[PhilPhys] This week's Phil Physics seminar, Oxford

[Christopher Timpson]

Apologies for Cross-posting

Dear All,

This week Dennis Lehmkuhl (Oxford) will be talking on:

"Unifying Classical Unified Field Theories"

Abstract: 
Einstein's theory of General Relativity is often seen as "geometrising" the 
gravitational field, as showing that gravitational fields are reducible to 
aspects of spacetime structure. Classical Unified Field theories (UFTs) of 
gravitation and electromagnetism, especially those pursued by Einstein, are 
then often regarded as attempts to go one step further than General Relativity, 
attempting to "geometrise" the electromagnetic field as well. 
I will argue that what is normally referred to as the project of a unified 
field theory is actually a bundle of four research programmes that are 
logically independent of each other. The sub-programmes are those of a unified 
field theory (in a narrow sense), a unitary field theory, a complete field 
theory, and a geometrised field theory. I will argue that Einstein in 
particular aspired to a unified and complete field theory, while Weyl attempted 
a unified, complete and geometrised field theory. 
I will furthermore point to the possibilty of distinguishing between different 
degrees of unification, completeness and geometrisation of a field theory. The 
talk will focus on the different degrees of unification, expanding on an almost 
unknown meta-discussion between Einstein, Pauli and Weyl about what makes a 
good unified field theory. I will present and compare different UFTs within 
this classification scheme, which will lead me to argue that there is a precise 
sense in which special relativistic electrodynamics (a unified field theory of 
electric and magnetic fields) has a higher unification strength than Kaluza's 
UFT of gravitational and and electromagnetic fields, which in turn has a higher 
unification strength than Weyl's UFT. 

Thursday 4.30pm, Lecture Room, 10 Merton St.

See you then,
Chris

----- End of forwarded message from Christopher Timpson 
<christopher.timpson at bnc.ox.ac.uk> -----

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