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The Conventionality of Parastatistics

Baker, David John and Halvorson, Hans and Swanson, Noel (2013) The Conventionality of Parastatistics. In: UNSPECIFIED.

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Abstract

Nature seems to be such that we can describe it accurately with quantum theories of bosons and fermions alone, without resort to parastatistics. This has been seen as a deep mystery: paraparticles make perfect physical sense, so why don't we see them in nature? We consider one potential answer: every paraparticle theory is physically equivalent to some theory of bosons or fermions, making the absence of paraparticles in our theories a matter of convention rather than a mysterious empirical discovery. We argue that this equivalence thesis holds in all physically admissible quantum field theories falling under the domain of the rigorous Doplicher-Haag-Roberts approach to superselection rules. Inadmissible parastatistical theories are ruled out by a locality-inspired principle we call Charge Recombination.


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Item Type: Conference or Workshop Item (UNSPECIFIED)
Creators:
CreatorsEmailORCID
Baker, David Johndjbaker@umich.edu
Halvorson, Hanshhalvors@princeton.edu
Swanson, Noelnwswanso@princeton.edu
Keywords: quantum field theory, symmetry, conventionalism, particle physics
Subjects: General Issues > Conventionalism
Specific Sciences > Physics > Fields and Particles
Specific Sciences > Physics > Quantum Field Theory
Specific Sciences > Physics > Quantum Mechanics
Specific Sciences > Physics > Symmetries/Invariances
Depositing User: Hans Halvorson
Date Deposited: 29 May 2014 14:14
Last Modified: 29 May 2014 14:14
Item ID: 10697
Subjects: General Issues > Conventionalism
Specific Sciences > Physics > Fields and Particles
Specific Sciences > Physics > Quantum Field Theory
Specific Sciences > Physics > Quantum Mechanics
Specific Sciences > Physics > Symmetries/Invariances
Date: February 2013
URI: https://philsci-archive.pitt.edu/id/eprint/10697

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