Please fill this newb in a bit more — is QFT Great and Correct? Why? When did that happen?
Edit: I am more confused now… Apparently QFT is what I learned in my quantum class but we didn’t touch relativity. This term is overloaded? …. In any case, the supposed compatibility with relativity seems good if I understand correctly. (I was trying to read some of those same webpages maybe a year ago but tbh I never understood why squaring the quantum-vs-relativity math was considered so important if they don’t make contradictory predictions in physically possible experiments. That’s an entirely separate discussion ofc.)
QFT is relativistic quantum mechanics with fields i.e. a continuous limit of a lattice of harmonic oscillators, which you may have encountered in solid state theory. It is the framework for the standard model, our most rigorously tested theory by far. An interpretation of quantum mechanics that can’t generalize to QFT is pretty much dead in the water. It would be like having an interpretation of physics that works for classical mechanics but can’t generalize to special or general relativity.
(Edited to change “more rigorously” → “most rigorously”.)
Please fill this newb in a bit more — is QFT Great and Correct? Why? When did that happen?
Edit: I am more confused now… Apparently QFT is what I learned in my quantum class but we didn’t touch relativity. This term is overloaded? …. In any case, the supposed compatibility with relativity seems good if I understand correctly. (I was trying to read some of those same webpages maybe a year ago but tbh I never understood why squaring the quantum-vs-relativity math was considered so important if they don’t make contradictory predictions in physically possible experiments. That’s an entirely separate discussion ofc.)
QFT is relativistic quantum mechanics with fields i.e. a continuous limit of a lattice of harmonic oscillators, which you may have encountered in solid state theory. It is the framework for the standard model, our most rigorously tested theory by far. An interpretation of quantum mechanics that can’t generalize to QFT is pretty much dead in the water. It would be like having an interpretation of physics that works for classical mechanics but can’t generalize to special or general relativity.
(Edited to change “more rigorously” → “most rigorously”.)