Related papers: Relationalism
In the Philosophical Investigations, Ludwig Wittgenstein wrote, " 'I' is not the name of a person, nor 'here' of a place, .... But they are connected with names. ... [And] it is characteristic of physics not to use these words." This…
QBism is a novel interpretation of quantum mechanics. With its radical emphasis on the subject, QBism provides a welcome corrective to popular misrepresentations of the epistemological reflections of Niels Bohr, while Bohr, rightly…
In non relativistic physics it is assumed that both chronological ordering and causal ordering of events (telling whether there exists a causal relationship between two events or not) are absolute, observer independent properties. In…
The need for a time-shift invariant formulation of quantum theory arises from fundamental symmetry principles as well as heuristic cosmological considerations. Such a description then leaves open the question of how to reconcile global…
Formal definition of the reference frame is given. This definition is valid for nonrelativistic and relativistic cases. Proposed definition allows using wide classes of reference frames without restriction to inertial, uniformly accelerated…
Starting from the guiding principles of spacetime locality and operationalism, a general framework for a probabilistic description of nature is proposed. Crucially, no notion of time or metric is assumed, neither any specific physical…
The paper presents a metaphysical characterization of spatiotemporal backgrounds from a realist perspective. The conceptual analysis is based on a heuristic sketch that encompasses the common formal traits of the major spacetime theories,…
We have previously shown (arXiv:1912.00033) that three approaches to relational quantum dynamics -- relational Dirac observables, the Page-Wootters formalism and quantum deparametrizations -- are equivalent. Here we show that this `trinity'…
In modern physics only relative quantities are considered to have physical significance. For example, position assigned to a system depends on the choice of coordinates, and only relative distances between different systems have physical…
In Minkowski spacetime, we consider an isolated system made of two pointlike bodies interacting at a distance, in the nonradiative approximation. Our framework is the covariant and a priori Hamiltonian formalism of "predictive relativistic…
In this article, we consider a second Problem of Time Facet. This started life as Wheeler's Thin Sandwich Problem, within the narrow context of 1) GR-as-Geometrodynamics, in particular its momentum constraint. 2) A Lagrangian variables…
We consider defining time as a function of a cyclical field, an abstraction of a clock. The definition of time corresponds to a novel interpretation of the relationship between space-time coordinates of observers at different locations in…
As we have known comprehensively since the early 1990's works of Isham and Kucha\v{r}, The Problem of Time mostly concerns interferences between its many facets. Having introduced the local facets in Articles I to IV, we now show how…
Quantum theory can be understood as pointing to an ontology of relations. I observe that this reading of quantum mechanics is supported by the ubiquity of relationality in contemporary fundamental physics, including in classical mechanics,…
Relational particle mechanics are models in which there is, overall, no time, position, orientation (nor, sometimes, scale). They are useful for whole-universe modelling - the setting for quantum cosmology. This note concerns 3 particles in…
We speculate on the role of relativistic versions of delayed differential equations in fundamental physics. Relativistic invariance implies that we must consider both advanced and retarded terms in the equations, so we refer to them as…
This paper is an exploration of the nuanced realm of reference frames within the framework of General Relativity. Our analysis exposes a violation of Earman's SP1 principle in scenarios involving fields that are dynamically uncoupled, a…
There is described a spacetime formulation of both nonrelativistic and relativistic elasticity. Specific attention is devoted to the causal structure of the theories and the availability of local existence theorems for the initial-value…
I examine the debate between substantivalists and relationalists about the ontological character of spacetime and conclude it is not well posed. I argue that the so-called Hole Argument does not bear on the debate, because it provides no…
We describe a completely general and fully non-perturbative framework for constructing dynamical reference frames in generally covariant theories, and for understanding the gauge-invariant observables that they yield. Our approach makes use…