Wallace, David (2001) In defence of naivete: The conceptual status of Lagrangian quantum field theory. [Preprint]

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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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Item Type:	Preprint
Creators:	Creators Email ORCID Wallace, David
Keywords:	Quantum field theory QFT Relativistic quantum mechanics
Subjects:	Specific Sciences > Physics > Quantum Field Theory General Issues > Theory Change
Depositing User:	Professor David Wallace
Date Deposited:	22 Dec 2001
Last Modified:	22 Apr 2021 15:43
Item ID:	519
Subjects:	Specific Sciences > Physics > Quantum Field Theory General Issues > Theory Change
Date:	December 2001
URI:	https://philsci-archive.pitt.edu/id/eprint/519

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