Research & publications

I study black hole thermodynamics with finite boundaries, focusing on pressure, volume, extensivity and response functions.

• Holographic pressure and volume for black holes

  Silvester G. A. Borsboom and Manus R. Visser

  Classical and Quantum Gravity 43, 095018 (2026)

  Published article ↗arXiv ↗

• Black hole equations of state and response functions

  Silvester G. A. Borsboom and Manus R. Visser

  Reports on Progress in Physics (2026)

  Published article ↗arXiv ↗

I work on the role of boundary conditions in classical field theories, including their state spaces and gauge symmetries.

• Global Gauge Symmetries and Spatial Asymptotic Boundary Conditions in Yang-Mills Theory

  Silvester G. A. Borsboom and Hessel B. Posthuma

  SciPost Physics 20, 185 (2026)

  Published article ↗arXiv ↗

• Boundaries in the Instantaneous Formulation of Field Theories

  Silvester G. A. Borsboom

  Preprint (2026)

  arXiv ↗

I investigate the physical meaning of gauge symmetries and symmetry breaking, with particular interest in the Higgs mechanism and boundary conditions.

• Global Gauge Symmetry Breaking in the Abelian Higgs Mechanism

  Silvester G. A. Borsboom and Sebastian De Haro

  Philosophy of Physics 4(1), 6 (2026)

  Published article ↗arXiv ↗

• Symmetry Breaking through Superselection by Boundary Conditions

  Silvester G. A. Borsboom and José P. Dupont

  Preprint (2026)

  arXiv ↗