Misconceptions on effective field theories and spontaneous symmetry breaking: response to Ellis' article

DOI10.1007/S10701-020-00368-YzbMATH Open1455.81036arXiv2007.10062OpenAlexW3102567456MaRDI QIDQ828335FDOQ828335

Authors: Thomas Luu, Ulf-G. Meißner 

Publication date: 8 January 2021

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

Abstract: In an earlier paper~cite{Luu:2019jmb} we discussed emergence from the context of effective field theories, particularly as related to the fields of particle and nuclear physics. We argued on the side of reductionism and weak emergence. George Ellis has critiqued our exposition in~cite{Ellis:2020vij}, and here we provide our response to his critiques. Many of his critiques are based on incorrect assumptions related to the formalism of effective field theories and we attempt to correct these issues here. We also comment on other statements made in his paper. Important to note is that our response is to his critiques made in archive versions arXiv:2004.13591v1-5 [physics.hist-ph]. That is, versions 1-5 of this archive post. Version 6 has similar content as versions 1-5, but versions 7-9 are seemingly a different paper altogether (even with a different title).

Full work available at URL: https://arxiv.org/abs/2007.10062

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zbMATH Keywords

emergenceeffective field theoriesstrong interactionschiral pertubation theory

Mathematics Subject Classification ID

Nuclear physics (81V35) Symmetry breaking in quantum theory (81R40) Perturbative methods of renormalization applied to problems in quantum field theory (81T15) Strong interaction, including quantum chromodynamics (81V05) Other elementary particle theory in quantum theory (81V25) Effective quantum field theories (81T12)

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Cited In (1)

• Reductionism, emergence, and effective field theories

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