[PhilPhys] Call for Participation: Thinking about Space and Time (Bern, September 12 - 14, 2017)

[Claus Beisbart]

Call for Participation:

Thinking about Space and Time:
100 Years of Applying and Interpreting General Relativity

Abstract: This conference aims at an integrated understanding of how
Einstein’s theory of relativity gained momentum. The focus is on the early
reception of Einstein's theory in physics and philosophy and on the
systematic questions that emerged shortly after Einstein's discovery of
the field equations. The topics of the talks include philosophical,
historical and physical aspects of

cosmological models
black holes
gravitational waves
unified field theory
metaphysics of space and time
the relationship between spacetime and matter

Venue: Bern, Unitobler, Lerchenweg 36, room F-122, CH-3000 Bern 9

Time: September 12 – 14, 2017

Program:

Tue, 12.9.2017

09:15 – 09:30 Welcome

Cosmology I

09:30 – 10:45 Chris Smeenk, tba

11:00 – 11:45 Cormac O'Raifeartaigh, Historical and Philosophical Aspects
of the Einstein World

11:45 – 12:30 George Gale, Einstein and Milne: Two Men, Two Opposing
Theories, and the Origins of the Robertson-Walker Spacetime Metric

History

14:00 – 14:45 Claus Kiefer, Space and Time 62 years after the Bern
Relativity Conference

14:45 – 15:30 Sjang ten Hagen & Jeroen van Dongen, Global Historiography
and the Belgian Reception of Relativity

16:00 – 17:15 Marco Giovanelli, "All physics is Metaphysics". On Émile
Meyerson's Influence on Einstein's late Rationalistic Realism

17:15 – 18:00 Galina Weinstein, Two-Body Problem in General Relativity as
a Heuristic Guide in Einstein's Work on the Einstein-Rosen Bridge (ER) and
on the Einstein–Podolsky–Rosen (EPR) Argument

19:30 Conference dinner


We, 13.9.2017

Space-Time

09:15 – 10:30 Jim Weatherall, Motion of Small Bodies in General Relativity

11:00 – 11:45 Damian Luty, Strategies of Discerning Spacetime Points in
Spacetime Structuralism

11:45 – 12:30 James Read, Two Miracles of General Relativity
Solutions to Einstein's Field Equations

14:00 – 15:15 Sabine Hossenfelder, Black Hole Information – What’s the
Problem?

15:45 – 16:30 Carina Prunkl & Chris Timpson, Black Hole Entropy Is Entropy
(and not Information)

16:30 – 17:15 Dennis Lehmkuhl, The Interpretation of Vacuum Solutions to
the Einstein Field Equations

17:30 – 18:45 Dan Kennefick, A History of Gravitational Wave Emission

20:00 – 21:30 Public evening lecture: John Norton, The Error that Showed
the Way: Einstein’s Path to his Gravitational Field Equations


Thu, 14.9.2017

Cosmology II and Future Developments

09:15 – 10:30 Ruth Durrer, Cosmology: The Problem of Dark Energy

11:00 – 11:45 C. D. McCoy, A Thematic Tour of 20th Century Cosmology:
Stability From Einstein and Eddington to Inflation

11:45 – 12:30 Niels Linnemann & Manus Visser, GR, quo vadis? – Indications
for an Emergent Nature of Gravity

Symmetries

14:00 – 14:45 Neil Dewar, Symmetries, the Dynamical Approach to Spacetime,
and General Covariance

14:45 – 15:30 Joanna Luc, Kretschmann's Objection and the Problem of the
Physical Interpretation of a Theory

16:00 – 16:45 Ryan Samaroo, Friedman and Some of his Critics on the
Foundations of General Relativity

16:45 – 17:30 Samuel Fletcher, Approximate Space-time Symmetry

17:30 – 18:00 Wrap-up

19:00 Guided tour Einsteinhaus (tbc)


For more information check the webpage:
http://www.philosophie.unibe.ch/news/spacetime2017/index_eng.html

Financial Support: Tomalla Foundation, UBS Kulturstiftung, Swiss National
Science Foundation, Albert Einstein Center (University of Bern).

Organizers: Claus Beisbart (University of Bern), Tilman Sauer (University
of Mainz), Chris Wüthrich (University of Geneva)

Registration: please write an email to Claus.Beisbart at philo.unibe.ch
(there is a fee of CHF 50 for participants who do not present a talk).