I continue with my introduction to quantum field theory. Building on my previous post, I look at how to symbolically manipulate operators representing the creation and annihilation of particles.

Once again, this post will be rather technical. I go through the details to illustrate the process of reasoning by which we go from the axioms to the conclusions, and convince the readers that we are not taking any short-cuts in the reasoning. I will summarise what all this means in a later post.

In previous posts, I have discussed some of the axioms of quantum field theory. Now, I begin to turn to how we can apply those axioms to answer real-world problems.

I continue my introduction to QFT by discussing some of the notation used to represent states (potentia) and creation, annihilation and change (actualisation of a potentia). I will then use this in subsequent posts to start showing how we can compute things.

This is all a bit dull, but it is dull in an exciting way. When building a new Castle, people want to see the turrets, gates and great halls. The foundations don't carry the same interest. But if you don't get the foundations right, you won't get any of the exciting bits either. So I just have to ask you to slog through this in anticipation of what is to come.

I comment on what I consider to be one of the worst sermons I have heard. The question is, what makes a successful Church? What makes a successful Bishop? What does it mean for something to be successful anyway? And by this measure, how many of our current Bishops are successful?

Continuing my introduction to the principles behind contemporary physics, I turn my attention to the next topic. So far I have stated that, to account for the observed interference effects, a physical theory must parametrise uncertainty using amplitudes rather than probability. From observations that the same circumstances don't always lead to the same effect, I have concluded that fundamental physics must be indeterminate rather than determinate. From numerous observation in modern particle accelerators, I have suggested that the premise of mechanism that the fundamental components of matter are indestructible must be false. From considerations about the nature of change, we see that matter must be able to exist in various states, with (to simplify a bit) in a given basis one of these states existing actually and the others existing potentially, with change being the actualisation of a potential state. There is still causality, but it is of a different type of causality to most of those considered: an efficient causality linking one substance with another, and a final causality (in part) listing the possible effects or decay channels of a particle.

However, we still are left with a large number of possible theories of physics. To narrow them down, I now outline the next major premise needed to construct a workable theory of physics. This is possibly the most important advance of twentieth century theoretical physics: a realisation of the fundamental importance of symmetry in physics.

There are mistakes which only fools make, and mistakes which only those with an academic education can make.

There is a common belief that modern science arose as a result of the Renaissance and the move away from medieval beliefs. It is also stated that the church has always been in conflict with science. But are these beliefs true?

I now turn my attention to another plank of the mechanical world view, that the world is deterministic. I discuss what the term means, and what it doesn't mean, and what indeterminism does and doesn't imply.

I discuss what is possibly the most famous equation in physics, and some of its consequences.

One of the big philosophical problems in quantum mechanics is the measurement problem. Measurement plays a key role in QM. The simplest interpretation of QM is that there is a wavefunction which describes the likelihood that observers will measure a particle to be in a particular state. This wavefunction has two different modes of evolution in time. The first is a deterministic and smooth evolution, governed by some differential equation (perhaps the Schroedinger equation or Dirac equation). This happens when nobody is looking at the particle. But when somebody looks at the particle, the wavefunction suddenly and indeterminately jumps into one state or another. There are numerous problems associated with this: Why does the observer play such a key role? How do we define measurement? Under what circumstances does the wavefunction collapse? Why is one part of the evolution deterministic and the other indeterminate? And so on. Clearly, something is either wrong with the theory or with the way we are thinking about the theory.

In this post, I take a look at the measurement problem, and whether identifying quantum mechanical states with Aristotelian potentia can help resolve it.

I continue my discussion of the quantum theory of uncertainty. Having outlined the axioms of classical theory of uncertainty (probability), I describe which of them don't apply in the real world, and what they should be replaced by.