Higher Seminar in Philosophy of Science: Jeremy Butterfield (Oxford) & Sebastian de Haro (Amsterdam)

Title: What are dualities in physics? A geometric view

Seminar

Date:

Thursday 11 September 2025

Time:

13.15 – 15.00

Location:

D700

Abstract

In the last forty years, dualities have been a major topic of research and a driving force behind much of the work in theoretical physics, especially high-energy physics. In this talk, we will first explain what dualities are and give a schema for them, together with some examples. We will then go on to discuss one of the questions in the philosophy of science that dualities bear on, namely the formulation of scientific theories. We will argue that dualities, and their generalizations, quasi-dualities, suggest a generalization of the semantic conception of theories. On the traditional semantic conception, a physical theory is a collection of models. We will argue that dualities and quasi-dualities suggest that there is topological and geometric structure on the set of models, and we will make a proposal for a specific "shape" that physical theories take, which generalizes and subsumes the semantic conception.