Critical look at physics identity: An operationalized framework for examining race and physics identity

Identity in Physics and Elsewhere

Is identity a fundamental concept? Of course, it all depends on what it takes for something to be fundamental. For the purposes of this paper, I will consider identity’s fundamentality as exhibiting four features, which, if satisfied, also provide four reasons to think that a fundamental concept is involved (see Bueno [2014]): (1) Identity is presupposed in every conceptual system; (2) it is re...

Institute for Mathematical Physics Jarzynski's Identity

A closer look at rock physics models and their assisted interpretation in seismic exploration

Subsurface rocks and their fluid content along with their architecture affect reflected seismic waves through variations in their travel time, reflection amplitude, and phase within the field of exploration seismology. The combined effects of these factors make subsurface interpretation by using reflection waves very difficult. Therefore, assistance from other subsurface disciplines is needed i...

Physics and metaphysics look at computation

As far as algorithmic thinking is bound by symbolic paper-and-pencil operations, the Church-Turing thesis appears to hold. But is physics, and even more so, is the human mind, bound by symbolic paper-and-pencil operations? What about the powers of the continuum, the quantum, and what about human intuition, human thought? These questions still remain unanswered. With the strong Artificial Intell...

The physics and metaphysics of identity and individuality

Steven French and Décio Krause have written what bids fair to be, for years to come, the definitive philosophical treatment of the problem of the individuality of elementary particles in quantum mechanics (QM) and quantum-field theory (QFT). The book begins with a long and dense argument for the view that elementary particles are most helpfully regarded as non-individuals, and it concludes with...