Related papers: The Constructivist's Programme and the Problem of …
In many contexts the modal properties of a structure change, either due to the impact of a changing environment, fatigue, or due to the presence of structural damage. For example during flight, an aircraft's modal properties are known to…
We revisit the relativistic restricted two-body problem with spin employing a perturbation scheme based on Lie series. Starting from a post-Newtonian expansion of the field equations, we develop a first-order secular theory that reproduces…
Two people may claim both to be naturalists, but have divergent conceptions of basic elements of the natural world which lead them to mean different things when they talk about laws of nature, or states, or the role of mathematics in…
Luka Popov has attempted to advance Machian physics by maintaining that the heliocentric system must be replaced by Tycho Brahe's geocentric system. We show that while geocentrism relies on Mach's contention that accelerations are relative,…
In this article we will discuss a few aspects of the spacetime description of matter and fields. In Section:1 we will discuss the completeness of real numbers in the context of an alternate definition of the straight line as a geometric…
The paper re-examines the principal methodological questions, arising in the debate over the cosmological standard model's postulate of Dark Matter vs. rivalling proposals that modify standard (Newtonian and general-relativistic)…
According to the algebraic approach to spacetime, a thoroughgoing dynamicism, physical fields exist without an underlying manifold. This view is usually implemented by postulating an algebraic structure (e.g., commutative ring) of…
According to mathematical constructivism, a mathematical object can exist only if there is a way to compute (or "construct") it; so, what is non-computable is non-constructive. In the example of the quantum model, whose Fock states are…
The relativistic conception of space and time is challenged by the quantum nature of physical observables. It has been known for a long time that Poincar\'e symmetry of field theory can be extended to the larger conformal symmetry. We use…
General relativity is a background-independent theory of a dynamical classical spacetime geometry. Quantum theory is formulated in a classical spacetime, as an intrinsically probabilistic, contextual theory of non-classical, interfering…
An important result in real algebraic geometry is the projection theorem: every projection of a semialgebraic set is again semialgebraic. This theorem and some of its conclusions lie at the basis of many other results, for example the…
The special theory of relativity is constructed demanding the retention of the rectilinear form of a trajectory and invariance of the wave equation under linear transformations of space and time coordinates. The usual approach to relativity…
This article contributes to the debate of the meaning of relationalism and background independence, which has remained of interest in theoretical physics from Newton versus Leibniz through to foundational issues for today's leading…
The concept of a physical space, which actualizes Euclidean geometry, is not confined to the statics of solids but extensible to the phenomena where Newtonian mechanics is valid, defining its concept of time. The laws of propagation of…
This paper presents (in its Lagrangian version) a very general "historical" formalism for dynamical systems, including time-dynamics and field theories. It is based on the universal notion of history. Its condensed and universal formulation…
When modelling spacetime and classical physical fields, one typically assumes smoothness (infinite differentiability). But this assumption and its philosophical implications have not been sufficiently scrutinized. For example, we can appeal…
We study in this paper different topos-theoretical approaches to the problem of construction of General Theory of Relativity. In general case the resulting space-time theory will be non-classical, different from that of the usual Einstein…
Cantor's ordinal numbers, a powerful extension of the natural numbers, are a cornerstone of set theory. They can be used to reason about the termination of processes, prove the consistency of logical systems, and justify some of the core…
There must exist a reformulation of quantum field theory, even at low energies, which does not depend on classical time. The octonionic theory proposes such a reformulation, leading to a pre-quantum pre-spacetime theory. The ingredients for…
The usual quantization of a classical space-time field does not touch the non-geometrical character of quantum mechanics. We believe that the deep problems of unification of general relativity and quantum mechanics are rooted in this poor…