B6: The Role of Inference to the Best Explanation in the Discovery of Gravitational Waves

• Applicant: Professor Dr. Dennis Lehmkuhl
• Subject Area: Theoretical Philosophy
• Term: from 2020 to 2024
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 288923097

The purpose of this project is to investigate the role of inferences to the best explanation in the discovery and subsequent interpretation of gravitational waves. The project will investigate analytic work on gravitational wave solutions to Einstein’s field equations of general relativity, the emergence and use of numerical (supercomputer) methods for solving the field equations so as to model binary black holes emitting gravitational waves, and the interaction between such a wave and the LIGO detector. Regarding the latter, we will investigate how and for what reasons the LIGO collaboration came to see a gravitational wave as the best explanation for the data in the detector, and we shall elaborate and compare two possible interpretations of how the wave interacts with the detector. The first interpretation relies on an exchange of energy between wave and detector, the other argues that no such exchange takes place. Finally, we will pin down the consequences of both interpretations for metaphysical accounts of causation.

• DFG Programme: Research Units
• Subproject of: FOR 2495: Inductive Metaphysics
• International Connection: Canada, United Kingdom, USA
• Cooperation Partners: Professor Dr. Harry Collins; Professor Dr. Daniel John Kennefick; Professor Dr. Philip Stamp