Dominic Ryder (LSE) - 2022-23 Students

Philosophy, Logic and Scientific Method

The passage of time is assumed to be a symmetry in quantum theory. This assumption, called unitary time evolution, implies that physical experimentation is “repeatable” in the sense that an experiment performed at one time must give the same results as the exact same experiment at any other time. However, two famous problems in physics, concerning the arrow of time and black hole information, might be solvable by allowing non-unitary evolution. This project aims to perform a philosophical analysis of non-unitary time evolution, determining whether it can indeed solve these problems, and exploring its epistemological and metaphysical implications. 

Primary supervisor: Bryan Roberts, LSE
Secondary supervisor: Miklós Rédei, LSE