Philosophical Aspects of Quantum Field Theory: I

Ruetsche, Laura

doi:10.1111/j.1747-9991.2011.00388.x

Philosophy Compass

2012

DOI: 10.1111/j.1747-9991.2011.00388.x

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Philosophical Aspects of Quantum Field Theory: I

Laura Ruetsche

Abstract: This is the first of a two‐part introduction to some interpretive questions that arise in connection with quantum field theories (QFTs). Some of these questions are continuous with those familiar from the discussion of ordinary non‐relativistic quantum mechanics (QM). For example, questions about locality can be rigorously posed and fruitfully pursued within the framework of QFT. A stark disanalogy between QFTs and ordinary QM – the former, but not the latter, typically admit infinitely many putatively physica… Show more

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Cited by 5 publications

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“…(Baker [2016]) and(Ruetsche [2012a(Ruetsche [ ], [2012b) are reviews of the philosophy of QFT that put this issue front and centre.…”

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confidence: 99%

Infinite Scale Skepticism: Probing the Epistemology of the Limit of Infinite Degrees of Freedom and Hilbert Space Non-Uniqueness

Fraser

2023

The British Journal for the Philosophy of Science

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There has been much debate about how the semantic content of quantum theories with infinitely many degrees of freedom ought to be understood. This paper focuses instead on the epistemological status of the limit of infinite degrees of freedom. Do we have strong grounds to believe that the actual world is an infinite quantum system? I consider two types of argument for thinking that we do: indispensability arguments, which appeal to the role that unitarily inequivalent Hilbert space representations play in accounting for physical phenomena like spontaneous symmetry breaking, and what I call extrapolation arguments, which support the physical significance of the limit of infinite degrees of freedom by pointing to infinite volume cosmological models. Neither of these strategies turn out to be conclusive as they stand leaving the relevance of novel features of infinite quantum systems to real-world physics murky. I go on to discuss ways of motivating foundational work on infinite quantum systems which do not turn on the representational veracity of these features, and point out that when it comes to the question of the epistemological status of unitarily inequivalent Hilbert space representations other sources of non-uniqueness than the limit of infinite degrees of freedom must also be considered.

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“…(Baker [2016]) and(Ruetsche [2012a(Ruetsche [ ], [2012b) are reviews of the philosophy of QFT that put this issue front and centre.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Infinite Scale Skepticism: Probing the Epistemology of the Limit of Infinite Degrees of Freedom and Hilbert Space Non-Uniqueness

Fraser

2023

The British Journal for the Philosophy of Science

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Entanglement as the world-making relation: distance from entanglement

Jaksland

2020

Synthese

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Distance, it is often argued, is the only coherent and empirically adequate worldmaking relation that can glue together the elements of the world. This paper offers entanglement as an alternative world-making relation. Entanglement is interesting since it is consistent even with quantum gravity theories that do not feature space at the fundamental level. The paper thereby defends the metaphysical salience of such non-spatial theories. An account of distance (space) is the predominant problem of empirical adequacy facing entanglement as a world-making relation. A resolution of this obstacle utilizes insights from the Ryu-Takayanagi formula (a holographic relation between entanglement and spacetime) and Susskind and Maldacena's related ER = EPR conjecture (a relation between bell pairs and wormholes). Together these indicate how distance can be recovered from entanglement and thus carves the way for entanglement fundamentalism.

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Particles, fields, and the ontology of the standard model

Benitez

2023

Synthese

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In this work we discuss issues of ontological commitment towards one of the most important examples of contemporary fundamental science: the standard model of particle physics. We present a new form of selective structural realism, which uses as its basis the distinction between what have been called framework and interaction theories. This allows us to advance the ongoing debate about the ontological status of (quasi-)particles and quantum fields, by emphasising the distinction between quantum field theory serving as a framework, and the standard model itself, which we argue is an interaction theory embedded within this framework. Following a discussion of what ontological commitments corresponds to each of these two classes, we argue that some of the previous proposals in the literature might have been misguided by the blending of quantum field theory and the standard model into an undifferentiated unity, and defend a moderate form of object realism with respect to particle-like entities.

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Philosophical Aspects of Quantum Field Theory: I

Cited by 5 publications

References 17 publications

Infinite Scale Skepticism: Probing the Epistemology of the Limit of Infinite Degrees of Freedom and Hilbert Space Non-Uniqueness

Infinite Scale Skepticism: Probing the Epistemology of the Limit of Infinite Degrees of Freedom and Hilbert Space Non-Uniqueness

Entanglement as the world-making relation: distance from entanglement

Particles, fields, and the ontology of the standard model

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