Related papers: Pure shape dynamics: General framework
Pure shape dynamics (PSD) is a novel implementation of the relational framework originally proposed by Julian Barbour and Bruno Bertotti. PSD represents a Leibnizian/Machian approach to physics in that it completely describes the dynamical…
We present a Pure Shape Dynamics (PSD) formulation of General Relativity (GR), which implements full relationalism by eliminating absolute scale and external time references from the fundamental description of gravity. Starting from the…
Shape Dynamics (SD) is a new theory of gravity that is based on fewer and more fundamental first principles than General Relativity (GR). The most important feature of SD is the replacement of GR's relativity of simultaneity with a more…
Shape dynamics is a completely background-independent universal framework of dynamical theories from which all absolute elements have been eliminated. For particles, only the variables that describe the shapes of the instantaneous particle…
Shape Dynamics (SD) is a theory dynamically equivalent to vacuum General Relativity (GR), which has a different set of symmetries. It trades refoliation invariance, present in GR, for local 3-dimensional conformal invariance. This…
We present a new metaphysical framework for physics that is conceptually clear, ontologically parsimonious, and empirically adequate. This framework relies on the notion of self-subsisting structure, that is, a set of fundamental physical…
Shape Dynamics is a metric theory of pure gravity, equivalent to General Relativity, but formulated as a gauge theory of spatial diffeomporphisms and local spatial conformal transformations. In this paper we extend the construction of Shape…
The paper discusses the possible implications of the relational framework of Pure Shape Dynamics for the metaphysics of time. The starting point of the analysis is an interpretation of shapes in ontic structural realist terms, which gives…
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…
`Shape dynamics' is meant here in the sense of a type of conformogeometrical reformulation of GR, some of which have of late been considered as generalizations of or alternatives to GR. This note concerns in particular cases based on the…
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…
We introduce a general framework for analysing general probabilistic theories, which emphasises the distinction between the dynamical and probabilistic structures of a system. The dynamical structure is the set of pure states together with…
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 notion of shape space was introduced in the second half of the 20th Century as a useful analytical tool for tackling problems related to the intrinsic spatial configuration of material systems. In recent years, the geometrical…
The goal of this essay is twofold. First, it provides a quick look at the foundations of modern relational mechanics by tracing its development from Julian Barbour and Bruno Bertotti's original ideas until present-day's pure shape dynamics.…
Shape dynamics is a theory first proposed by Julian Barbour which states that physics happen uniquely in the reduced configuration space of a theory. So far, studies in the area have focused on gravitational systems. Here we first…
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…
By viewing entanglement as a state function, a new kind of phase transition takes place: the geometric phase transition. This phenomenon occurs due to singularities in the shape of the entangled states set. It is shown how this result can…
In this paper it is shown that the structure of the configuration space of any continua is what is called in differential geometry a {\it principle bundle} \cite{Frankel2011ThePhysics}. A principal bundle is a structure in which all points…
Classical gravity can be described as a relational dynamical system without ever appealing to spacetime or its geometry. This description is the so-called shape dynamics description of gravity. The existence of relational first principles…