Hostname: page-component-54dcc4c588-nx7b4 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2025-09-17T10:11:51.454Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
Accepted manuscript

A Problem of Scale

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 August 2025

Laura Ruetsche*
Affiliation:
The University of Michigan
*
Corresponding author: Laura Ruetsche; ruetsche@umich.edu
Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Core share and HTML view are not available for this content. However, as you have access to this content, a full PDF is available via the ‘Save PDF’ action button.

Subject to techniques of perturbative renormalization, the Standard Model makes empirical predictions that are stupendously successful. But also deeply mysterious. Not every quantum field theory (qft) is renormalizable. Indeed, most aren’t. The mystery is: why should we be so lucky, that we live in a world governed by a renormalizable qft? I explicate this Renormalizability Puzzle, and explain why Renormalization Group (RG) approaches are widely thought to resolve it. Looking under the hood of the RG resolution, I identify a load-bearing element that might not be adequate to the explanatory burden the RG resolution places upon it.

Information

Type
Contributed Paper
Copyright
© The Author(s), 2025. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of Philosophy of Science Association