Status Updates From The Quantum Theory of Field...

Finished Chapter 2 (though skipping some explicit details that don't matter to me now, also Appendix C). Now I can see why even this early on people find this to be one of the best QFT books around. It is not easy, but it goes all the way to the core, including the proof of Wigner's theorem (which I never read until now). Weinberg's approach also seems to me very brute force, which I am not sure if it's good or bad.

I cannot believe Section 2.5 (One-particle states) are still this hard for me -.-

Started Chapter 2. I just realized that this is the only QFT book I know that uses mostly-plus signature of the metric, which makes me oddly happier.

Took this chance to re-learn QFT from the ground up, for fun (because my work doesn't need it), but also for closure - I feel like I need to know QFT once, also once-and-for-all. I like to think that even though I was never in high-energy physics, I am now slightly better than the first time I tried it years ago.

Also, the first chapter is beautifully written, about historical (or logical?) development.

"The point of view of this book is that quantum field theory is the way
it is because (with certain qualifications) this is the only way to reconcile
quantum mechanics with special relativity" [This is part of the problem also, why are we looking to "reconcile" existing theories? It is much more likely both are wrong if there are problems and you can't find it in either one alone.]

Further suggestion is that post war, this kind of narrative consensus in physics was a key part of maintaining peace and order in the world. Another dubious aspect is the way in which the interaction between matter and waves is explained. Feynman diagrams illustrate the problem, which is that you have a forward and backward causation, a pulling towards from the future as much as a pushing away from the past.

Suggestion is that this shelter island conference of 1947 was about setting a new narrative for all physics. Its claims to this day are massively bloated and over loaded compared to what is actually achieved with Quantum electro dynamics. It is not just the renormalisation irrationality. The whole way in which things are brought together is quantiatively ad hoc and not motivated by good theory.

Probably equally important was the fact that the conference brought together theorists who had in their own individual ways been thinking about renormalization as a solution to the problem of infinities. When the revolution came in the late 1940s, it was made by physicists who though mostly young were playing a conservative role, turning away from the search by their predecessors for a radical solution.

As hard as ever (even if you really sit down and do calculations)