Professor of Philosophy, Division of the Humanities and Social Sciences, California Institute of Technology
office: Dabney 301EÂ Â email: csebens@gmail.com
Curriculum Vitae | Research | Caltech | Google Scholar
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I study the philosophy of physics, focusing on the foundations of quantum mechanics, classical field theory, and quantum field theory. I use tools from metaphysics and epistemology to assess competing proposals about what physical laws govern the quantum realm (such as Bohmian mechanics, the many-worlds interpretation, and GRW theory). I also work towards improving our understanding of classical field theories, including our theories of the electromagnetic, Dirac, and gravitational fields. At the intersection of these two topics, I am interested in the way that classical field theories are quantized to arrive at quantum field theories.
I am a professor of philosophy at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech). As a student I studied physics and philosophy at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the University of Oxford, and the University of Michigan. Before coming to Caltech, I was an assistant professor at the University of California, San Diego.
For an introduction to my research, you can read the article I wrote for Aeon ("What's everything made of?"), this Scientific American article on electron spin, or this Caltech interview.
For the latest on the account of electron spin that I have advocated (building on the work of Hans C. Ohanian), see section 4.2 of this article and the references therein.
Under Review
Relativistic Locality from Electromagnetism to Quantum Field Theory, with Eugene Y. S. Chua, invited submission for Everett and Locality (ed. Alyssa Ney) [arXiv] [PhilSci archive]
Publications
How Anomalous is the Electron's Magnetic Moment? (2025), in Foundations of Physics [arXiv]
How do Laws Produce the Future? (2025), in Philosophy of Physics [arXiv]
Eliminating Electron Self-Repulsion (2023), in Foundations of Physics [arXiv]
Absorbing the Arrow of Electromagnetic Radiation (2023), with Mario Hubert, in Studies in History and Philosophy of Science [arXiv]
The Disappearance and Reappearance of Potential Energy in Classical and Quantum Electrodynamics (2022), in Foundations of Physics [arXiv] [talk and slides]
The Fundamentality of Fields (2022), in Synthese [arXiv]
The Mass of the Gravitational Field (2022), in The British Journal for the Philosophy of Science [arXiv] [related notes]
Particles, Fields, and the Measurement of Electron Spin (2021), in Synthese [arXiv]
Electron Charge Density: A Clue from Quantum Chemistry for Quantum Foundations (2021), in Foundations of Physics [arXiv]
Possibility of Small Electron States (2020), in Physical Review A [arXiv] [comment]
Putting Positrons into Classical Dirac Field Theory (2020), in Studies in History and Philosophy of Modern Physics [arXiv]
How Electrons Spin (2019), in Studies in History and Philosophy of Modern Physics [arXiv (updated version)]
Electromagnetism as Quantum Physics (2019), in Foundations of Physics [arXiv]
Forces on Fields (2018), in Studies in History and Philosophy of Modern Physics [arXiv]
Self-Locating Uncertainty and the Origin of Probability in Everettian Quantum Mechanics (2018), with Sean Carroll, in The British Journal for the Philosophy of Science [arXiv] [blog I, II, III] [quanta]
Constructing and Constraining Wave Functions for Identical Quantum Particles (2016), in Studies in History and Philosophy of Modern Physics [arXiv]
Killer Collapse: Empirically Probing the Philosophically Unsatisfactory Region of GRW (2015), in Synthese [PhilSci archive]
Quantum Mechanics as Classical Physics (2015), in Philosophy of Science [arXiv] [blog] [featured in Nature News]
Many Worlds, the Born Rule, and Self-Locating Uncertainty (2014), with Sean Carroll, in Quantum Theory: A Two-Time Success Story, Yakir Aharonov Festschrift (edited volume) [arXiv (updated version)]
Courses
Philosophy Through Science Fiction [spring 2025 syllabus]
Introduction to Philosophy of Science [winter 2022 syllabus]
Introduction to the Philosophy of Physics [winter 2025 syllabus]
Philosophical Issues in Quantum Physics [winter 2025 syllabus]
General Audience
Do Electrons Spin? (2023), Whitney Clavin, Caltech News
Quantum Particles Aren’t Spinning. So Where Does Their Spin Come From? (2022), Adam Becker, Scientific American
What's Everything Made of? (2019), Aeon [reprinted in American Scientist with figures and captions added by their editors]
Philosophy Through Science Fiction (2019), interview with Whitney Clavin, Caltech Magazine
On the Edge of Philosophy and Physics (2019), interview with Whitney Clavin, Caltech News
Into the Impossible Podcast, Episode 25: A Discussion of Quantum Theory and the book “What Is Real?” by Adam Becker (2019), with Adam Becker and Andrew Friedman
Where Quantum Probability Comes From (2019), Sean Carroll, Quanta
Guest Post: Chip Sebens on the Many-Interacting-Worlds Approach to Quantum Mechanics (2014), on Sean Carroll's Preposterous Universe blog
Book Review
Review of Quantum Ontology: A Guide to the Metaphysics of Quantum Mechanics by Peter J. Lewis (2016), in Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews
Other
The Disappearance and Reappearance of Potential Energy in Classical and Quantum Electrodynamics (2022), Foundations of Physics @Harvard Seminar (video)
Notes on Gravity, Electromagnetism, and Gravitoelectromagnetism (2022)
Electron Spin and Field Quantization (2020), talk at Harvard Foundations of Quantum Field Theory Mini-Workshop (video)
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