Documento de trabajo 1

This work spins around two main vectors. One is the divergence of the
S-matrix
series expansion; the other is the spatio-temporal description of
physical processes in
the theory. Regarding the first vector, I will be presenting an
interpretation that for some
will seem a bit strange (my interpretation resembles views by Bohr
from the early
thirties of last century); also (independently of my particular
interpretation) I will
explore the consequences of having just an asymptotic series to
describe the interaction
of radiation and matter. In a nutshell I defend that having an
asymptotic series implies
that the theory is intrinsically approximate, i.e. it can only describe
the interaction of
radiation and matter in an approximate way with just a few terms of a
series expansion
and not give an exact solution corresponding to treating radiation and
matter as one
closed system.2 Here I am not simply accepting pragmatically a fact.
The use of only a
few terms of an infinite series expansion must be philosophically
made acceptable by
clarifying the concepts of radiation and matter and their interaction as
implemented in
the mathematical structure of the theory; that is, I want to provide a
‘philosophical’
justification for disregarding the large-order terms of the series
expansion (by
addressing ‘gently’ the question of the relation of the mathematical
structure to the
physical concepts this structure gives ‘flesh’ to).
Philosophically the typical justification of saying that the
computational time would
make impossible, in practice, to calculate large-order terms is not
enough; neither
saying that the possible contribution of these terms is irrelevant since
at a high-energy
new physics is coming in. This is the usual position of the believers in
string theory or
whatever theory of everything that might be ‘underneath’ the
standard model. For these,
quantum electrodynamics is just an effective field theory that works
well in a particular
energy range, being only a ‘valid’ approximation (even if just
delivering asymptotic
results) to an underlining level of description of reality. On this view
the divergence of
the S-matrix series expansion is considered unproblematic. I have no
reason to believe
in this traditional Nagel type of intertheoretical reduction. In fact the
second vector of
my work leads me to consider that quantum electrodynamics cannot
be seen as more
fundamental than classical electrodynamics, i.e. the relation of
classical and quantum
electrodynamics is not one of theory reduction but more complex.
The study of the spatio-temporal description of physical processes in
quantum
electrodynamics is the other main vector of my work. Again I present
a controversial
view. Quantum electrodynamics is not able to describe physical
processes in time in a
way similar to classical theory. In fact it relies on the classical
temporality (as time goes
by…) to construct an asymptotic temporal description, in the sense of
going from –∞ to
+∞, of physical processes (we will see for example that it is this
characteristic that
enables the charge renormalization procedure). This, in Feynman’s
words, global spacetime
approach has severe limitations in what regards the possibility of
describing such a
simple thing as a delayed interaction between charged particles, and I
do not see how
we can from the quantum electrodynamical level of description arrive
at the temporal
description of classical electrodynamics.
Here is how I delelop my views. To warm up for the discussion of the
Dirac
equation and its interpretation being given in chapter 3, I will consider
in chapter 2 the
simpler case of the Schrödinger equation and (part of) its
interpretations. In chapter 3,
2 The readers even if not agreeing with my view that quantum electrodynamics
consists in an intrinsically
perturbative approach should at least not too easily rely on so-called non-
perturbative ‘results’ and take
the time for a critical analysis of these. For example it is usually considered that the
lattice regularization
is non-perturbative because from the start the space-time lattice implies an energy-
momentum cutoff to
all orders of the perturbative calculation. However in lattice quantum
electrodynamics we still have a
divergent S-matrix, and it is this that makes the theory intrinsically approximate.
7
by trying to fit together the different interpretations of the Dirac
equation, analyzing in
particular the two-body problem, I will arrive at the well-known
description of
interactions in terms of quanta exchange. In chapter 4 I will consider
the other
cornerstone of quantum electrodynamics, the quantized
electromagnetic field, and try a
clarification of the concept (or better, notion) of quantum vacuum.
The description of
interactions in quantum electrodynamics is addressed in chapter 5.
Here I will consider
the problem of the divergence of the series expansion of the S-matrix
and the relevance
or not of the Haag theorem to the consistency of the theory. Chapter
6 is dedicated to an
excursion into the history of renormalization and to recover views by
Bohr and Dirac
that I consider to present renormalization in a ‘new’ light. In chapter 7
I analyze the
spatio-temporal description of physical processes in quantum
electrodynamics and the
status of the so-called virtual quanta (that are a crucial element in the
description of
interactions in terms of quanta exchange). Finally the results of
chapter 7 are used in
chapter 8 to defend the idea that quantum electrodynamics is an
upgrade of classical
electrodynamics and the theory of relativity (i.e. that classical
electrodynamics does not
reduces to quantum electrodynamics). In the appendix I make a
digression and present
an analysis of Bohr’s views on space and time in quantum mechanics
in relation to his
quantum postulate (this will enable to address the Bohrian
interpretation of the wave
function followed in this work).