Crowther, Karen and Linnemann, Niels and Wuthrich, Christian (2019) What we cannot learn from analogue experiments. [Preprint]

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Abstract

Analogue experiments have attracted interest for their potential to shed light on inaccessible domains. For instance, `dumb holes' in fluids and Bose-Einstein condensates, as analogues of black holes, have been promoted as means of confirming the existence of Hawking radiation in real black holes. We compare analogue experiments with other cases of experiment and simulation in physics. We argue---contra recent claims in the philosophical literature---that analogue experiments are not capable of confirming the existence of particular phenomena in inaccessible target systems. As they must assume the physical adequacy of the modelling framework used to describe the inaccessible target system, arguments to the conclusion that analogue experiments can yield confirmation for phenomena in those target systems, such as Hawking radiation in black holes, beg the question.

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Item Type:	Preprint
Creators:	Creators Email ORCID Crowther, Karen karen.crowther@unige.ch 000-0003-1558-4814 Linnemann, Niels niels.linnemann@unige.ch Wuthrich, Christian christian.wuthrich@unige.ch 0000-0001-8774-6160
Additional Information:	27 pages, 2 figures; forthcoming in Synthese
Keywords:	Analogy; Black Hole Thermodynamics; Hawking Radiation; Dumb Holes; Quantum Gravity; Analogue Reasoning.
Subjects:	Specific Sciences > Physics > Condensed Matter Specific Sciences > Physics Specific Sciences > Physics > Quantum Gravity
Depositing User:	Christian Wuthrich
Date Deposited:	29 Mar 2019 12:36
Last Modified:	29 Mar 2019 12:36
Item ID:	15864
Subjects:	Specific Sciences > Physics > Condensed Matter Specific Sciences > Physics Specific Sciences > Physics > Quantum Gravity
Date:	29 March 2019
URI:	https://philsci-archive.pitt.edu/id/eprint/15864

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• What we cannot learn from analogue experiments. (deposited 09 Nov 2018 19:19)
  • What we cannot learn from analogue experiments. (deposited 29 Mar 2019 12:36) [Currently Displayed]

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