UCI Distinguished Professor Emeritus

Research Interests:

I am interested in the mathematical and philosophical foundations of modern physics. I have done some work on classical equilibrium statistical mechanics [6] and quantum mechanics [14, 17]. (The numbers refer to papers listed in my cv.) But most of my work has dealt with problems of spacetime structure and the foundations of relativity theory. Topics have included: (i) the "causal structure" of spacetime [4, 5]; (ii) the relation of relativity theory to Newtonian gravitation theory [10, 11, 16]; (iii) Gödel's model of spacetime structure [8, 12, 14, 15, 18]; and (iv) rotation in relativity theory [9, 18, 19].

Recent and Forthcoming Publications:

• A complete bibliography (with download links) is included in my curriculum vitae.

Books: 

• Topics in the Foundations of General Relativity and Newtonian Gravitation Theory , University of Chicago Press, 2012, published volume, uncorrected final proofs.

Articles: 

• "A Remark About the 'Geodesic Principle'  in General Relativity", in Frappier, M., Brown, D., and DiSalle, R. (eds.),  Analysis and Interpretation in the Exact Sciences:  Essays in Honor of William Demopoulos, Springer Verlag, 2012. [preprint]
• "Note on Carnap's 'On the Dependence of the Properties of Space Upon Those of Time' ", to appear as an introductory note, accompanying Carnap's essay, in Collected Works of Rudolf Carnap, Volume 1: Early Writings, eds. A. W. Carus, Michael Friedman, Wolfgang Kienzler, and Sven Schlotter, Open Court Press. [preprint]
• "Norton's Slippery Slope", Philosophy of Science, vol. 75, no. 4, 2008. [eprint]
• "Classical General Relativity",  in Butterfield, J. and Earman, J. (eds.),  Handbook of the Philosophy of Science. Volume 2: Philosophy of Physics, Elsevier, 2006. [preprint]
• "On the Time Reversal Invariance of Classical Electromagnetic Theory", Studies in the History and Philosophy of Modern Physics, vol. 35, no. 2, 2004. [eprint]
• "On Relative Orbital Rotation in General Relativity", in Ashtekar, A. (ed.), Revisiting the Foundations of Relativistic Physics: Festschrift for John Stachel, Kluwer, 2003. [preprint]
• "A No-Go Theorem About Rotation in Relativity Theory", in Malament, D. (ed.), Reading Natural Philosophy (Essays Dedicated to Howard Stein on His 70th Birthday), Open Court Press, 2002. [eprint]

Unpublished Lecture Notes:    

• Geometry and Spacetime  (Winter 2012)
• Probability and Determinism  (Spring 2012)