Doctoral Dissertation Research: Using Topology to Answer Philosophical Questions About General Relativity

项目概述PI提议对物理性的概念进行概念分析，因为它使用拓扑学和相对论的工具在物理学的哲学基础的背景下使用;他计划开发一个数学框架，用于解释物理性与模型的关系。这笔赠款将支持前往两个地点，研究人员正在研究与他的工作有关的主题，匹兹堡大学和华盛顿大学，西雅图。在匹兹堡，学生计划与两位资深教授一起工作。其中一个，他的目标是发展的概念基础，由史蒂芬霍金的建议，连接拓扑稳定性与“物理意义”的性质的模型;与其他他的目标是探索应用拓扑结构的理论间的减少。在西雅图，学生计划与另一位资深教授合作，扩展拓扑学中的已知结果，以进一步发展他的框架。与这些学者的互动将有助于提高他的论文研究质量。潜在的更广泛的影响PI计划将他的研究传播到物理界，除了科学界的哲学;他计划通过在物理学期刊上发表技术成果和在物理学会议上发表演讲来实现这一目标。他明确提到在2014年3月和4月的美国物理学会年会和第29届太平洋海岸重力会议上展示了他的研究结果。

Project OverviewThe PI proposes to engage in a conceptual analysis of the notion of physicality as it is used in the context of the philosophical foundations of physics using tools from topology and relativity theory; he plans to develop a mathematical framework for explicating the meaning of physicality in relation to models. The grant will support travel to two locations where researchers are working on topics related to aspects of his work, the University of Pittsburgh and the University of Washington, Seattle. Intellectual MeritIn Pittsburgh, the student plans to work with two senior professors. With one, he aims to develop the conceptual basis for a proposal by Stephen Hawking to connect topological stability with the "physically meaningful" properties of a model; with the other he aims to explore applying topology to inter-theoretic reduction. In Seattle, the student plans to work with another senior professor to extend known results in topology to further develop his framework. Interacting with these scholars will serve to enhance the quality of his dissertation research. Potential Broader ImpactsThe PI has plans to disseminate his research to the physics community in addition to the philosophy of science community; he plans to do so through publication of technical results in physics journals and through presentations at physics conferences. He explicitly mentions presenting his results at the annual March and April meetings of the American Physical Society and the 29th Pacific Coast Gravity meeting in 2014.