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AGPhil: Arbeitsgruppe Philosophie der Physik

AGPhil 9: Philosophy of Physics 1

AGPhil 9.3: Vortrag

Mittwoch, 20. März 2024, 12:30–13:00, PTB SR AvHB

LatticeQCD - between approximation and foundation — •Nico Formánek — HLRS, Stuttgart

LatticeQCD can be viewed as a clever approximative method to extract numerical predictions from QCD. But it also serves as a discrete foundation to define the QCD path integral. Philosophy of Science has focused mainly on the first aspect, worrying about the uncontrolled black box nature of the approximations, while lattice practitioners explicitly point to the foundational character. This apparent tension goes back, I argue, to the inception of LatticeQCD. Symanzik's conjecture on which the foundational character of the lattice relies was later developed into a numerical improvement programme. LatticeQCD is therefore not only conceptually but also historically a foundation and approximation. I will briefly spell out what this means for traditional views of physical theories in philosophy of science and how they might need to adapt.

Keywords: LatticeQCD; foundation; approximation; philosophy of science