Eleanor March (Oxford): 'Minimal coupling, the strong equivalence principle, and the adaptation of matter to spacetime geometry'
Abstract: I provide a systematic exploration of one set of precise technical conditions under which matter fields might be said to be "adapted" to a relativistic spacetime geometry - namely, that the equations governing those matter fields be minimally coupled, quasilinear, and symmetric hyperbolic. In particular, I show that this class of theories necessarily satisfy (i) the dominant energy condition, (ii) the conservation condition, and (iii) the Geroch-Earman causality condition. (This suffices for them to satisfy a version of the geodesic principle, and closes the gap between Geroch-Earman causality and the dominant energy condition.) I also discuss the relationships between minimal coupling, the "strong equivalence principle", "local (approximate) Poincaré symmetry", and the "local validity of special relativity", thus clearing up issues in the geometry-dynamics debate about the meaning and status of those principles.
Philosophy of Physics Graduate Lunch Seminar Convenor: Eleanor March, Bryan Cheng and Paolo Faglia
