Dashwood, Cameron (2026) The Structure of Phonons. In: UNSPECIFIED.

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Abstract

Phonons—particle-like quanta that emerge from collective vibrations of the atoms that make up materials—have been touted as promoting a structuralist ontology. Structural realists claim to avoid the difficulties of bridging the ontological gap between phonons and the underlying atoms by committing only to the mathematical structure shared by their theories. I scrutinise this claim by analysing the shared structure and considering what motivates realism about it. I identify a tension between the demands of structural continuity and experimental testing, and consider the viability of supplementing the structuralist ontology with some form of operational structure.

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Item Type:	Conference or Workshop Item (UNSPECIFIED)
Creators:	Creators Email ORCID Dashwood, Cameron cdd39@cam.ac.uk 0000-0002-1582-3945
Keywords:	Phonons, structure, structural realism, operationalism, operationalisation
Subjects:	Specific Sciences > Physics > Condensed Matter General Issues > Experimentation Specific Sciences > Physics > Fields and Particles General Issues > Operationalism/Instrumentalism General Issues > Realism/Anti-realism General Issues > Theory Change
Depositing User:	Dr Cameron Dashwood
Date Deposited:	02 Jun 2026 18:33
Last Modified:	02 Jun 2026 18:33
Item ID:	29858
Subjects:	Specific Sciences > Physics > Condensed Matter General Issues > Experimentation Specific Sciences > Physics > Fields and Particles General Issues > Operationalism/Instrumentalism General Issues > Realism/Anti-realism General Issues > Theory Change
Date:	1 June 2026
URI:	https://philsci-archive.pitt.edu/id/eprint/29858

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