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Branching for general relativists

Placek, Tomasz (2013) Branching for general relativists. [Preprint]

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    Abstract

    The paper develops a theory of branching spatiotemporal histories that accommodates indeterminism and the insights of general relativity. A model of this theory can be viewed as a collection of overlapping histories, where histories are defined as maximal consistent subsets of the model's base set. Subsequently, generalized (non-Hausdorff) manifolds are constructed on the theory's models, and the manifold topology is introduced. The set of histories in a model turns out to be identical with the set of maximal subsets of the model's base set with respect to being Hausdorff and downward closed (in the manifold topology). Further postulates ensure that the topology is connected, locally Euclidean, and satisfies the countable sub-cover condition.


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    Item Type: Preprint
    Additional Information: To appear in "Nuel Belnap on Indeterminism and Free Action", edited by T. Müller, Springer 2014.
    Keywords: general relativity, modality, branching space-times
    Subjects: General Issues > Determinism/Indeterminism
    Specific Sciences > Physics > Relativity Theory
    Depositing User: Tomasz Placek
    Date Deposited: 22 Jul 2013 04:26
    Last Modified: 22 Jul 2013 04:26
    Item ID: 9897
    URI: http://philsci-archive.pitt.edu/id/eprint/9897

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