Philosophy of High Energy Physics (PHEP-2)

Workshop Dates: February 15-16, 2025

Register Here 

The second Pittsburgh workshop on philosophy of particle and high energy physics will be held at the Center for Philosophy of Science on 15^th-16^th February 2025. The theme is construed broadly to include cosmology, astrophysics, quantum gravity and quantum field theory insofar as they overlap with issues in high-energy physics.

Organizing committee

Marian Gilton

David Wallace

Porter Williams

Confirmed Speakers

James Fraser – Paris 1 Pantheon-Sorbonne Univeristy

Marian Gilton – University of Pittsburgh HPS

Adam Koberinski – Rotman Institute of Philosophy at Western University

Michael Miller – University of Toronto

Siddharth Muthukrishnan – University of Pittsburgh HPS

Laura Ruetsche – University of Michigan

Chris Smeenk – Western University, London Ontario Canada

David Wallace – University of Pittsburgh HPS

Porter Williams – University of Pittsburgh HPS

2nd Pittsburgh Conference on Philosophy of High Energy Physics (PHEP-2)

15th-16th February 2025

Conference is located in 1008 CL (10th floor of the Cathedral of Learning)

Breakfast and Coffee Breaks will be in 1117 CL (11th floor of the Cathedral of Learning)

Session 1 (Saturday am)
Chair: David Wallace

8am Continental Breakfast
9am Opening remarks
9:05am Marian Gilton: “Where counting counts: Defending a particle interpretation of interacting
quantum field theory”
10:10am Michael Miller: “Full precision and its failure”
11:10am Coffee
11:30am Lu Chen: “What QFT realism should be like”
12:15pm Benjamin Feintzeig: “The emergence of localizable particles in the Non-Relativistic Limit in
Quantum Field Theory”
Lunch: 1pm-3pm (on your own in Pittsburgh)

Session 2 (Saturday pm)
Chair: Porter Williams                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  
3pm Henrique Gomes: “Gauge theory doesn’t need gauge symmetry”
3:45pm James Fraser: “On the divergence of perturbation theory”
4:45pm Coffee
5pm Laura Ruetsche: “Scale invaders and subversive surrogates”
6pm close
Conference dinner (invitation only; all speakers are invited): 7pm, Courtyard Marriott

Session 3 (Sunday am)
Chair: Marian Gilton

8:30am Continental Breakfast
9am Siddharth Muthukrishnan: “Unruh, Hawking, and equivalence”
10:05am David Wallace: “Black hole complementarity from the effective-field-theory perspective”
11:05am Coffee
11:30am Sebastien Rivat: “Still no peace on the lattice”
12:15pm Doreen Fraser: “The measurement problem in QFT”
Lunch: 1pm-3pm (on your own in Pittsburgh)

Session 4 (Sunday pm)
Chair: Siddharth Muthukrishnan                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                               
3pm Michael Schneider: “Revisiting efforts to decouple early universe cosmology and quantum
gravity phenomenology”
3:45pm Chris Smeenk: “Inflation as an effective field theory”
4:45pm Coffee
5pm Adam Koberinski: “The breakdown of effective field theory beyond the Standard Model”
6pm Closing remarks