Related papers: Absolute versus Relational Debate: a Modern Global…
Kendall's Shape Theory covers shapes formed by $N$ points in $\mathbb{R}^d$ upon quotienting out the similarity transformations. This theory is based on the geometry and topology of the corresponding configuration space: shape space.…
Kendall's Similarity Shape Theory for constellations of points in the carrier space $\mathbb{R}^n$ was developed for use in Probability and Statistics. It was subsequently shown to reside within (Classical and Quantum) Mechanics'…
Kendall-type Shape(-and-Scale) Theory on $\mathbb{R}^d$ involves $N$ point configurations therein quotiented by some geometrically meaningful automorphism group. This occurs in Shape Statistics, the Classical and Quantum $N$-body Problem…
Shape(-and-scale) spaces - configuration spaces for generalized Kendall-type Shape(-and-Scale) Theories - are usually not manifolds but stratified manifolds. While in Kendall's own case - similarity shapes - the shape spaces are…
A suite of relational notions of shape are presented at the level of configuration space geometry, with corresponding new theories of shape mechanics and shape statistics. These further generalize two quite well known examples: --1)…
General Relativity can be reformulated as a geometrodynamical theory, called Shape Dynamics, that is not based on spacetime (in particular refoliation) symmetry but on spatial diffeomorphism and local spatial conformal symmetry. This leads…
Relational particle dynamics include the dynamics of pure shape and cases in which absolute scale or absolute rotation are additionally meaningful. These are interesting as regards the absolute versus relative motion debate as well as…
This paper considers passing from the usual $\mathbb{R}^d$ model of absolute space to $\mathbb{S}^d$ at the level of relational particle models. Both approaches' $d = 1$ cases are rather simpler than their $d \geq 2$ cases, with $N$…
Relational particle models are of value in the absolute versus relative motion debate. They are also analogous to the dynamical formulation of general relativity, and as such are useful for investigating conceptual strategies proposed for…
Kendall's Similarity Shape Theory for constellations of N points in the carrier space $\mathbb{R}^d$ as quotiented by the similarity group was developed for use in Probability and Statistics. It was subsequently shown to reside within…
This thesis consists of two parts, connected by one central theme: the dynamics of the "shape of space". The first part of the thesis concerns the construction of a theory of gravity dynamically equivalent to general relativity (GR) in 3+1…
According to Aristotle, a philosopher in Ancient Greece, "the whole is greater than the sum of its parts". This observation was adopted to explain human perception by the Gestalt psychology school of thought in the twentieth century. Here,…
We describe symmetry structure of a general singular theory (theory with constraints in the Hamiltonian formulation), and, in particular, we relate the structure of gauge transformations with the constraint structure. We show that any…
Contrary to our immediate and vivid sensation of past, present, and future as continually shifting non-relational modalities, time remains as tenseless and relational as space in all of the established theories of fundamental physics. Here…
We remind how relationality arises as the core insight of general-relativistic gauge field theories from the articulation of the generalised hole and point-coincidence arguments. Hence, a compelling case for a manifestly relational…
Background Independence is the modern form of the relational side of the Absolute versus Relational Debate. Difficulties with its implementation form the Problem of Time. Its 9 facets - Isham and Kucha\v{r}'s conceptual classification -…
This paper concerns the absolute versus relative motion debate. The Barbour and Bertotti 1982 work may be viewed as an indirectly set up relational formulation of a portion of Newtonian mechanics. I consider further direct formulations of…
A new approach to the dynamics of the universe based on work by O Murchadha, Foster, Anderson and the author is presented. The only kinematics presupposed is the spatial geometry needed to define configuration spaces in purely relational…
The metric-affine variational principle is applied to generate teleparallel and symmetric teleparallel theories of gravity. From the latter is discovered an exceptional class which is consistent with a vanishing affine connection. Based on…
In this article, we focus on symmetric teleparallel gravity, a modification of General Relativity where gravity is described by the non-metricity of an affine connection, whose curvature and torsion vanish. In these theories, the…