dorsal/arxiv
View SchemaIn defence of naivete: The conceptual status of Lagrangian QFT
| Authors | David Wallace |
|---|---|
| Categories | |
| ArXiv ID | quant-ph/0112148 |
| URL | https://arxiv.org/abs/quant-ph/0112148 |
| Journal | Synthese 151:33-80,2006 |
Abstract
I analyse the conceptual and mathematical foundations of Lagrangian quantum field theory (that is, the "naive" quantum field theory used in mainstream physics, as opposed to algebraic quantum field theory). The objective is to see whether Lagrangian quantum field theory has a sufficiently firm conceptual and mathematical basis to be a legitimate object of foundational study, or whether it is too ill-defined. The analysis covers renormalisation and infinities, inequivalent representations, and the concept of localised states; the conclusion is that Lagrangian QFT (at least as described here) is a perfectly respectable physical theory, albeit somewhat different in certain respects from most of those studied in foundational work.
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"abstract": "I analyse the conceptual and mathematical foundations of Lagrangian quantum\nfield theory (that is, the \"naive\" quantum field theory used in mainstream\nphysics, as opposed to algebraic quantum field theory). The objective is to see\nwhether Lagrangian quantum field theory has a sufficiently firm conceptual and\nmathematical basis to be a legitimate object of foundational study, or whether\nit is too ill-defined. The analysis covers renormalisation and infinities,\ninequivalent representations, and the concept of localised states; the\nconclusion is that Lagrangian QFT (at least as described here) is a perfectly\nrespectable physical theory, albeit somewhat different in certain respects from\nmost of those studied in foundational work.",
"arxiv_id": "quant-ph/0112148",
"authors": [
"David Wallace"
],
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"quant-ph"
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"journal_ref": "Synthese 151:33-80,2006",
"title": "In defence of naivete: The conceptual status of Lagrangian QFT",
"url": "https://arxiv.org/abs/quant-ph/0112148"
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