  Ward Struyve (KULeuven), "Bohmian Quantum Field Theory"
1:15 - 2:30. Lunch
2:30 - 4:00. Tian Yu Cao (Boston), "What is a Quantum Field?"
4:15 - 5:45. Anna Ijjas (Columbia), "QFT on Curved Space-times and its Applications in Cosmology"
6:30. Conference Dinner

Friday, May 18
9.45 - 10:00. Michael Miller (Toronto), "Introduction to Major Approaches to QFT"
10:00 - 11:30. Porter Williams (Pittsburgh), "The Physics within Metaphysics"
11:45 - 1:15. Laura Ruetsche (Michigan), "Perturbing Realism"
1:15 - 2:30. Lunch
2:30 - 4:00. Michael Miller (Toronto), "Indeterminacy at Large Order"
4:15 - 5:45. David Wallace (USC), TBA
6:30. Dinner

Invited Discussants:
Richard Healey (Arizona), Meinard Kuhlmann (Bremen), James Ladyman (Bristol), Jeremy Butterfield (Cambridge), Brian Pitts (Cambridge), Ryan Reece (CERN), David Albert (Columbia), Mario Hubert (Columbia), Elise Crull (CUNY), Ned Hall (Harvard), David Glick (Ithaca), Gordon Belot (Michigan), Nina Emery (Mount Holyoke), Valia Allori (NIU), Jonathan Bain (NYU), Cian Dorr (NYU), Hartry Field (NYU), Tim Maudlin (NYU), Michael Strevens (NYU), Adam Elga (Princeton), Hans Halvorson (Princeton), Mark Johnston (Princeton), Gideon Rosen (Princeton), Bob Batterman (Pittsburgh), Natan Andrei (Rutgers), Sheldon Goldstein (Rutgers), Matthias Lienert (Rutgers), Barry Loewer (Rutgers), Jill North (Rutgers), Zee Perry (Rutgers), Ted Sider (Rutgers), Alyssa Ney (UC Davis), Paul Teller (UC Davis), Marian Gilton (UCI), Nick Huggett (UIC), Charles Sebens (UCSD), Kerry McKenzie (UCSD), Elizabeth Miller (Yale).