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Space and Time 1908-2026

The Eight International Conference on the Nature and Ontology of Spacetime will continue to pursue the main goal of the biennial spacetime conferences - to provide the opportunity for colleagues from around the world to meet and present their spacetime-related research results as well as to discuss the deepest open questions in spacetime physics and their implications for fundamental physics, philosophy and our views of the world. The Scientific Organizing Committee invites papers from physicists, mathematicians, philosophers of physics and philosophers on any topic related to the nature and ontology of spacetime.

In addition to talks, special discussion time (after 16:00 in the afternoon) is included in the program to stimulate more informal discussions among the participants. For this reason we encourage interested colleagues to attend the conference even if they do not plan to give a talk.

There will be a special session at the eight spacetime conference on: What is the quantum object (the electron, for example) in spacetime? Also, a number of sessions have been suggested by colleagues: Nature of time - Flow of time; Becoming What does the concept of spacetime represent - a real (physical) four-dimensional world (as Minkowski advocated) or merely a mathematical manifold? The controversy over Relativistic Mass Open Questions in Spacetime Physics Spacetime and Free Will Is there a real conflict between relativity and quantum mechanics? Quantum Gravity: Where do we stand? Please let us know at 2026conference@minkowskiinstitute.com if you are interested in participating in some of these sessions. Or suggest another special session. Depending on the number of colleagues participating in a special session, we plan to publish a volume with the talks presented at the session, which will include constructive criticism and the replies of the authors.

Extended abstracts of between one and two pages should be emailed to 2026conference@minkowskiinstitute.com by June 1, 2026. Submissions will be reviewed and notification of acceptance will be sent by June 15, 2026.

A volume with selected talks will be published (the papers will be peer-reviewed).

Students may be offered a registration discount if financially possible. Graduate students interested in attending but concerned about cost should submit an abstract and will be contacted before the registration deadline if a discount is possible.