LATEST ESSAY:
RESEARCH:
Latest Papers:
Epperson, M. “Relational Realism and the Ontogenetic Universe: Subject, Object, and Ontological Process in Quantum Mechanics.” Angelaki 25:3 (2020)
R. Kastner, S. Kauffman, M. Epperson, "Taking Heisenberg's Potentia Seriously" International Journal of Quantum Foundations, 4:2 (2018) 158-72 (This paper was featured in Science News)

Additional Recent Papers: click here.
Four grants as Principal Investigator: For project publications click here.
1. Experimental Application of the Relational Realist Formalism: A Topological, Sheaf-Theoretic Explication of Quantum Geometric Phases By Analysis of Experimental Data on the Aharonov-Bohm Effect, the Pancharatnam Phase, and the Quantum Hall Effect, Toward a Unified Interpretation (2013-16)
Principal Investigators: Michael Epperson and Elias Zafiris. Co-Investigators: Karim Bschir, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology; Timothy Eastman, NASA-Goddard. Supported by a grant from the Fetzer-Franklin Fund (Grant D34C101) and the Parmenides Foundation - $181,200
Foundations of Relational Realism (Rowman & Littlefield, 2013) represents the capstone of our previous project, along with a number of published papers and conference presentations. With this foundational work in place, our next step is to demonstrate the experimental applicability of this sheaf theoretic quantum formalism and its philosophical conceptual framework—viz. its advantages both in terms of prediction and interpretation of data. We propose to apply the relational realist framework to the task of explicating the well-known but poorly understood problem of quantum geometric phases. We will do so by analysis of experimental data on the Aharonov-Bohm Effect, the Pancharatnam Phase, and the Quantum Hall Effect, toward a unified interpretation.
2. Foundations of Relational Realism: The Evolution of Set Theoretic External Relations to Category Theoretic Internal Relations Toward an Event-Ontological, Topological Approach to Quantum Mechanics (2010-13)
Principal Investigator: Michael Epperson. Co-Investigators: Elias Zafiris, Senior Research Fellow in Theoretical and Mathematical Physics, University of Athens; Stuart Kauffman, Research Professor, Complex Systems Center, University of Vermont; Timothy Eastman, NASA-Goddard; Karim Bschir, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology. Supported by a grant from the Fetzer-Franklin Fund (Grant D21C62) $572,760
3. Logical Causality in Quantum Mechanics: Relational Realism and the Evolution of Ontology to Praxiology in the Philosophy of Nature (2008-9)
NEWS RELEASE
Principal Investigator: Michael Epperson. Co-Investigators: David Finkelstein, Professor, Department of Physics, Georgia Institute of Technology; Henry P. Stapp, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory; Timothy Eastman, NASA-Goddard. Supported by a grant from the Fetzer-Franklin Fund (Grant D11C36) $209,000
4. Quantum Mechanical Investigations into the
Causal and Logical Orders and the Physical
Basis of Possibility (2007-8)
Principal Investigator: Michael Epperson. Co-Investigators: David Finkelstein, Department of Physics, Georgia Institute of Technology; Henry P. Stapp, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory; Timothy Eastman, NASA-Goddard. Supported by a grant from CTNS-STARS and the John Templeton Foundation - $20,000
SELECTED PAPERS:
Epperson, M. “Relational Realism and the Ontogenetic Universe: Subject, Object, and Ontological Process in Quantum Mechanics.” Angelaki 25:3 (2020)
R. Kastner, S. Kauffman, M. Epperson, "Taking Heisenberg's Potentia Seriously" International Journal of Quantum Foundations, 4:2 (2018) 158-172
(See also Tom Siegfried's review article on this paper in Science News)
M. Epperson, “Event-Ontological Quantum Mechanics: A Process Theoretic Approach” in Physics and Speculative Philosophy: Potentiality and Modern Science. Eds. Timothy Eastman, Michael Epperson, and David Ray Griffin. Berlin: De Gruyter (2016)
M. Epperson, “The Common Sense of Quantum Theory: Exploring the Internal Relational Structure of Self-Organization in Nature”, Coding as Literacy, Metalithicum 5. Ed. Vera Bühlmann and Ludger Hovestadt. Birkhäuser (2015)
“Whitehead and Modern Physics” in Handbook of Whiteheadian Process Thought. Nicholas Rescher, Johanna Seibt, Michel Weber, eds. Ontos-Verlag (2013)
K. Bschir, M. Epperson, E. Zafiris, “Decoherence: A View from Topology,” Center for Philosophy and the Natural Sciences, California State University Sacramento (2014)
“The Mechanics of Concrescence: Quantum Theory and Process Metaphysics,” Studia Whiteheadiana (Poland), Vol 4 (2010): 159-190)
“Quantum Mechanics and Relational Realism: Logical Causality and Wavefunction Collapse,” Process Studies, 38:2 (2009)
"Relational Realism: The Evolution of Ontology to Praxiology in the Philosophy of Nature," World Futures, 65:19-41, Routledge (2009) |