Berlin 2018 – wissenschaftliches Programm

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AGPhil: Arbeitsgruppe Philosophie der Physik

AGPhil 3: Philosophie der Physik III

AGPhil 3.2: Vortrag

Donnerstag, 15. März 2018, 13:15–13:45, H 2033

Connecting structuralism with the paradox of phase transitions — •Johannes Mierau — Technische Universität Dortmund

Reductions and emergence in physics are frequently discussed in case of phase transitions. The inhering paradox of phase transitions is mostly resolved by applying a topology onto the space of physical systems. The question of which topology is ought to be used is still at issue. In my text I am going to connect this problem to the structuralism of physical theories in order to find a justified topology.

Günther Ludwig introduced uniform structures to blur theoretic relations, which never match experimental data exactly. This concept was adopted by other structuralists. Erhard Scheibe, in particular, used uniform structures to express the experimental inaccuracy of measurements.

In this vein, every physical theory carries a topology induced by its empirical uniform structure. A theoretic model in the thermodynamic limit can represent an actual physical system, if all measurable magnitudes in regard to the specific theory conform to the finite system up to the accuracy of the uniform structure. In this way phase transitions can be defined theoretically as a concept for infinite systems, but be applied to certain real systems. Additionally, no new topology has to be introduced, since, from the structuralists point of view, uniform structures are core parts of physical theories.