Series: Elements in the Foundations of Contemporary Physics

This two‐volume Element reconstructs and analyses the historical debates on whether renormalised quantum field theory is a mathematically consistent theory. Probing the Consistency of Quantum Field Theory I covers the years immediately following the development of renormalised quantum electrodynamics. It begins with the realisation that perturbation theory cannot serve as the foundation for a proof of consistency, due to the...

This two‐volume Element reconstructs and analyses the historical debates on whether renormalised quantum field theory is a mathematically consistent theory. This volume covers the years immediately following the development of renormalised quantum electrodynamics. It begins with the realisation that perturbation theory cannot serve as the foundation for a proof of consistency, due to the non-convergence of the perturbation series. Various...