Tag Archives: spacetime

Sixth International Conference on the Nature and Ontology of Spacetime, Albena, Bulgaria

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The Scientific Organizing Committee invites papers from physicists, philosophers of physics and philosophers on any topic related to the nature of spacetime.

As there will be no main theme of the sixth spacetime conference the Committee also invites proposals for special session topics. The topics proposed so far are listed at http://www.minkowskiinstitute.org/conferences/2020/call.html

Depending on the number of colleagues participating in a special session, we plan to publish a volume with the talks presented at the session, which will include constructive criticism and the replies of the authors.

Contributed papers in the form of extended abstracts of between one and two pages should be emailed to 2020conference[AT]minkowskiinstitute.org by January 31, 2020. Submissions will be reviewed and notification of acceptance will be sent by February 17, 2020.

Scientific Organizing Committee:

Dennis Dieks (Utrecht University)
Mauro Dorato (University of Rome Three)
George F. R. Ellis (University of Cape Town)
Robert Geroch (University of Chicago)
Eleanor Knox (King’s College London)
Vesselin Petkov (Minkowski Institute, Montreal)
Steven Savitt (University of British Columbia)
Anguel Stefanov (Bulgarian Academy of Sciences)
James Owen Weatherall (University of California, Irvine)
Christian Wuethrich (University of Geneva)

Local Organizing Committee:

Temenuzhka Ivanova (Albena Congress Center)
Milen Milev (Hotel Laguna Garden)
Anguel Stefanov (Bulgarian Academy of Sciences)
Svetla Petkova (Minkowski Institute Press, Montreal)
Vesselin Petkov (Minkowski Institute, Montreal)

Second Hermann Minkowski Meeting on the Foundations of Spacetime Physics, Albena, Bulgaria

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The Second Hermann Minkowski Meeting on the Foundations of Spacetime Physics will commemorate the 110th anniversary of the publication of Minkowski’s lecture “Space and Time” in 1909, which presented the novel ideas of the four-dimensional physics of spacetime. In addition to technical papers on areas related to Minkowski’s contributions to the foundations of spacetime physics and on modern ramifications of his ideas, contributions on closely related topics will be also welcome.

In addition to talks and poster sessions, special tea coffee hours will be included in the program to stimulate more informal discussions among the participants. For this reason we encourage interested colleagues to attend the meeting even if they do not plan to give a talk.

Contributed papers in the form of extended abstracts from one to two standard pages should be emailed by Thursday, February 28, 2019 to minkowski2019[AT]minkowskiinstitute.org. Submissions will be reviewed and notification of acceptance will be given by Friday, March 15, 2019.

Scientific Organizing Committee:

Abhay Ashtekar (Penn State University)
Dennis Dieks (Utrecht University)
George F. R. Ellis (University of Cape Town)
Valeria Ferrari (University of Rome “La Sapienza”)
David Garfinkle (Okland University)
Robert Geroch (University of Chicago)
James Isenberg (University of Oregon)
Claus Kiefer (University of Cologne)
Vesselin Petkov (Minkowski Institute, Montreal)
Carlo Rovelli (Centre de Physique Theorique de Luminy)
Mairi Sakellariadou (King’s College London, University of London)
James Owen Weatherall (University of California, Irvine)
Nick Woodhouse (University of Oxford, Clay Mathematics Institute)
Christian Wuethrich (University of Geneva)

Fifth International Conference on the Nature and Ontology of Spacetime, Albena, Bulgaria

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To mark the 110th anniversary of Hermann Minkowski’s lecture “Space and Time” the main theme of the Fifth International Conference on the Nature and Ontology of Spacetime (organized by the Minkowski Institute, Montreal) will be the nature of spacetime – whether spacetime should be regarded just as an abstract mathematical notion modelling an evolving present, or spacetime represents a block universe or a growing block universe?

Physicists are especially encouraged to attend because even relativists hold widely different views, e.g., that

  • spacetime is nothing more than a mathematical continuum (which is essentially Poincaré’s view that prevented him from discovering the spacetime structure of the world and from developing the mathematical formalism of spacetime physics) 
  • the question of the reality of spacetime belongs to philosophy (which is hardly physics at its best because the question of the dimensionality of the world can be answered only by physics).

Despite that the focus of the fifth spacetime conference will be on the main theme, the Scientific Organizing Committee invites papers from physicists and philosophers on any topics related to the nature and ontology of spacetime.

In addition to talks and poster sessions, special coffee hours will be included in the program to stimulate more informal discussions among the participants. For this reason we encourage interested colleagues to attend the conference even if they do not plan to give a talk or present a poster.

Contributed papers in the form of extended abstracts of up to two pages should be emailed by Wednesday, January 31, 2018 to 2018conference[AT]minkowskiinstitute.org. Submissions will be reviewed and notification of acceptance will be given by Wednesday, February 28, 2018.

Scientific Organizing Committee:

Dennis Dieks (Utrecht University)
Mauro Dorato (University of Rome Three)
George F. R. Ellis (University of Cape Town)
Robert Geroch (University of Chicago)
Eleanor Knox (King’s College London)
Vesselin Petkov (Minkowski Institute, Montreal)
Steven Savitt (University of British Columbia)
Anguel Stefanov (Bulgarian Academy of Sciences)
James Owen Weatherall (University of California, Irvine)
Christian Wüthrich (University of Geneva)

New book: General Relativity 1916 – 2016

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General Relativity 1916 – 2016 (Minkowski Institute Press, Montreal 2017) – Selected peer-reviewed papers presented at the Fourth International Conference on the Nature and Ontology of Spacetime, dedicated to the 100th anniversary of the publication of General Relativity, 30 May – 2 June 2016, Golden Sands, Varna, Bulgaria :

http://www.minkowskiinstitute.org/mip/books/2016conf.html