Betting on Future Physics

British Journal for the Philosophy of Science 73 (1):161-183 (2022)
  Copy   BIBTEX

Abstract

The ‘cosmological constant problem’ has historically been understood as describing a conflict between cosmological observations in the framework of general relativity and theoretical predictions from quantum field theory, which a future theory of quantum gravity ought to resolve. I argue that this view of the CCP is best understood in terms of a bet about future physics made on the basis of particular interpretational choices in GR and QFT, respectively. Crucially, each of these choices must be taken as itself grounded in the sucesses of the respective theory for this bet to be justified. 1 Introduction 2 The Cosmological Constant Problem 2.1 The physics that anticipates ‘vacuum energy’ 2.2 Getting to zero-point energies 2.3 Getting to the cosmological constant 3 The Epistemology of Physical Interpretation 4 The View from High-Energy Physics 5 Concluding Remarks

Other Versions

No versions found

Links

PhilArchive

    This entry is not archived by us. If you are the author and have permission from the publisher, we recommend that you archive it. Many publishers automatically grant permission to authors to archive pre-prints. By uploading a copy of your work, you will enable us to better index it, making it easier to find.

    Upload a copy of this work     Papers currently archived: 102,020

External links

Setup an account with your affiliations in order to access resources via your University's proxy server

Through your library

Similar books and articles

The quantum vacuum and the cosmological constant problem.Svend E. Rugh & Henrik Zinkernagel - 2001 - Studies in History and Philosophy of Science Part B: Studies in History and Philosophy of Modern Physics 33 (4):663-705.
The quantum vacuum and the cosmological constant problem.E. S. & H. Zinkernagel - 2002 - Studies in History and Philosophy of Science Part B: Studies in History and Philosophy of Modern Physics 33 (4):663-705.
Problems with the cosmological constant problem.Adam Koberinski - 2021 - In Christian Wüthrich, Baptiste Le Bihan & Nick Huggett (eds.), Philosophy Beyond Spacetime: Implications From Quantum Gravity. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
About the Measure of the Bare Cosmological Constant.Massimo Cerdonio - 2019 - Foundations of Physics 49 (8):830-836.
Regularizing (Away) Vacuum Energy.Adam Koberinski - 2021 - Foundations of Physics 51 (1):1-22.
Unimodular quantum gravity and the cosmological constant.R. Percacci - 2018 - Foundations of Physics 48 (10):1364-1379.
The Solution Cosmological Constant Problem.Jaykov Foukzon - 2019 - Journal of Modern Physics 10 (7):729-794.

Analytics

Added to PP
2019-09-24

Downloads
59 (#368,115)

6 months
11 (#379,489)

Historical graph of downloads
How can I increase my downloads?

Author's Profile

Mike D. Schneider
University of Missouri, Columbia

Citations of this work

Renormalization group methods and the epistemology of effective field theories.Adam Koberinski & Doreen Fraser - 2023 - Studies in History and Philosophy of Science Part A 98 (C):14-28.
Empty space and the (positive) cosmological constant.Mike D. Schneider - 2023 - Studies in History and Philosophy of Science Part A 100 (C):12-21.

Add more citations

References found in this work

Understanding electromagnetism.Gordon Belot - 1998 - British Journal for the Philosophy of Science 49 (4):531-555.
Naturalness, the autonomy of scales, and the 125GeV Higgs.Porter Williams - 2015 - Studies in History and Philosophy of Science Part B: Studies in History and Philosophy of Modern Physics 51:82-96.
Problems with the cosmological constant problem.Adam Koberinski - 2021 - In Christian Wüthrich, Baptiste Le Bihan & Nick Huggett (eds.), Philosophy Beyond Spacetime: Implications From Quantum Gravity. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

View all 18 references / Add more references