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Quantum Field Theory: Views
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Many physicists prefer to take the converse interpretation, which is that quantum field theory explains what identical particles are. In ordinary quantum mechanics, there is not much theoretical motivation for using symmetric (bosonic) or antisymmetric (fermionic) states, and the need for such states is simply regarded as an empirical fact. From the point of view of quantum field theory, particles are identical if and only if they are excitations of the same underlying quantum field. Thus, the question "why are all electrons identical?" arises from mistakenly regarding individual electrons as fundamental objects, when in fact it is only the electron field that is fundamental.
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On first sight it might be surprising that the discussion on the conceptual foundations of the quantum domain has always been primarily concerned with QM and not with QFT. After all QFT is, in a certain sense, more comprehensive than QM and in particular relativistically invariant in contrast to QM. There have been at least two reasons for neglecting QFT in favour of QM regarding conceptual reflections. First, for a long time the attitude was dominating that the decisive philosophical problems, in particular the measurement problem, show up in QM already so that a conceptual analysis of QFT appeared not to be necessary. It even seemed that looking at QFT would only blur the view on the central features since QFT is much more complex and mathematically advanced than standard QM. A second reason for neglecting QFT was the fact that QFT has not yet reached the status of a consistent and complete theory.
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The late Sidney Coleman taught the quantum field theory course at Harvard for many years, influencing a generation of physicists in the way they view and teach QFT. Below you can find the pdf files of handwritten lecture notes for Coleman's course (transcribed by Brian Hill). The notes come in two large files, each around 6.5 Mb.
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This monograph makes the concepts of quantum field theory accessible to philosophers. The aim of the author is to raise questions about the philosophical implications of the theory and to offer his own interpretive views. Readers must be familiar with non-relativistic quantum mechanics.
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[F]rom a methodological point of view QFT is much more a set of formal strategies and mathematical tools than a closed theory. Its development was accompanied by problems provoked by the application of badly defined mathematics. Nevertheless, empirically such pragmatic approaches have been far more successful so far than more rigorous formulations. How could such a theory work for more than 70 years? Since mathematical reasoning dominated the heuristics of QFT, its interpretation is open in most areas which go beyond the immediate empirical predictions. Philosophical analysis might help to clarify its semantics.
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