Dr Elay Shech

COFUND Senior Research Fellow at Josephine Butler College (October - December 2016)

Shech has an emerging international reputation publishing rigorous work drawing on both physics and philosophy, in the very best philosophy journals.

Condensed Matter Physics, the Quantum Hall Effects and Emergence

Shech proposes to address foundational issues raised by the fractional quantum Hall effect (FQHE), grouped into three broad areas: representation in science; idealization in physics; and emergence.

(i) The ‘representational content’ of a theory or model is how that theory or model represents the world as being. But is the representational content transparent to the scientists who use a theory, or can it be a matter of empirical investigation? Shech proposes to address this question specifically with respect to the FQHE: does it support interpreting phase factors in the electromagnetic vector potential as real, as (arguably), the Aharonov-Bohm effect does?

(ii) Theoretical models of the FQHE employ various idealisations. But are these idealisations ‘pathological’, in that they preclude a realist interpretation of those models?

(iii) Does the FQHE constitute an emergent phenomenon? Shech proposes to review the various theoretical interpretations, in the light of criteria for emergence which have been proposed by both physicists and philosophers. Clearly, answering these questions depends on the correct interpretation of the various physical models of the FQHE, and hence answers to the research questions in (i) and (ii) above.