The Research Unit “Epistemology of the LHC” invites students and scholars in philosophy, history and sociology of physics/science, as well as in physics, to submit abstracts for the conference “Dark Matter & Modified Gravity”, taking place from 6 to 8 February 2019 at RWTH Aachen University, Germany.
Astrophysical and cosmological observations as well as explanatory gaps in the Standard Model of particle physics imply the existence of Dark Matter and/or a modification of our theory of space and time. A decision between the Dark Matter (DM) and Modified Gravity (MG) approaches is hampered by problems of underdetermination at different levels and of different kinds. The plethora of Dark Matter and Modified Gravity approaches, and the corresponding underdetermination, even in the light of the vast amount of relevant collider based and astrophysical observations, clearly illustrates the complexity of this scientific problem. On the other hand, the overlap of the collider and astrophysical domains may allow for reducing the underdetermination, thus leading to a simplification of the model landscape. One focus of this conference is Dark Matter searches at the Large Hadron Collider and the connection between LHC results and theories of gravity. We will address the question of different kinds of underdetermination, both in choosing between the two research programs of Dark Matter and Modified Gravity, and also in choosing between different models within each program. In particular, we aim to provide an assessment of the explanatory power and the explanatory gaps of the Dark Matter and Modified Gravity hypotheses, and the extent to which these might reduce the issues of underdetermination.
Extended abstracts of between 500 and 1000 words (excluding references), together with a short abstract of maximally 100 words, should be submitted as a pdf to Niels Martens (martens@physik.rwth-aachen.de) by 31 October 2018.
For further information see: www.lhc-epistemologie.uni-wuppertal.de/dm-mg.