Emergence as Novel Explanation: Statistical Mechanics vs. Quantum Field Theory

          @misc{ pirsa_PIRSA:10100097,
            doi = {10.48660/10100097},
            url = {https://pirsa.org/10100097},
            author = {Fraser, Doreen},
            keywords = {},
            language = {en},
            title = {Emergence as Novel Explanation: Statistical Mechanics vs. Quantum Field Theory},
            publisher = {Perimeter Institute},
            year = {2011},
            month = {oct},
            note = {PIRSA:10100097 see, \url{https://pirsa.org}}
          }
          

Abstract

In the philosophical literature, effective field theories have been regarded as emergent in the sense of furnishing novel explanations. In particular, Batterman has argued that effective field theories in statistical mechanics are emergent in this sense. I will argue that effective field theories in quantum field theory do not furnish analogous novel explanations. There are relevant disanalogies between statistical mechanics and quantum field theory with regard to the roles played by idealizations and the explanatory goals of the application of renormalization group methods. Contrasting the statistical mechanics and quantum field theory cases highlights the role that the physical interpretation of the formalism and the goals of theorizing play in determining whether a particular effective theory counts as emergent.