Philosophy of Physics

Philosophy of physics is a niche field on the intersection of physics (mostly theoretical and mathematical physics) and philosophy (mostly epistemology and metaphysics). One of the central themes concerns the relationship between our best theories of physics and the world we live in.

Most of my own research is in the foundations of quantum mechanics. This theory is infamous for challenging our intuitions and is often taken as strong evidence that the world is fundamentally "non-classical". The most common illustration of this is Schrödinger's cat, which allegedly can be dead and alive at the same time. Making precise what the issues are that are really at stake and determining the extend to which quantum mechanics really forces us to confront these issues lies at the core of my work.

 

Publications

2021 Bell Inequality Violation and Relativity of Pre- and Postselection (with Guido Bacciagaluppi)
Physical Review A, 104:012201 (preprint) (paper)
 
2021 How Real are Quantum States in ψ-ontic Models?
Foundations of Physics, 51:38 (preprint) (paper)
 
2020 Completely real? A critical note on the claims by Colbeck and Renner
Studies in History and Philosophy of Modern Physics, 72:121 (preprint) (paper)
(The only difference between the preprint and the paper is the type-setting. That of the preprint is much better.)

2019 An Operationalist Perspective on Setting Dependence
Foundations of Physics, 49(3):260 (paper)

2018 Constraints on Macroscopic Realism Without Assuming Non-Invasive Measurability (with Owen Maroney)
Studies in History and Philosophy of Modern Physics, 63:50 (preprint) (paper)

2014 Conway-Kochen and the Finite Precision Loophole
Foundations of Physics, 44(10):1038 (preprint) (paper)

2014 Placing Probabilities of Conditionals in Context
The Review of Symbolic Logic, 7(3):415 (paper)

2013 Speakable in Quantum Mechanics
Synthese, 190:3265 (preprint) (paper)

2012 Weakly Intuitionistic Quantum Logic
Studia Logica, 101(5):901 (preprint) (paper)

2011 The Problem of Contextuality and the Impossibility of Experimental Metaphysics Thereof
Studies in History and Philosophy of Modern Physics, 42(4):214 (preprint) (paper)

 

Dissertation

On January 25th 2016 I defended my dissertation at the University of Groningen. Please contact me if you are interested in a hard copy. The full text is also available online here. The cover illustration was inspired by the following passage from the Feynman lectures:

"What we must say (to avoid making wrong predictions) is the following. If one looks at the holes or, more accurately, if one has a piece of apparatus which is capable of determining whether the electrons go through hole 1 or hole 2, then one can say that it goes either through hole 1 or hole 2. But, when one does not try to tell which way the electron goes, when there is nothing in the experiment to disturb the electrons, then one may not say that an electron goes either through hole 1 or hole 2. If one does say that, and starts to make any deductions from the statement, he will make errors in the analysis. This is the logical tightrope on which we must walk if we wish to describe nature successfully." (Feynman, Leighton, and Sands, 1963, p. 37-9)

 

Conference Presentations

Nov 2020 Bell Inequality Violation and Relativity of Pre- and Postselection
Philosophy of Physics Seminar, Utrecht, The Netherlands
Jan 2020 Classical coins, postselection, and Bell's theorem
Freudenthal Institute Research Seminar, Utrecht, The Netherlands
Sep 2019 Completely Real? Some Critical Notes on the Theorems of Colbeck & Renner
ILMPS, Salzburg, Austria
Slides
July 2019 Completely Real? A Critical Note on the Work of Colbeck & Renner
BSPS, Durham, United Kingdom
Slides
April 2019 An Operationalist Perspective on Setting Dependence
Philosophy of Physics Seminar, Utrecht, The Netherlands
Slides
July 2018 ψ-ontic models without ψ
Foundations, Utrecht, The Netherlands
Slides
May 2018 ψ-onticity in the PBR theorem. A case study using the MKC nulliffication of the KS theorem
Philosophy of Physics Seminar, Utrecht, The Netherlands
Slides
March 2017 How ψ-ontic are ψ-ontic models?
Philosophy of Physics Research Seminar, Oxford, United Kingdom
Slides
July 2016 Constraints on Macrorealism Without Assuming Non-Invasive Measurability
Foundations, London, United Kingdom
Slides
June 2016 Quantum vs Classical Probability
Chance encounter, Groningen, The Netherlands
March 2016 Kochen-Specker Beyond Quantum Theory
Philosophy of Physics Graduate Lunch Seminar, Oxford, United Kingdom
Slides
January 2015 Quantum Logic & Quantum Probability: An Empiricist Approach
Quantum Computation, Quantum Information, and the Exact Sciences, Munich, Germany
Slides
November 2014 Indeterminisme en Waarschijnlijkheid in de Quantamechanica
Herfst-Symposium Nederlandse Vereniging voor WetenschapsFilosofie, Groningen, The Netherlands
Slides
July 2014 Philosophy of Quantum Probability: An Empiricist Approach
2nd International Summer School in Philosophy of Physics: Probabilities in Physics, Saig, Germany
Slides
May 2014 The Ontological Status of Quantum Probabilities
GCTP2014, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
Slides
November 2013 'Reversed Reduction' in Gibbsian Statistical Mechanics
Reduction and Emergence in the Sciences, Munich, Germany
Slides
June 2013 The Logics of Quantum Mechanics
Profound Philosophy of Quantum Physics, Groningen, The Netherlands
Slides
June 2013 Placing Probabilities of Conditionals in Context
Formal Epistemology Festival, Toronto, Canada
Slides
April 2013 Reduction in Gibbsian Statistical Mechanics
GCTP2013, Groningen, The Netherlands
Slides
December 2012 The Logic of Quantum Mechanics - revisited: from quantum to classical to intuitionistic to classical
Workshop on Quantum Toposophy, Nijmegen, The Netherlands
Slides
October 2012 The Measurement Problem is Your Problem Too
PSE Bertinoro Conference, Bertinoro, Italy
October 2012 Speakable in Quantum Mechanics
QPL2012, Brussels, Belgium
Slides
August 2012 Belief Dynamics for Conditionals
Historical Counterfactuals, Bristol, United Kingdom
With Jan-Willem Romeijn
Slides