Talk by Michael Stoeltzner at MCMP (Wed. 17. July)

[Dardashti, Radin]

Speaker: Michael Stoeltzner (South Carolina)
Wednesday 17th July 2013
Ludwigstr.31 Room E021
Time: 6 to 8 pm

Title: Feynman Diagrams as Models

Abstract:
While Feynman considered his diagrams as pictorial representation of 
(real and virtual) physical processes, Dyson took then as a mere 
bookkeeping tool for mathematical expressions in a perturbation series. 
This split perspective has persisted since, especially when Feynman 
diagrams gradually extended their sway into modern particle physics. I 
argue that the modern debates on models in science can build a bridge 
between both perspectives by granting Feynman diagrams some explanatory 
autonomy and representative features. While a single Feynman diagram 
remains isomorph to a mathematical expression, it also represents a 
family of diagrams that model a measurable physical effect.