Uploaded July 2019 | Updated September 2026, 3 minutes ago
One mathematical technique that is commonly used in QFT is analytic continuation of the time variable (e.g., Wick rotation). This strategy relates the relativistic QFT model of interest to a non-relativistic model of some type (e.g., in some cases, a classical or quantum statistical mechanical model). Analytic continuation has been successfully used not merely to solve existing QFT models, but as a tool to construct new QFT models. I will offer explanations for the applicability of this mathematical technique and explore what (if anything) its successful application tells us about quantum field theoretic systems.
Foundations of Quantum Field Theory: 2019 Annual Philosophy of Physics Conference
June 12 - 14, 2019
Doreen Fraser, University of Waterloo
One mathematical technique that is commonly used in QFT is analytic continuation of the time variable (e.g., Wick rotation). This strategy relates the relativistic QFT model of interest to a non-relativistic model of some type (e.g., in some cases, a classical or quantum statistical mechanical model). Analytic continuation has been successfully used not merely to solve existing QFT models, but as a tool to construct new QFT models. I will offer explanations for the applicability of this mathematical technique and explore what (if anything) its successful application tells us about quantum field theoretic systems.
Foundations of Quantum Field Theory: 2019 Annual Philosophy of Physics Conference
June 12 - 14, 2019
Doreen Fraser, University of Waterloo
