What is the point of so‐called “axiomatic field theory”?

SEP 01, 1969

This method is incapable at present of calculating cross sections and is often thought to be obsessively mathematical. Neverthless it offers a conceptual clarity indispensible for understanding the quantum mechanics of systems with an infinite number of degrees of freedom.

DOI: 10.1063/1.3035782

Arthur S. Wightman

QUANTUM FIELD THEORY is well described by an adjective that Robert Oppenheimer once applied to the Fermi theory of beta decay; it is robust. It has had its ups and downs, but it somehow seems to survive all vicissitudes and continues to provide the best available language for the description of elementary‐particle phenomena. Here I shall try to describe the origins and some of the achievements and objectives of the particular brand of field theory customarily referred to as “axiomatic.” I will thereby try to answer the question posed by the title.

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More about the Authors

Arthur S. Wightman. Princeton University.