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Constraining the Higgs Mechanism: Ontological Worries and the Prospects for an Algebraic Cure

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2022

Michael Stöltzner
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Abstract

I discuss Earman's program to achieve an objective account of the Higgs mechanism within the C∗ algebraic approach to quantum field theory. Pointing to three results obtained within this approach, I argue that if one follows Earman and understands the Higgs mechanism as a constraint, it appears to be a genuine quantum phenomenon that does not simply arise through the correspondence principle. This casts further this casts doubts on the validity of the Dirac conjecture that identifies first-class constraints and gauge transformations and that provides a major motivation for both Earman's program and Struyve's demonstration that a gauge-invariant account of the Higgs mechanism can be accomplished at the classical level.

Type
Physics
Information
Philosophy of Science , Volume 79 , Issue 5 , December 2012 , pp. 930 - 941
Copyright
Copyright © The Philosophy of Science Association

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Footnotes

†

This article has profited from numerous discussions within the interdisciplinary research group “The Epistemology of the Large Hadron Collider” that is supported by the DFG (German Research Foundation; see http://www.lhc-epistemologie.uni-wuppertal.de/).

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