CFP: Early Career Conference in Philosophy of Particle & High Energy Physics (PHEP2021)

Particle physics is at a critical juncture: recent monumental experimental work at the Large Hadron Collider led to the Higgs discovery, but has not produced further experimental evidence of new physics. Current searches for the theoretical particles that comprise dark matter candidates raise major methodological questions of their own and are bringing particle physics into close contact with cosmology and astrophysics. Meanwhile, philosophy of cosmology and astrophysics, and philosophy of quantum field theory as applied to the models used in mainstream physics, have been major growth areas of philosophical investigation in recent years.

Proposals for contributed talks are invited on any topic within the general area of high-energy and particle physics, construed broadly to include cosmology, astrophysics and quantum field theory insofar as they overlap with issues in particle physics. Topics include philosophical investigation of:

• The significance of properties used in particle physics;
• The recent increase of ‘tabletop’ experiments for precision tests of the standard model;
• The variety of uses of renormalization and regularization techniques;
• The relationship between cosmology, astrophysics, and particle physics;
• The methodological status of effective field theories;
• The role of simulations in cosmology and particle physics;
• And related topics.

Submissions. Submissions must be made using the EasyChair online submission system at https://easychair.org/conferences/?conf=phep2021.

Sumissions should consists of an abstract of approximately 500 words. The "upload paper" provision is purely optional; feel free to upload a full paper if you wish. Submissions of abstracts without accompanying full papers will be given full consideration.

Early career scholars and members of underrepresented groups in philosophy are strongly encouraged to submit an abstract.

Authors will be notified of acceptence by September 9. The conference will cover the cost of speakers' airfare and lodging for two nights.