Overview

"This book seeks to answer the question ""What explains CPT invariance and the spin-statistics connection?"" These properties play foundational roles in relativistic quantum field theories (RQFTs), are supported by high-precision experiments, and figure into explanations of a wide range of phenomena, from antimatter, to the periodic table of the elements, to superconductors and superfluids. They can be derived in RQFTs by means of the famous CPT and Spin-Statistics theorems; but, the author argues, these theorems cannot be said to explain these properties, at least under standard philosophical accounts of scientific explanation. This is because there are multiple, in some cases incompatible, ways of deriving these theorems, and, secondly, because the theorems fail for the types of theories that underwrite the empirical evidence: non-relativistic quantum theories, and realistic interacting RQFTs. The goal of this book is to work towards an understanding of CPT invariance and the spin-statistics connection by first providing an analysis of the necessary and sufficient conditions for these properties, and second by advocating a particular account of explanation appropriate for this context."

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9780198728801

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Reviews

... Bains analysis is admirable for its clarity and the arguments provided for each of the conclusions are well supported with details from the physics literature. There is much of value in this book, and it will quickly become an important reference for those with an interest in the foundations of quantum theories, and how physical theories discharge their explanatory duties. * Michael E. Miller, Metascience *

Firmly grounded in physics, but never hesitating to question conventional wisdom, Bain pushes the frontier of philosophy into the realm of our most fundamental quantum theories. This book is both a thorough introduction to the growing philosophical literature on CPT, and a valuable new contribution to that same literature. It is also a sobering reminder that, beyond the classic debates about the nature of quantum theory, new and largely unexplored mysteries abound. David John Baker, University of Michigan

Author Information

Jonathan Bain is Associate Professor of Philosophy of Science at the Polytechnic School of Engineering, New York University. He received his Ph.D. in History and Philosophy of Science from the University of Pittsburgh. His research interests include philosophy of spacetime, scientific realism, and philosophy of quantum field theory.

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