This year’s workshop will explore four broad philosophical issues that are specific to QFT. QFT is the theory that combines the special theory of relativity and quantum mechanics. There is consensus that the unification of these two theories necessitates the use of a mathematical framework based on fields. One issue that this raises is how to interpret this mathematical framework in terms of physical fields. The second and third issues pertain to how to connect the theory with experimental results. Renormalization techniques have been developed as a successful method for extracting predictions from the theory, but their physical basis remains unclear. The second issue concerns the development and conceptual status of renormalization group methods, which are an important species of renormalization technique. The third issue is the representation of measurement in QFT. Once again, this is an issue that has roots in non- relativistic quantum mechanics, but which raises a new set of interpretive and mathematical challenges in QFT. The fourth issue is spontaneous symmetry breaking, which is a core ingredient of the Standard Model of particle physics but is also used to model other types of physical systems. There are outstanding questions about how spontaneous symmetry breaking should be interpreted in particle physics and in other areas of physics such as condensed matter physics and early universe cosmology. All four of these issues are research topics within philosophy of physics, but they also have broader appeal within philosophy of science and philosophy of mathematics. Furthermore, all four issues are important not only for understanding QFT, but for formulating successor theories. This is one reason why these issues are of interest to physicists as well as philosophers.

The purpose of this workshop is twofold: (1) to bring together philosophers of physics who work on QFT, including emerging and established scholars, and (2) to foster interactions among philosophers and physicists. Bringing together philosophers who are working on a set of closely related issues in QFT will facilitate communication and collaboration. This workshop will be held in conjunction with an annual graduate student conference in the philosophy of Logic, Mathematics, and Physics, which every year attracts many of the brightest and most promising graduate students in philosophy of science, and will provide an opportunity for the graduate students to interact with the participants in the workshop. Bringing philosophy of physics into closer contact with physics is essential for progress and innovation in both fields. Physicists and philosophers bring different intellectual resources to bear on problems of shared interest, and their strengths often complement one another in research on foundational problems.

The workshop will be hosted alongside a graduate student-led conference, the 22nd Annual Graduate Conference on the Philosophy of Logic, Mathematics, and Physics. Participants of the workshop will be encouraged to visit Western for the entire week, to attend this conference and contribute to the discussions. This long-standing workshop is wholly run by graduate students. It provides a valuable networking opportunity for the graduate participants, and an opportunity for them to get feedback on their work from their peers and from faculty in attendance.