Related papers: Reduction, Emergence and Renormalization
We have two aims. The main one is to expound the idea of renormalization in quantum field theory, with no technical prerequisites (Sections 2 and 3). Our motivation is that renormalization is undoubtedly one of the great ideas, and great…
We aim here to show that reductionism and emergence play a complementary role in understanding natural processes and in the dynamics of science explanation. In particular, we will show that the renormalization group - one of the most…
This is one of two papers about emergence, reduction and supervenience. It expounds these notions and analyses the general relations between them. The companion paper analyses the situation in physics, especially limiting relations between…
In another paper (Butterfield 2011), one of us argued that emergence and reduction are compatible, and presented four examples illustrating both. The main purpose of this paper is to develop this position for the example of phase…
This is a companion to another paper. Together they rebut two widespread philosophical doctrines about emergence. The first, and main, doctrine is that emergence is incompatible with reduction. The second is that emergence is supervenience;…
"Preprint" of paper from 1989 that wasn't arxiv'ed at the time. Abstract: Our understanding of quantum field theories, and, in particular, of renomalization has changed radically in recent years; renormalization is no longer a deeply…
As applied to quantum theories, the program of renormalization is successful for `renormalizable models' but fails for `nonrenormalizable models'. After some conceptual discussion and analysis, an enhanced program of renormalization is…
This article discusses the relationship between emergence and reductionism from the perspective of a condensed matter physicist. Reductionism and emergence play an intertwined role in the everyday life of the physicist, yet we rarely stop…
A simple introduction of renormalization in quantum field theory is discussed. Explanation of concepts is emphasized instead of the technical details.
The renormalization method is specifically aimed at connecting theories describing physical processes at different length scales and thereby connecting different theories in the physical sciences. The renormalization method used today is…
In this paper I argue that infinities in the classical computation theory such as the unsolvability of the Halting Problem can be addressed in the same way as Feynman divergences in Quantum Field Theory, and that meaningful versions of…
Renormalization began as a tool to eliminate divergences in quantum electrodynamics but it is now the basis of our understanding of physics at different energy scales. I review its evolution with an eye towards physics beyond the Wilsonian…
In this paper, we study renormalization, that is, the procedure for eliminating singularities, for a special model using both combinatorial techniques in the framework of working with formal series, and using a limit transition in a…
These lectures illustrate the key ideas of modern renormalization theory and effective field theories in the context of simple nonrelativistic quantum mechanics and the Schr\"odinger equation. They also discuss problems in QED, QCD and…
The problem of reduction (wave packet reduction) is reexamined under two simple conditions: Reduction is a last step completing decoherence. It acts in commonplace circumstances and should be therefore compatible with the mathematical frame…
The relationship that is widely presumed to hold between physical theories and their successors, in which the successors in some sense explain the success of the theories they replace, is known commonly as 'reduction.' I argue that one…
A regularization renormalization method ($RRM$) in quantum field theory ($QFT$) is discussed with simple rules: Once a divergent integral $I$ is encountered, we first take its derivative with respect to some mass parameter enough times,…
The concept of emergence is critically analyzed in particular with respect to the assumed emergence of mental properties from a neuronal basis. We argue that so-called contextual emergence is needed to avoid an eliminatory reductionism.…
In this report we tell the story of the notion "reduction of couplings" as we witnessed it in the course of time. Born as an innocent child of renormalization theory it first served the study of asymptotic behavior of several couplings in a…
I review the theory of renormalization, as applied to weak-coupling perturbation theory in quantum field theories.