Article ID: CBB128626103

The causal axioms of algebraic quantum field theory: A diagnostic (2024)

unapi

Algebraic quantum field theory (AQFT) puts forward three “causal axioms” that aim to characterize the theory as one that implements relativistic causation: the spectrum condition, microcausality, and primitive causality. In this paper, I aim to show, in a minimally technical way, that none of them fully explains the notion of causation appropriate for AQFT because they only capture some of the desiderata for relativistic causation I state or because it is often unclear how each axiom implements its respective desideratum. After this diagnostic, I will show that a fourth condition, local primitive causality (LPC), fully characterizes relativistic causation in the sense of fulfilling all the relevant desiderata. However, it only encompasses the virtues of the other axioms because it is implied by them, as I will show from a construction by Haag and Schroer (1962). Since the conjunction of the three causal axioms implies LPC and other important results in QFT that LPC does not imply, and since LPC helps clarify some of the shortcomings of the three axioms, I advocate for a holistic interpretation of how the axioms characterize the causal structure of AQFT against the strategy in the literature to rivalize the axioms and privilege one among them.

...More
Citation URI
https://data.isiscb.org/isis/citation/CBB128626103/

Similar Citations

Book Groff, Ruth; (2004)
Critical Realism, Post-Positivism, and the Possibility of Knowledge (/isis/citation/CBB000401064/)

Article Frank Cabrera; (2020)
Evidence and Explanation in Cicero's On Divination (/isis/citation/CBB028919561/)

Article Philippe Stamenkovic; (2017)
Retour sur la philosophie de la physique quantique d’Ernst Cassirer (/isis/citation/CBB115699306/)

Article Horst, Steven; (2014)
Miracles and Two Accounts of Scientific Laws (/isis/citation/CBB001201356/)

Article Cuffaro, Michael; (2010)
The Kantian Framework of Complementarity (/isis/citation/CBB001024225/)

Article Kunihisa Morita; (2016)
Einstein's Criticism of Quantum Mechanics and Humean Philosophy (/isis/citation/CBB195434031/)

Article Healey, Richard A.; (2015)
How Quantum Theory Helps Us Explain (/isis/citation/CBB001202330/)

Book Lange, Marc; (2002)
An Introduction to the Philosophy of Physics: Locality, Fields, Energy, and Mass (/isis/citation/CBB000201447/)

Article Regt, Henk W. de; (2014)
Visualization as a Tool for Understanding (/isis/citation/CBB001421046/)

Chapter Salvo D'Agostino; (2009)
Einstein: la scienza come autocritica (/isis/citation/CBB537435671/)

Book Tavel, Morton; (2002)
Contemporary Physics and the Limits of Knowledge (/isis/citation/CBB000201565/)

Article Timotheus Riedel; (2024)
Relational Quantum Mechanics, quantum relativism, and the iteration of relativity (/isis/citation/CBB529614625/)

Book Jörg Resag; (2018)
Feynman and His Physics: The Life and Science of an Extraordinary Man (/isis/citation/CBB704145003/)

Article James D. Fraser; Kasia Rejzner; (2024)
Perturbative expansions and the foundations of quantum field theory (/isis/citation/CBB390699102/)

Article Blai Pié i Valls; Enric Pérez; (2016)
The Historical Role of the Adiabatic Principle in Bohr's Quantum Theory (/isis/citation/CBB403893431/)

Article Walter Dittrich; (2015)
The Cofounder of Quantum Field Theory: Pascual Jordan (/isis/citation/CBB848309691/)

Article Helge Kragh; (2015)
Pascual Jordan, Varying Gravity, and the Expanding Earth (/isis/citation/CBB080115210/)

Article Mike D. Schneider; (2022)
Betting on Future Physics (/isis/citation/CBB517395815/)

Chapter Mehdi Golshani; (2011)
Quantum Theory, Causality, and Islamic Thought (/isis/citation/CBB902050798/)

Authors & Contributors
Cuffaro, Michael
Golshani, Mehdi
Groff, Ruth
Horst, Steven
Kragh, Helge S.
Lange, Marc
Journals
British Journal for the Philosophy of Science
European Physical Journal H
Revue d'Histoire des Sciences
Studies in History and Philosophy of Science
Annalen der Physik
Historia Scientiarum: International Journal of the History of Science Society of Japan
Publishers
Blackwell Publishers
Guaraldi
Routledge
Rutgers University Press
Springer
Concepts
Quantum mechanics
Philosophy of science
Causality
Physics
Theories of knowledge
Quantum field theory
People
Bohr, Niels Henrik David
Einstein, Albert
Hume, David
Cassirer, Ernst
Cicero, Marcus Tullius
Dirac, Paul Adrien Maurice
Time Periods
20th century
20th century, early
Ancient
Places
Rome (Italy)
France
Comments

Be the first to comment!

{{ comment.created_by.username }} on {{ comment.created_on | date:'medium' }}

Log in or register to comment