Abstract
This chapter addresses the subject that has, as yet, been little explored in literature on Bohr—the significance of quantum field theory, beginning with quantum electrodynamics (the first form of quantum field theory), in Bohr’s work on complementarity. This significance is considerable, in particular, in the following three respects. First, Bohr saw quantum electrodynamics and other forms of quantum field theory as confirming his key ideas concerning the epistemology of quantum phenomena and quantum mechanics, and possibly giving these ideas more radical dimensions through the new mathematics and physics these theories introduce. Second, by extending his thinking concerning quantum mechanics to these theories, Bohr made important contributions to our understanding of measurement in quantum field theory in his influential collaborations with Léon Rosenfeld in 1933 and 1950. Third, quantum electrodynamics and quantum field theory had a shaping reciprocal impact on Bohr’s work on quantum mechanics and complementarity.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Notes
- 1.
A copy of the letter is in the Niels Bohr Library, American Institute of Physics, New York. See A. Pais’s discussion of this letter in (Pais 1986, pp. 382–383). These ideas, I argue here, had a significant impact on Bohr’s view of quantum field theory.
- 2.
Pais’s discussion of quantum field theory and nuclear physics during the 1930s gives a clear sense of Bohr’s engagements with it (Pais 1986, pp. 296–438), as does his discussion of this part of Bohr’s work in his biography of Bohr (Pais 1991, pp. 346–374).
- 3.
Rosenfeld was Bohr’s assistant at the time, and he specifically assisted Bohr in writing his reply to EPR. Bohr’s and Rosenfeld’s respective interpretations of quantum mechanics are, however, different, and one should treat with caution Rosenfeld’s comments on Bohr’s views.
- 4.
The philosophy of quantum field theory is a complex and far from sufficiently developed subject, in comparison with quantum mechanics, as the paucity of literature addressing the subject, as against that on quantum mechanics, suggests. One can think of barely a handful of books devoted to the subject in contrast to the unending stream of books on the philosophy of quantum mechanics. One might mention (Cao 2004) and Paul Teller’s Quantum Field Theory: An Interpretive Introduction (Teller 1995), which also contains useful further references. For historical accounts, see (Schweber 1994) and, more technical, (Weinberg 2005). For a more accessible account see (Feynman 1985).
- 5.
Schrödinger’s equation itself could be seen in “particle-like” terms, a point noticed, with some surprise, by Schrödinger himself, who was also one of the first to discover the mathematical equivalence of his wave mechanics and matrix mechanics.
- 6.
By now, in the wake of von Neumann’s work, a more unified formalism of Hilbert-space or an even more abstract type (e.g., that of C*-algebras) is generally used, which allows one even greater flexibility and effectiveness, and the same is true in quantum field theory.
- 7.
See (Teller, pp 149–168) and, for a historical account, (Schweber 1994, pp. 595–605). More recent developments, such as renormalization groups, effective quantum field theory, and so forth cannot be discussed here, in part because of their nearly prohibitive technical aspects. They also do not appear to me to change the epistemological argument offered in this chapter.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2013 Arkady Plotnitsky
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Plotnitsky, A. (2013). 1933. “On the Question of Measurability of Electromagnetic Field Quantities”: Complementarity and Quantum Field Theory. In: Niels Bohr and Complementarity. SpringerBriefs in Physics. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-4517-3_7
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-4517-3_7
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, New York, NY
Print ISBN: 978-1-4614-4516-6
Online ISBN: 978-1-4614-4517-3
eBook Packages: Physics and AstronomyPhysics and Astronomy (R0)