Heidelberg 2022 – wissenschaftliches Programm

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AGPhil: Arbeitsgruppe Philosophie der Physik

AGPhil 6: Foundations of Gravity

AGPhil 6.1: Hauptvortrag

Mittwoch, 23. März 2022, 14:00–14:45, AGPhil-H14

Spacetime Conventionalism Revised: Tidal Forces and Weyl Curvature — •Karim Thébault and Ufuk Tasdan — University of Bristol

Our goal in this paper is to better understand the physical interpretation of tidal forces and Weyl curvature in general relativity by considering novel articulations of thesis of `spacetime conventionality'. We will first consider a specific rendition of the conventionality thesis in the context of the debates regarding the status of energy conservation and the effects of tidal forces. This will then, in turn, motivate a discussion of the two most physically important forms of curvature - Ricci and Weyl - which can be isolated in general relativity, focusing upon the extent to which such formal distinction may be employed to articulate an entirely non-conventional analysis of the causal origin of tidal forces. We next consider the idea that the Ricci vs. Weyl curvature distinction can be further deployed to anchor a conventionalism-proof distinction between `pure geometric' Weyl curvature and `matter-energy-coupled' Ricci curvature. To foreshadow our main conclusion, what we find is that the complex of couplings between Ricci curvature and stress-energy, via the Einstein equation, and Weyl and Ricci curvature, via the Bianchi identity, leads us away from such attractively clean distinctions. Finally, we will outline some open questions and possible lines of future work as an envoi.