Two notions of naturalness

DOI10.1007/S10701-018-0229-1zbMATH Open1437.81011OpenAlexW3100261346MaRDI QIDQ2286554FDOQ2286554

Authors Porter Williams

Publication date 22 January 2020

Published in Foundations of Physics (Search for Journal in Brave)

Full work available at URL https://arxiv.org/abs/1812.08975

zbMATH Keywords

multiverseeffective field theorynaturalnessbeyond the standard model

Mathematics Subject Classification ID

General and philosophical questions in quantum theory (81P05) Unified quantum theories (81V22) Effective quantum field theories (81T12)

Abstract: My aim in this paper is twofold: (i) to distinguish two notions of naturalness employed in BSM physics and (ii) to argue that recognizing this distinction has methodological consequences. One notion of naturalness is an "autonomy of scales" requirement: it prohibits sensitive dependence of an effective field theory's low-energy observables on precise specification of the theory's description of cutoff-scale physics. I will argue that considerations from the general structure of effective field theory provide justification for the role this notion of naturalness has played in BSM model construction. A second, distinct notion construes naturalness as a statistical principle requiring that the values of the parameters in an effective field theory be "likely" given some appropriately chosen measure on some appropriately circumscribed space of models. I argue that these two notions are historically and conceptually related but are motivated by distinct theoretical considerations and admit of distinct kinds of solution.

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Cited in

(10)

• Dogmas of effective field theory: scheme dependence, fundamental parameters, and the many faces of the Higgs naturalness principle
• Naturalness, the autonomy of scales, and the 125 GeV Higgs
• Too naturalist and not naturalist enough: Reply to Horsten
• The practice of naturalness: a historical-philosophical perspective
• The `natural' and the `formal'
• Which fine-tuning arguments are fine?
• Naturalness, extra-empirical theory assessments, and the implications of skepticism
• QCD and natural philosophy
• Finely tuned models sacrifice explanatory depth
• Why be natural?

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