https://seangryb.com/research/

1<!DOCTYPE html>
2<html lang="en" id="top">
3<head>
4    <meta charset="UTF-8">
5    <meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1.0">
6    <title>Research — Sean Gryb</title>
7    <link rel="stylesheet" href="../css/vars.css">
8    <link rel="stylesheet" href="../css/reset.css">
9    <link rel="stylesheet" href="../css/layout.css">
10    <link rel="stylesheet" href="../css/content.css">
11    <link rel="stylesheet" href="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/npm/[email protected]/dist/katex.min.css" crossorigin="anonymous">
12    <link rel="icon" type="image/png" href="/favicon/favicon-96x96.png" sizes="96x96" />
13    <link rel="icon" type="image/svg+xml" href="/favicon/favicon.svg" />
14    <link rel="shortcut icon" href="/favicon/favicon.ico" />
15    <link rel="apple-touch-icon" sizes="180x180" href="/favicon/apple-touch-icon.png" />
16    <meta name="apple-mobile-web-app-title" content="Sean Gryb" />
17    <link rel="manifest" href="/favicon/site.webmanifest" />
18    <link rel="canonical" href="https://seangryb.com/research/" />
19    

19<script defer src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/npm/[email protected]/dist/katex.min.js" crossorigin="anonymous"></script>

19
20    

20<script defer src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/npm/[email protected]/dist/contrib/auto-render.min.js"
21        crossorigin="anonymous"
22        onload="renderMathInElement(document.body,{delimiters:[{left:'$$',right:'$$',display:true},{left:'$',right:'$',display:false}],throwOnError:false})">
23    </script>

23
24</head>
25<body>
26
27<header class="header">
28    <nav class="nav">
29        <div class="logo">
30            <a href="../" accesskey="h" title="Sean Gryb (Alt + H)">Sean Gryb</a>
31        </div>
32        <ul id="menu">
33            <li>
34                <a href="../research/" title="Research">
35                    <span class="active">Research</span>
36                </a>
37            </li>
38            <li>
39                <a href="../profile/" title="Bio">
40                    <span>Bio</span>
41                </a>
42            </li>
43            <li>
44                <a href="../teaching/" title="Explorations">
45                    <span>Explorations</span>
46                </a>
47            </li>
48        </ul>
49    </nav>
50</header>
51
52<main class="main">
53    <header class="page-header">
54        <h1 class="page-title">Research</h1>
55    </header>
56    <div class="post-content">
57        <p>I'm interested in the most fundamental of questions about the nature and origin of the Universe, particularly how general relativity and quantum mechanics can be unified into a single framework of quantum gravity. This hundred-year old problem has driven us to radically rethink the very concepts of space, time and possibility that form the basis of our conception of reality.</p>
58        <p>My research focuses on epistemological problems related to space, time and symmetry. My work can be divided in two strands: a proposal for retaining time in quantum gravity and an investigation into the role of scale in quantum cosmology. The first strand has resulted in a recent <a href="https://global.oup.com/academic/product/time-regained-9780198822066?cc=nl&lang=en&#" target="_blank" rel="noopener" title="Time Remains Vol 1" aria-label="Time Remains Vol 1">book</a> with Karim Thébault and a series of papers where we develop a way to retain time in quantum cosmology while eliminating quantum singularities.</p>
59        <p> The second strand is part of the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shape_dynamics" target="_blank" rel="noopener" title="Shape Dynamics" aria-label="Shape Dynamics">Shape Dynamics</a> research programme, which is a scale-free and empirically adequate description of gravity. In a recent <a href="https://research.rug.nl/en/publications/gauge-symmetry-and-the-arrow-of-time-how-to-count-what-counts/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" title="PhD">PhD thesis</a>, I developed a framework for identifying (possibly hidden) gauge symmetries, then used this to eliminate global scale from cosmology. The result is a new way of accounting for the Arrow of Time in our Universe.</p>
60        <p>See a list of selected works below.</p>
61        <nav class="toc" aria-label="Page sections">
62            <span class="toc-label">Jump to:</span>
63            <a href="#books">Books</a>
64            <a href="#recent">Recent</a> 
65            <a href="#featured">Featured Papers</a>
66        </nav>
67        <div class="social-icons" style="justify-content: flex-start; margin: 0;">
68            <span style="padding: 10px 0px 10px 0px;">See my full list of publications on:</span><a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?hl=en&amp;user=ePkLVpgAAAAJ" target="_blank" rel="noopener" title="Google Scholar" aria-label="Google Scholar"><span class="social-label">Google Scholar</span><svg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" viewBox="0 0 24 25" fill="none" stroke="currentColor" stroke-width="2" stroke-linecap="round" stroke-linejoin="round"><path d="M5.242 13.769L0.5 9.5 12 1l11.5 9-5.242 3.769C17.548 11.249 14.978 9.5 12 9.5c-2.977 0-5.548 1.748-6.758 4.269zM12 10a7 7 0 1 0 0 14 7 7 0 0 0 0-14z" /></svg></a>
69        </div>
70
71        <h2 id="books">Books</h2>
72        <div id="books-section"></div>
73
74        <h2 id="recent">Recent</h2>
75        <div id="recent-section"></div>
76
77        <h2 id="featured">Featured Papers</h2>
78        <div id="featured-section"></div>
79    </div>
80</main>
81
82<footer class="footer">
83    <span>&copy; 2025 <a href="../">Sean Gryb</a></span>
84</footer>
85
86<a href="#top" class="top-link" id="top-link" aria-label="go to top">
87    <svg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" viewBox="0 0 12 6" aria-hidden="true"><path d="M12 6H0l6-6z"/></svg>
88</a>
89

90<script>
91    window.onscroll = function () {
92        var link = document.getElementById('top-link');
93        if (document.documentElement.scrollTop > 100) {
94            link.classList.add('visible');
95        } else {
96            link.classList.remove('visible');
97        }
98    };
99</script>

99
100

101<script src="../js/data/publications.js"></script>

101

102<script src="../js/research.js"></script>

102
103
104<!-- Cloudflare Pages Analytics -->

104<script defer src='https://static.cloudflareinsights.com/beacon.min.js' data-cf-beacon='{"token": "

10470c5bbe2a1b94609bbf79e72e15ab9ac

104"}'></script>

104<!-- Cloudflare Pages Analytics -->

104<script>(function(){function c(){var b=a.contentDocument||(a.contentWindow&&a.contentWindow.document);if(b){var d=b.createElement('script');d.innerHTML="window.__CF$cv$params={r:'a4716b774e2a456b',t:'MTc5MTQyMzQ0MA=='};var a=document.createElement('script');a.src='/cdn-cgi/challenge-platform/scripts/jsd/main.js';document.getElementsByTagName('head')[0].appendChild(a);";b.getElementsByTagName('head')[0].appendChild(d)}}if(document.body){var a=document.createElement('iframe');a.height=1;a.width=1;a.style.position='absolute';a.style.top=0;a.style.left=0;a.style.border='none';a.style.visibility='hidden';document.body.appendChild(a);if('loading'!==document.readyState)c();else if(window.addEventListener)document.addEventListener('DOMContentLoaded',c);else{var e=document.onreadystatechange||function(){};document.onreadystatechange=function(b){e(b);'loading'!==document.readyState&&(document.onreadystatechange=e,c())}}}})();</script>

104<script type="module" src="https://static.cloudflareinsights.com/beacon.min.js/v4bc70e2c01a94c73b74392e4234840661791215815920" integrity="sha512-L0ha0OXavK/8okipN9F8BtP84dg9DUhPERbBXzwI6dgTA55d2+yweo3pn5CSFYs45/r8md2+xvUPtTdvTNRfjA==" data-cf-beacon='{"version":"2024.11.0","token":"88b0717bcfed4cfb897d389d875bb2c0","r":1,"spa":2}' crossorigin="anonymous"></script>

104
105</body>
106</html>