Related papers: Idealizations and analogies
Critical behavior of three-dimensional classical frustrated antiferromagnets with a collinear spin ordering and with an additional twofold degeneracy of the ground state is studied. We consider two lattice models, whose continuous limit…
Despite the unparalleled accuracy of quantum-theoretical predictions across an enormous range of phenomena, the theory's foundations are still in doubt. The theory deviates radically from classical physics, predicts counterintuitive…
n this paper, we review and connect the three essential conditions needed by the collapse model to achieve a complete and exact formulation, namely the theoretical, the experimental, and the ontological ones. These features correspond to…
Process Philosophy endeavours to replace the classical ontology of substances by a process ontology centered on notions of changes and transitions. We argue, that the substantial and processual approach are mutually complementary. Here,…
By quantising the background as well as the perturbations in a simple one fluid model, we show that there exists an ambiguity in the choice of relevant variables, potentially leading to incompatible observational physical predictions. In a…
In the past two decades or so, we have learned how to understand crackling noise in a wide variety of systems. We review here the basic ideas and methods we use to understand crackling noise - critical phenomena, universality, the…
Hartle and Srednicki have suggested that standard quantum theory does not favor our typicality. Here an alternative version is proposed in which typicality is likely, Eventual Quantum Mechanics. This version allows one to calculate…
Concerning renormalisation group theory applied to phase transitions, we examine the value of positive numerical and analytical evidence, the divergent short-wavelength behaviour of classical free fields and the absence of UV-divergences in…
Studying the extent to which realism is compatible with quantum mechanics teaches us something about the quantum mechanical universe, regardless of the validity of such realistic assumptions. It has also recently been appreciated that these…
The Ashkin-Teller (AT) model is a generalization of Ising 2-d to a four states spin model; it can be written in the form of two Ising layers (in general with different couplings) interacting via a four-spin interaction. It was conjectured…
Lightning, the most colossal discharge in nature, and flux avalanches in quantum superconductors--phenomena separated by twenty orders of magnitude in scale--display striking fractal similarity. We demonstrate that this is no mere analogy…
Concept-based explanations have emerged as a popular way of extracting human-interpretable representations from deep discriminative models. At the same time, the disentanglement learning literature has focused on extracting similar…
In 1963-71, a group of people, myself included, formulated and perfected a new approach to physics problems, which eventually came to be known under the names of scaling, universality, and renormalization. This work formed the basis of a…
The principle of the common cause claims that if an improbable coincidence has occurred, there must exist a common cause. This is generally taken to mean that positive correlations between non-causally related events should disappear when…
This paper introduces and defends an account of model-based science that I dub model pluralism. I argue that despite a growing awareness in the philosophy of science literature of the multiplicity, diversity, and richness of models and…
We survey a variety of cosmological problems where the issue of generality has arisen. This is aimed at providing a wider context for many claims and deductions made when philosophers of science choose cosmological problems for…
Typicality has always been in the minds of the founding fathers of probability theory when probabilistic reasoning is applied to the real world. However, the role of typicality is not always appreciated. An example is the paper "Foundations…
A companion paper provides a proposal for cosmic singularity resolution based upon general features of a bouncing unitary cosmological model in the mini-superspace approximation. This paper analyses novel phenomenology that can be…
We find new "reasons" for a class of models for not having a universal model in a cardinal $\lambda$. This work, though it has consequences in model theory, is really in combinatorial set theory. We concentrate on a prototypical class which…
This paper undertakes a foundational inquiry into logical inferentialism with particular emphasis on the normative standards it establishes and the implications these pose for classical logic. The central question addressed herein is: 'What…