Gravity, the Quantum and Thermodynamics: The Crossroads of Contemporary Theoretical Physics and Philosophy of Physics

• Applicant: Dr. Erik Curiel
• Subject Area: Theoretical Philosophy
• Term: from 2016 to 2023
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 312032894

This project brings together several research fields that have touched on each other previously but which could all be helped by further integration. Two fields of physics research have attracted some philosophical attention in recent years, but not nearly so much as their importance and prominence in contemporary theoretical physics warrants. Books and papers by physicists and philosophers such as Penrose, Hawking, Wald, Earman, Belot, Ruetsche, Manchak, Weatherall, Wallace, and the project applicant have examined ontological, epistemological, and methodological problems raised by black holes, and in particular their interactions with quantum fields. A second, closely related field, the seemingly thermodynamical nature of black holes, though studied extensively by physicists such as Penrose, Hawking, Wald, Unruh, Ellis and Jacobson, has received relatively little treatment by philosophers, especially given its central importance in theoretical physics today, though that is now beginning to change, driven in part by recent work by the project applicant.The central subject matter of both areas of research lies beyond the reach of current experimentation and observation, making them all speculative in a way unusual even in theoretical physics. In their investigation, therefore, physical questions of a technically sophisticated nature are inextricable from subtle philosophical considerations spanning ontology, epistemology, and methodology, again in a way unusual even in theoretical physics. This project addresses a range of such ontological and methodological problems naturally arising in the intersection of these field, in three complementary stages: first, by clarifying and regimenting the issues in the context of the relevant areas of theoretical physics in a way suited to philosophical analysis; second, by situating and investigating the issues in the context of philosophical debates already present and known in the contemporary literature (e.g., the conceptual structure of thermodynamics and statistical mechanics and the relations between them, and the problems of confirmation and epistemic warrant more generally for theoretical claims); and third, by attempting to articulate and investigate new philosophical questions raised by the unique features of this area of theoretical physics, which the traditional debates do not adequately capture. The third stage is potentially the most important in the project, as it holds out the promise of opening up new fields of philosophical research, thus beginning to develop the philosophy of black hole thermodynamics and quantum field theory on curved spacetime as a mature research field in its own right. Even more, it also holds out the promise of opening up potentially fruitful new avenues of approach to traditional philosophical debates and issues.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants