Feraz Azhar

I work primarily at the intersection of philosophy and science, with a particular focus on issues that arise in physics. Most recently I have worked on questions of probability in primordial cosmology and on philosophical aspects of black hole physics. Prior to my appointment at Notre Dame I was a postdoctoral research fellow at the Black Hole Initiative at Harvard University. I hold a PhD in philosophy from the University of Cambridge and a PhD in theoretical physics from the University of California at Santa Barbara.

Representative Publications

* Denotes the author list is alphabetical

Flows into de Sitter space from anisotropic initial conditions: An effective field theory approach
Feraz Azhar & David I. Kaiser
Physical Review D 107, 043506, (2023)
Preprint: https://arxiv.org/abs/2207.08355

A Bayesian view on the Dr. Evil scenario
Feraz Azhar, Alan H. Guth & Mohammad Hossein Namjoo*
Erkenntnis (2022). Online: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10670-022-00536-8
Preprint: http://philsci-archive.pitt.edu/21606

Finely tuned models sacrifice explanatory depth
Feraz Azhar & Abraham Loeb
Foundations of Physics 51, 91, (2021)
Preprint: http://philsci-archive.pitt.edu/18526/

Effective field theories as a novel probe of fine-tuning of cosmic inflation
Feraz Azhar
Studies in History and Philosophy of Modern Physics 71, 87–100, (2020)
Preprint: http://philsci-archive.pitt.edu/16636/

Gauging fine-tuning
Feraz Azhar & Abraham Loeb
Physical Review D 98, 103018, (2018)
Preprint: http://philsci-archive.pitt.edu/15036

Flows into inflation: An effective field theory approach
Feraz Azhar & David I. Kaiser
Physical Review D 98, 063515, (2018)
Preprint: http://philsci-archive.pitt.edu/15158

Scientific realism and primordial cosmology
Feraz Azhar & Jeremy Butterfield
In: The Routledge Handbook on Scientific Realism,  ed. J. Saatsi. London: Routledge, pp. 304–320, (2018)
Extended preprint: http://philsci-archive.pitt.edu/12192