A Persistent Particle Ontology for Quantum Field Theory in Terms of the Dirac Sea

Deckert, Dirk-Andre; Esfeld, Michael und Oldofredi, Andrea (2019): A Persistent Particle Ontology for Quantum Field Theory in Terms of the Dirac Sea. In: British Journal for the Philosophy of Science, Vol. 70, No. 3: pp. 747-770

Abstract

We show that the Bohmian approach in terms of persisting particles that move on continuous trajectories following a deterministic law can be literally applied to quantum field theory. By means of the Dirac sea model-exemplified in the electron sector of the standard model neglecting radiation-we explain how starting from persisting particles, one is led to standard QFT employing creation and annihilation operators when tracking the dynamics with respect to a reference state, the so-called vacuum. Since on the level of wave functions, both formalisms are mathematically equivalent, this proposal provides for an ontology of QFT that includes a dynamics of individual processes, solves the measurement problem, and explains the appearance of creation and annihilation events.

• Item Type: Journal article
• Faculties: Mathematics, Computer Science and Statistics > Mathematics
• Subjects: 500 Science > 510 Mathematics
• ISSN: 0007-0882
• Language: English