Workshop on the History and Philosophy of Quantum Field Theory
Location: Geschwister-Scholl-Platz 1, Room M 210 (CEPP library)
26.06.2025 09:00 – 18:00
Idea and Motivation
The workshop is intended to address recent issues in the history and philosophy of quantum field theory at the occasion of Michael Miller's visit from the University of Toronto (June 23 - June 29, 2025).
The event will take place from 9:00 to 18:00 and is partly sponsored by the European Research Council through the ERC project RESCALE.
Speakers
Alexander Blum (MPIWG/MCMP, LMU Munich)
John Dougherty (MCMP, LMU Munich)
James Fraser (IHPST, Paris)
Michael Miller (University of Toronto)
Sébastien Rivat (MCMP, LMU Munich)
Registration and other information
To register, please send an email to sebastien.rivat@lmu.de with your name and affiliation. Please specify as well if you would like to join for dinner.
Catering will not be provided except for a short coffee break in the morning (10:15 - 10:30).
Program
| 9:00 - 10:15 | Alexander Blum: "Should we worry about the renormalization constants being infinite? Julian Schwinger and his school on the UV behavior of QED, 1953-1965" |
| 10:15 - 10:30 | Coffee break |
| 10:30 - 11:45 | Sebastien Rivat: "Unifying the non-fundamental: Steve Weinberg's early path toward effective theories (1957-1965)" |
| 11:45 - 13:45 | Lunch (on your own) |
| 13:45 - 15:00 | James Fraser: "Perspectives on the divergence of perturbation theory" |
| 15:00 - 15:15 | Short break |
| 15:15 - 16:30 | John Dougherty: "What is the philosophical problem with gauge theories?" |
| 16:30 - 16:45 | Short break |
| 16:45 - 18:00 | Michael Miller: "Epistemic and semantic effective realism" |
| 18:00 - | Post-workshop drinks and dinner |