Hostname: page-component-7479d7b7d-68ccn Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-07-10T02:33:10.395Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Prolegomenon to a Proper Interpretation of Quantum Field Theory

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 April 2022

Paul Teller
Paul Teller*
Affiliation:
Department of Philosophy, University of California at Davis
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

This paper digests technical commonplaces of quantum field theory to present an informal interpretation of the theory by emphasizing its connections with the harmonic oscillator. The resulting “harmonic oscillator interpretation” enables newcomers to the subject to get some intuitive feel for the theory. The interpretation clarifies how the theory relates to observation and to quantum mechanical problems connected with observation. Finally the interpretation moves some way towards helping us see what the theory comes to physically.

The paper also argues that, in important respects, interpretive problems of quantum field theory are problems we know well from conventional quantum mechanics. An important exception concerns extending the puzzles surrounding the superposition of properties in conventional quantum mechanics to an exactly parallel notion of superposition of particles. Conventional quantum mechanics seems incompatible with a classical notion of property on which all quantities always have definite values. Quantum field theory presents an exactly analogous problem with saying that the number of “particles” is always definite.

Type
Research Article
Information
Philosophy of Science , Volume 57 , Issue 4 , December 1990 , pp. 594 - 618
Copyright
Copyright © 1990 by the Philosophy of Science Association

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Footnotes

†

Whatever I have managed to accomplish in this paper, I owe much to the help of Michael Redhead and Gordon Fleming, as well as many others. This research was supported by NSF Grant #SES-8217092.

References

Arenst, A. B., and Peppard, M. B. (1965), “Einstein's Proposal of the Photon Concept: A Translation of the Annalen der Physik Paper of 1905”, American Journal of Physics 33: 367–374.Google Scholar
Feynman, R. P. (1985), QED: The Strange Theory of Light and Matter. Princeton: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Fetter, A. L., and Walecka, J. D. (1971), Quantum Theory of Many Particle Systems. New York: McGraw Hill.Google Scholar
Hegerfeldt, G. C. (1985), “Violation of Causality in Relativistic Quantum Theory”, Physical Review Letters 54: 2395–2398.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Klein, M. J. (1962), “Max Planck and the Beginning of the Quantum Theory”, Archive for History of Exact Science 1: 459–479.10.1007/BF00327765CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kuhn, T. S. (1978), Black Body Theory and the Quantum Discontinuity: 1894–1912. Oxford: Clarendon Press.Google Scholar
Pagels, H. R. (1982), The Cosmic Code: Quantum Physics as the Language of Nature. New York: Simon and Schuster.Google Scholar
Pais, A. (1979), “Einstein and the Quantum Theory”, Reviews of Modern Physics 51: 863–912.10.1103/RevModPhys.51.863CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Redhead, M. L. G. (1988), “A Philosopher Looks at Quantum Field Theory”, in H. Brown and R. Harré (eds.), Philosophical Foundations of Quantum Field Theory. Oxford: Clarendon Press.Google Scholar
Teller, P. (1988), “Three Problems of Renormalization”, in H. Brown and R. Harré (eds.), Philosophical Foundations of Quantum Field Theory. Oxford: Clarendon Press.Google Scholar
Teller, P. (1989), “Infinite Renormalization”, Philosophy of Science 56: 238–257.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Teller, P. (to appear), “How to Have an Honest Vacuum”.Google Scholar
Weingard, R. (1982), “Do Virtual Particles Exist?” in P. D. Asquith and T. Nickles (eds.), PSA 1982, vol. 1. East Lansing, Michigan: Philosophy of Science Association, pp. 235–242.Google Scholar
Wigner, E. P. (1950), “Do the Equations of Motion Determine the Quantum Mechanical Commutation Relations?” Physical Review 77: 711–712.CrossRefGoogle Scholar