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Interpreting Quantum Field Theory

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2022

Laura Ruetsche
Laura Ruetsche*
Affiliation:
Department of Philosophy, University of Pittsburgh
*
Send requests for reprints to the author, Department of Philosophy, 1001 Cathedral of Learning, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA 15260; ruetsche@pitt.edu.
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Abstract

The availability of unitarily inequivalent representations of the canonical commutation relations constituting a quantization of a classical field theory raises questions about how to formulate and pursue quantum field theory. In a minimally technical way, I explain how these questions arise and how advocates of the Hilbert space and of the algebraic approaches to quantum theory might answer them. Where these answers differ, I sketch considerations for and against each approach, as well as considerations which might temper their apparent rivalry.

Type
Research Article
Information
Philosophy of Science , Volume 69 , Issue 2 , June 2002 , pp. 348 - 378
Copyright
Copyright © The Philosophy of Science Association

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Footnotes

‡

Thanks to those who have commented on earlier versions of this essay, particularly Gordon Belot, Rob Clifton, and John Earman.

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