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.