This term we discussed thermodynamics, black holes, and black hole thermodynamics. After getting off the ground with an article on thermodynamics, we spent some weeks thinking about the justification for treating black holes as thermodynamic objects. We then moved on to some papers covering issues in quantum field theory on curved spacetimes including the breakdown of predictability due to black hole evaporation, the trans-Planckian problem, and the Unruh effect.

We will again begin this term with the delight of a book chapter manuscript by Erik Curiel on black hole thermodynamics, and then continue into the foundations of thermal and statistical physics.

This term we will begin a book manuscript by Erik Curiel on black hole thermodynamics, and read Sam Fletcher's new manuscript on the philosophy of general relativity for the Cambridge Elements series, as well as a final installment of Jeremy's book on the Multiverse.

This term we read Jeremy Butterfield's book manuscript on the multiverse, and also embarked on some further remarkable adventures in the quantum measurement problem..

This term continued our discussion of the hole argument.

Break: We will not meet on 29 Mar 2022, so you can collapse after the Cambridge term. But we meet again on 5 Apr 2022 with our own Jeremy Butterfield: on the Multiverse!

This term in philosophy of physics bootcamp, we faced the storied hole argument.

This seminar dealt with geometric techniques and with symmetry in the philosophy of physics, in both Hamiltonian (symplectic) mechanics and in its (2n+1f)-dimensional cousin contact geometry.

In the first five weeks of this seminar we finished the book manuscript of Bryan Roberts, Reversing the Arrow of Time, following our reading of the first three chapters in Michaelmas Term, mixed in with some influential recent articles on symmetry and on the nature of the CPT transformation.

In this seminar we read the manuscript of Neil Dewar's book, Structure and Equivalence, which has since been published in Cambridge University Press's Elements: See here for access options. We will then began the manuscript by Bryan Roberts on Reversing Time's Arrow, which is now published Open Access through Cambridge University Press.

This seminar, like fine wine with fine dining, paired a classic paper 🍷 in philosophy of spacetime with a chapter 🍔 from Klaas Landsman's book on the foundations of general relativity, when it was still in draft form. Participants were welcomed to read just one or the other, depending on their interests, or both! Following this seminar, the manuscript was published Open Access by Radboud University Press as: Foundations of General Relativity: From Einstein to Black Holes.