Baker, David John and Halvorson, Hans and Swanson, Noel (2013) The Conventionality of Parastatistics. [Preprint]

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Abstract

Nature seems to be such that we can describe it accurately with quantum theories of bosons and fermions alone, without resort to parastatistics. This has been seen as a deep mystery: paraparticles make perfect physical sense, so why don't we see them in nature? We consider one potential answer: every paraparticle theory is physically equivalent to some theory of bosons or fermions, making the absence of paraparticles in our theories a matter of convention rather than a mysterious empirical discovery. We argue that this equivalence thesis holds in all physically admissible quantum field theories falling under the domain of the rigorous Doplicher-Haag-Roberts approach to superselection rules. Inadmissible parastatistical theories are ruled out by a locality-inspired principle we call Charge Recombination.

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Item Type:	Preprint
Creators:	Creators Email ORCID Baker, David John djbaker@umich.edu Halvorson, Hans hhalvors@princeton.edu Swanson, Noel nwswanso@princeton.edu
Keywords:	quantum field theory, symmetry, conventionalism, particle physics
Subjects:	General Issues > Conventionalism Specific Sciences > Physics > Fields and Particles Specific Sciences > Physics > Quantum Field Theory Specific Sciences > Physics > Quantum Mechanics Specific Sciences > Physics > Symmetries/Invariances
Depositing User:	Hans Halvorson
Date Deposited:	11 Feb 2013 22:49
Last Modified:	29 May 2014 14:15
Item ID:	9555
Subjects:	General Issues > Conventionalism Specific Sciences > Physics > Fields and Particles Specific Sciences > Physics > Quantum Field Theory Specific Sciences > Physics > Quantum Mechanics Specific Sciences > Physics > Symmetries/Invariances
Date:	February 2013
URI:	https://philsci-archive.pitt.edu/id/eprint/9555

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• The Conventionality of Parastatistics. (deposited 11 Feb 2013 22:49) [Currently Displayed]
  • The Conventionality of Parastatistics. (deposited 29 May 2014 14:14)

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