I am currently a Hertz Postdoctoral Fellow in History and Philosophy of Physics at the University of Bonn.
My main research focus is in the intersection of philosophy and physics especially the metaphysics of space and time.
I have just finished my DPhil (a.k.a. my Ph.D.) in Philosophy at the University of Oxford.
Prior to this I got a Ph.D. in Physics from the University of Waterloo with a focus on Quantum Information.
Research Interests (See Selected Paper below):
1. Metaphysics of Space and Time: What if we could remove and replace the topological underpinnings of our spacetime theories just as easily
as we can switch between different coordinate systems? I claim that we can by using the ISE Method of topological redescription which I recently developed in my DPhil thesis.
See this video and this paper.
I claim that these new topological redescription techniques lead us to a conventionalist/neo-Kantian view of spacetime topology which I call the
Dynamics-First View of Spacetime Topology (see this paper). This view paralles both Brown's dynamics-first view of geometry and a broadly Humean view of the laws of nature.
2. Measurement in Quantum Field Theory (QFT): How should we model quantum measurement processes which involve quantum fields? How must our characterization
of QFT's obsevables differ from how we characterize the observables of non-relativistic quantum mechanics (NRQM)? Can we model QFT-involved measurement
using PVMs and POVMs as we are used to in NRQM? Perhaps surprisingly, we cannot. This gives rise to what I call the Pragmatic QFT Measrement Problem (Paper, Video Abstract).
3. Epistemic Peer Disagreement: How can it be rational to maintain a gritty commitment to one's long term goals against a backdrop of naysaying peers? (Text available upon request.)
Email: daniel.grimmer at philosophy.ox.ac.uk
Long CV: Here
YouTube: Here
Selected Papers
| Spacetime Representation Theory: Setting the Scope of the ISE Method of Topological Redescription |
(arXiv)
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| Daniel Grimmer. |
(Video)
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| From Humean Laws to a Neo-Kantian Spacetime: A Dynamics-First View of Topology |
(arXiv)
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| Daniel Grimmer. |
| Dualities, Quantum Mechanics, and the Uncommon Common Core |
BJPS
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| Daniel Grimmer, Enrico Cinti, Rasmus Jaksland. |
| The Pragmatic QFT Measurement Problem and the need for a Heisenberg-like Cut in QFT |
Synthese (arXiv)
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| Daniel Grimmer. |
(Vid.Abs.)
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| Collisional Quantum Thermometry |
PRL (arXiv)
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| Stella Seah, Stefan Nimmrichter, Daniel Grimmer, Jader P. Santos, Valerio Scarani, Gabriel T. Landi. |