Dean Rickles

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Dean Peter Rickles
BornJuly 17, 1977 (1977-07-17) (age 46)
Hull, Yorkshire, England
Nationality British
Alma mater University of Leeds
University of Sheffield
Known forPhilosophy of quantum gravity and string theory
Awards Australian Research Council, Future Fellowship, Australian Research Fellowship
Scientific career
Fields Philosophy of physics, history of physics
Institutions University of Sydney
Doctoral advisor Steven French

Dean Rickles (born July 17, 1977[ citation needed ]) is Professor of History and Philosophy of Modern Physics at the University of Sydney and a Director of the Sydney Centre for Time.

Contents

Life

Dean Rickles was born in Hull, Yorkshire. He briefly trained as a concert pianist at the London College of Music, before switching to philosophy. He received an MA from the University of Sheffield (1999) and PhD from the University of Leeds (2004). During a two-year postdoctoral fellowship at the University of Calgary in 2005, he worked on the application of complex systems theory to population health. [1] [2] He took up a lectureship at the University of Sydney in 2007 and was awarded a five-year Australian Research Council fellowship in 2008 followed by an Australian Research Council Future Fellowship in 2014.

Work

Rickles primary focus is on string theory, quantum gravity, and symmetries. His doctoral dissertation, Quantum Gravity in Philosophical Focus (published as a book in 2007 [3] ), set the foundations for his oft-quoted work within history of string theory [4] [5] [6] [7] and as well as deepening our understanding of the foundations and history of quantum gravity more generally with a series of studies [8] [9] [10] and interviews, [11] culminating in his book Covered in Deep Mist: The Development of Quantum Gravity, 1916-1956 (Oxford University Press 2020).

Other philosophical papers include econophysics, [12] [13] public health [14] and musicology, [15] as well as deeper issues such as the question of Why there is anything at all [16]

In a 2012 collaboration with Huw Price, he developed the John Templeton Foundation project New Agendas for the Study of Time: Connecting the Disciplines. [17]

Rickles was president of Australian Association for the History, Philosophy, and Social Studies of Science and Society (AAHPSSS) during the period 2012–2014. He is also a member of the New York Academy of Sciences and the Foundational Questions Institute. He co-edits the Routledge Studies in the Philosophy of Mathematics and Physics [18] with Elaine Landry.

Selected works

Related Research Articles

M-theory is a theory in physics that unifies all consistent versions of superstring theory. Edward Witten first conjectured the existence of such a theory at a string theory conference at the University of Southern California in 1995. Witten's announcement initiated a flurry of research activity known as the second superstring revolution. Prior to Witten's announcement, string theorists had identified five versions of superstring theory. Although these theories initially appeared to be very different, work by many physicists showed that the theories were related in intricate and nontrivial ways. Physicists found that apparently distinct theories could be unified by mathematical transformations called S-duality and T-duality. Witten's conjecture was based in part on the existence of these dualities and in part on the relationship of the string theories to a field theory called eleven-dimensional supergravity.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Quantum gravity</span> Description of gravity using discrete values

Quantum gravity (QG) is a field of theoretical physics that seeks to describe gravity according to the principles of quantum mechanics. It deals with environments in which neither gravitational nor quantum effects can be ignored, such as in the vicinity of black holes or similar compact astrophysical objects, such as neutron stars, as well as in the early stages of the universe moments after the Big Bang.

In physics, string theory is a theoretical framework in which the point-like particles of particle physics are replaced by one-dimensional objects called strings. String theory describes how these strings propagate through space and interact with each other. On distance scales larger than the string scale, a string looks just like an ordinary particle, with its mass, charge, and other properties determined by the vibrational state of the string. In string theory, one of the many vibrational states of the string corresponds to the graviton, a quantum mechanical particle that carries the gravitational force. Thus, string theory is a theory of quantum gravity.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Theory of everything</span> Hypothetical physical concept

A theory of everything (TOE), final theory, ultimate theory, unified field theory or master theory is a hypothetical, singular, all-encompassing, coherent theoretical framework of physics that fully explains and links together all aspects of the universe. Finding a theory of everything is one of the major unsolved problems in physics.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Edward Witten</span> American theoretical physicist

Edward Witten is an American theoretical physicist known for his contributions to string theory, topological quantum field theory, and various areas of mathematics. He is a professor emeritus in the school of natural sciences at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton. Witten is a researcher in string theory, quantum gravity, supersymmetric quantum field theories, and other areas of mathematical physics. Witten's work has also significantly impacted pure mathematics. In 1990, he became the first physicist to be awarded a Fields Medal by the International Mathematical Union, for his mathematical insights in physics, such as his 1981 proof of the positive energy theorem in general relativity, and his interpretation of the Jones invariants of knots as Feynman integrals. He is considered the practical founder of M-theory.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Eternalism (philosophy of time)</span> Philosophical view that there is no correct way of perceiving the passage of time

In the philosophy of space and time, eternalism is an approach to the ontological nature of time, which takes the view that all existence in time is equally real, as opposed to presentism or the growing block universe theory of time, in which at least the future is not the same as any other time. Some forms of eternalism give time a similar ontology to that of space, as a dimension, with different times being as real as different places, and future events are "already there" in the same sense other places are already there, and that there is no objective flow of time.

In philosophy, the philosophy of physics deals with conceptual and interpretational issues in modern physics, many of which overlap with research done by certain kinds of theoretical physicists. Historically, philosophers of physics have engaged with questions such as the nature of space, time, matter and the laws that govern their interactions, as well as the epistemological and ontological basis of the theories used by practicing physicists. The discipline draws upon insights from various areas of philosophy, including metaphysics, epistemology, and philosophy of science, while also engaging with the latest developments in theoretical and experimental physics.

In theoretical physics, the anti-de Sitter/conformal field theory correspondence is a conjectured relationship between two kinds of physical theories. On one side are anti-de Sitter spaces (AdS) that are used in theories of quantum gravity, formulated in terms of string theory or M-theory. On the other side of the correspondence are conformal field theories (CFT) that are quantum field theories, including theories similar to the Yang–Mills theories that describe elementary particles.

Background independence is a condition in theoretical physics that requires the defining equations of a theory to be independent of the actual shape of the spacetime and the value of various fields within the spacetime. In particular this means that it must be possible not to refer to a specific coordinate system—the theory must be coordinate-free. In addition, the different spacetime configurations should be obtained as different solutions of the underlying equations.

In theoretical physics, geometrodynamics is an attempt to describe spacetime and associated phenomena completely in terms of geometry. Technically, its goal is to unify the fundamental forces and reformulate general relativity as a configuration space of three-metrics, modulo three-dimensional diffeomorphisms. The origin of this idea can be found in an English mathematician William Kingdon Clifford's works. This theory was enthusiastically promoted by John Wheeler in the 1960s, and work on it continues in the 21st century.

John Earman is an American philosopher of physics. He is an emeritus professor in the History and Philosophy of Science department at the University of Pittsburgh. He has also taught at the University of California, Los Angeles, Rockefeller University, and the University of Minnesota, and was president of the Philosophy of Science Association.

Montonen–Olive duality or electric–magnetic duality is the oldest known example of strong–weak duality or S-duality according to current terminology. It generalizes the electro-magnetic symmetry of Maxwell's equations by stating that magnetic monopoles, which are usually viewed as emergent quasiparticles that are "composite", can in fact be viewed as "elementary" quantized particles with electrons playing the reverse role of "composite" topological solitons; the viewpoints are equivalent and the situation dependent on the duality. It was later proven to hold true when dealing with a N = 4 supersymmetric Yang–Mills theory. It is named after Finnish physicist Claus Montonen and British physicist David Olive after they proposed the idea in their academic paper Magnetic monopoles as gauge particles? where they state:

There should be two "dual equivalent" field formulations of the same theory in which electric (Noether) and magnetic (topological) quantum numbers exchange roles.

Relationalism is any theoretical position that gives importance to the relational nature of things. For relationalism, things exist and function only as relational entities. Relationalism may be contrasted with relationism, which tends to emphasize relations per se.

In theoretical physics, topological string theory is a version of string theory. Topological string theory appeared in papers by theoretical physicists, such as Edward Witten and Cumrun Vafa, by analogy with Witten's earlier idea of topological quantum field theory.

In theoretical physics, a dual resonance model arose during the early investigation (1968–1973) of string theory as an S-matrix theory of the strong interaction.

The history of string theory spans several decades of intense research including two superstring revolutions. Through the combined efforts of many researchers, string theory has developed into a broad and varied subject with connections to quantum gravity, particle and condensed matter physics, cosmology, and pure mathematics.

The non-critical string theory describes the relativistic string without enforcing the critical dimension. Although this allows the construction of a string theory in 4 spacetime dimensions, such a theory usually does not describe a Lorentz invariant background. However, there are recent developments which make possible Lorentz invariant quantization of string theory in 4-dimensional Minkowski space-time.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jeremy Butterfield</span> British philosopher (born 1954)

Jeremy Nicholas Butterfield FBA is a philosopher at the University of Cambridge, noted particularly for his work on philosophical aspects of quantum theory, relativity theory and classical mechanics.

Superstring theory is an attempt to explain all of the particles and fundamental forces of nature in one theory by modeling them as vibrations of tiny supersymmetric strings.

In theoretical physics, the problem of time is a conceptual conflict between general relativity and quantum mechanics in that quantum mechanics regards the flow of time as universal and absolute, whereas general relativity regards the flow of time as malleable and relative. This problem raises the question of what time really is in a physical sense and whether it is truly a real, distinct phenomenon. It also involves the related question of why time seems to flow in a single direction, despite the fact that no known physical laws at the microscopic level seem to require a single direction.

References

  1. "A simple guide to chaos and complexity", 10.1136/jech.2006.054254
  2. "Causality in complex interventions", 10.1007/s11019-008-9140-4
  3. "Symmetry, Structure, and Spacetime, Volume 3 - 1st Edition".
  4. "A Brief History of String Theory From Dual Models to M-Theory", https://www.springer.com/gp/book/9783642451270
  5. Rickles, D., 2011, A philosopher looks at string dualities, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.shpsb.2010.12.005
  6. "AdS/CFT duality and the emergence of spacetime", https://doi.org/10.1016/j.shpsb.2012.06.001
  7. Rickles D., 2010, Mirror Symmetry and Other Miracles in Superstring Theory, arXiv:1004.4491
  8. "Quantum Gravity in the First Half of the Twentieth Century", https://edition-open-sources.org/sources/10/index.html
  9. "The Role of Gravitation in Physics", https://edition-open-sources.org/sources/5/index.html
  10. Rickles, Dean, 2010, Quantum Gravity: A Primer for Philosophers, PhilSci, 2008 |url= http://philsci-archive.pitt.edu/cgi/export/5387/HTML/philsci-archive-5387.html |
  11. "Search results | American Institute of Physics".
  12. "Econophysics for philosophers", https://doi.org/10.1016/j.shpsb.2007.01.003
  13. "Econophysics and the Complexity of Financial Markets", https://doi.org/10.1016/B978-0-444-52076-0.50019-5
  14. "Public Health", https://doi.org/10.1016/B978-0-444-51787-6.50016-7
  15. "Some philosophical problems of music theory (and some music-theoretic problems of philosophy)", https://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/e/9781315114927/chapters/10.4324/9781315114927-8
  16. Rickles, Dean (2014). "Closer to the truth: Why is there anything at all? on PBS-TV (Part 1)". Closer To The Truth.
  17. http://newagendasstudyoftime.wordpress.com [ user-generated source ]
  18. "Routledge Studies in the Philosophy of Mathematics and Physics - Book Series - Routledge & CRC Press".