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can be little doubt that QED is largely correct. The infinities seem to arise
from virtual particles with very high energies. The suggestion has been made
that QED breaks down at these energies, in the same way that Newtonian
mechanics breaks down at speeds close to the speed of light. Time will eventually tell. In the meantime, as long as QED produces the highly accurate
results that it does, it will continue to be applied unreservedly.
In the next Chapter, we will discuss the attempts to extend the methodology of QED to forces other than the electromagnetic interaction, which
will lead us to the Standard Model of Fundamental Particles.
References
1. Doyle AC, The memoirs of Sherlock Holmes
2. Gleich J (1988) Chaos, Chapter 1: the butterfly effect. Sphere Books, p 9
3. Feynman R (1979) Lectures on quantum electrodynamics. Sir Douglas Robb
lectures at the University of Auckland, 1979, Lecture 1. https://cosmolearning.
org/courses/richard-feynman-lectures-quantum-electrodynamics/
4. Kragh H (1990) Dirac: a scientific biography. Cambridge University Press,
Cambridge, p 184
5. Francis C (2018) Light after dark II: the large and the small. Troubador
Publishing Ltd, p 151
R. Barrett and P. P. Delsanto
can be little doubt that QED is largely correct. The infinities seem to arise
from virtual particles with very high energies. The suggestion has been made
that QED breaks down at these energies, in the same way that Newtonian
mechanics breaks down at speeds close to the speed of light. Time will eventually tell. In the meantime, as long as QED produces the highly accurate
results that it does, it will continue to be applied unreservedly.
In the next Chapter, we will discuss the attempts to extend the methodology of QED to forces other than the electromagnetic interaction, which
will lead us to the Standard Model of Fundamental Particles.
References
1. Doyle AC, The memoirs of Sherlock Holmes
2. Gleich J (1988) Chaos, Chapter 1: the butterfly effect. Sphere Books, p 9
3. Feynman R (1979) Lectures on quantum electrodynamics. Sir Douglas Robb
lectures at the University of Auckland, 1979, Lecture 1. https://cosmolearning.
org/courses/richard-feynman-lectures-quantum-electrodynamics/
4. Kragh H (1990) Dirac: a scientific biography. Cambridge University Press,
Cambridge, p 184
5. Francis C (2018) Light after dark II: the large and the small. Troubador
Publishing Ltd, p 151