Related papers: Living in the Multiverse
The emergence of multicellularity and developmental programs are among the major problems of evolutionary biology. Traditionally, research in this area has been based on the combination of data analysis and experimental work on one hand and…
Public talk at the EmQM13 conference opening event on "The Future of Quantum Mechanics"
This paper has two parts, for a specific multiverse, and for the origin of our universe as it resulted from that multiverse. The first is based on the Planck domain and a Chandrasekhar equation that have quantum, relativity, gravity, and…
These are lecture notes written at the University of Zurich during spring 2014 and spring 2015. The first part of the notes gives an introduction to probability theory. It explains the notion of random events and random variables,…
Using a large database (~ 215 000 records) of relevant articles, we empirically study the "complex systems" field and its claims to find universal principles applying to systems in general. The study of references shared by the papers…
This paper reviews work, largely due to W. Simon and the author, on multipole theory of static spacetimes. The main purpose is to make this work, which lies at the interface of potential theory, conformal geometry and general relativity,…
An account of determinism and indeterminism in physics, addressed to non-physicist readers, leading up to proposals for how to understand statements about the future and single-event probability, motivated by quantum mechanics.
Possibilities for solution of the problem of creation of the Universe from a physical vacuum in the framework the General Relativity and modern quantum field theory are discussed in the context of the official doctrine accepted in Trinity…
Opening Lecture at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology Jockey Club Institute for Advanced Study Program on High Energy Physics Conference, January 18--21, 2016.
This is an updated version of my PhD thesis, defended at the University of Waterloo on the 2nd of April 2025, uploaded to the ArXiv with the goal of reaching a wider audience. The thesis is divided into 5 chapters, respectively containing…
Talk given at the XLVIII Rencontres de Moriond, Electroweak Interactions and Unified Theories, La Thuile, Italy, 2-9 March 2013, to appear in the Proceedings.
This is the text of the 'Theory' opening talk at the 2001 Strongly Correlated Electron Systems conference. It contains opinions about some of the outstanding scientific challenges facing the theory side of the correlated electrons field.
This is an "Essay-Review" of a book with the same title, by Jeffrey Bub (Cambridge University Press, 1997).
Honorable Rector, Honorable Professors, and Students of this University: In these times of political and economic struggle and nationalistic fragmentation, it is a particular joy for me to see people assembling here to give their attention…
Closing talk at Snowmass 2001: a summer study on the future of particle physics.
These notes accompany an introductory lecture course on the twistor approach to supersymmetric gauge theories aimed at early-stage PhD students. It was held by the author at the University of Cambridge during the Michaelmas term in 2009.…
The possibility of fundamental theories with very many ground states, each with different physical parameters, changes the way that we approach the major questions of particle physics. Most importantly, it raises the possibility that these…
I analyze the possibility of free-will in the many-worlds interpretation (MWI), arguing for their compatibility. I use as a starting point Nicolas Gisin's "The Multiverse Pandemic" (preprint arXiv:2210.05377, after Gisin, N.,…
This essay considers a model quantum universe consisting of a very large box containing a screen with two slits and an observer (us) that can pass though the slits. We apply the modern quantum mechanics of closed systems to calculate the…
The modern Everett interpretation of quantum mechanics describes an emergent multiverse. The goal of this paper is to provide a perspicuous characterisation of how the multiverse emerges making use of a recent account of (weak) ontological…