Manchak, JB and Barrett, Thomas William and Halvorson, Hans and Weatherall, James Owen (2025) Determinism and Asymmetry in General Relativity. [Preprint]

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Abstract

This paper concerns the question of which collections of general relativistic spacetimes are deterministic relative to which definitions. We begin by considering a series of three definitions of increasing strength due to Belot (1995). The strongest of these definitions is particularly interesting for spacetime theories because it involves an asymmetry condition called ``rigidity'' that has been studied previously in a different context (Geroch 1969; Halvorson and Manchak 2022; Dewar 2024). We go on to explore other (stronger) asymmetry conditions that give rise to other (stronger) forms of determinism. We introduce a number of definitions of this type and clarify the relationships between them and the three considered by Belot. We go on to show that there are collections of general relativistic spacetimes that satisfy much stronger forms of determinism than previously known. We also highlight a number of open questions.

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Item Type:	Preprint
Creators:	Creators Email ORCID Manchak, JB jmanchak@uci.edu Barrett, Thomas William thomaswbarrett@ucsb.edu Halvorson, Hans hhalvors@princeton.edu Weatherall, James Owen weatherj@uci.edu 0000-0003-1461-7821
Keywords:	General Relativity, Determinism, Hole argument, Symmetry, Heraclitus
Subjects:	General Issues > Scientific Metaphysics General Issues > Determinism/Indeterminism Specific Sciences > Physics Specific Sciences > Physics > Relativity Theory Specific Sciences > Physics > Symmetries/Invariances
Depositing User:	James Owen Weatherall
Date Deposited:	29 Oct 2025 12:28
Last Modified:	29 Oct 2025 12:28
Item ID:	27042
Subjects:	General Issues > Scientific Metaphysics General Issues > Determinism/Indeterminism Specific Sciences > Physics Specific Sciences > Physics > Relativity Theory Specific Sciences > Physics > Symmetries/Invariances
Date:	2025
URI:	https://philsci-archive.pitt.edu/id/eprint/27042

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• Determinism and Asymmetry in General Relativity. (deposited 10 Mar 2025 14:00)
  • Determinism and Asymmetry in General Relativity. (deposited 29 Oct 2025 12:28) [Currently Displayed]

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