Talk by Mike Miller at MCMP (Thu. Nov. 12)

[Dardashti, Radin]

Speaker: Michael Miller (Pittsburgh)
Date: Thu., Nov 12
Location: Ludwigstr. 31, ground floor, room 021
Time: 12:15 -⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ 13:45

Title: Mathematical Structure and the Meaning of “Quantum Field”

Abstract:
Standard approaches to the interpretation of physical theories require a 
structurally unambiguous characterization of the models of a theory.  In 
this talk I argue that the nature of the empirical support for one of 
our best empirically confirmed theories does not warrant commitment to 
one particular type of structure as constitutive of the theory. Rather, 
empirically adequate models rely on a syntax that is compatible with a 
precisely delimited, but heterogeneous, class of structures. I develop 
an approach to semantics for physical theories that accommodates this 
type of constrained structural ambiguity. This approach allows for an 
understanding of how physical meaning attaches to empirically adequate 
models of quantum field theory, a desideratum which has not been 
achieved by standard approaches to semantics for physical theories. 
Moreover, the approach leads to novel criteria for determining when 
there is good reason to conclude that elements of the mathematical 
formalism for a theory have correlates in the physical world.