Originally posted by Count Iblis II:
I agree that the Standard Model is just a model and that the Higgs hasn't been experimentally confirmed to exist. But you do have to acknowledge that the W and the Z particles and the various relations between their masses were correctly predicted. That's a very strong result.
I think I will start another thread on renormalization some time in the future here. renormalization can be seen as a trick to remove infinities. However, as pointed out by Wilson, it is more natural to consider field theories as an effective theory valid at low energies obtained by integrating out the high energy degrees of freedom.
So, you assume that the unknown ''theory of everything'' reduces to the standard model at low energies, just like magnetism in a solid can be described by a renormalizable phi^(4) field theory. [/QB]
Wilson's argument is still just a conjecture. Nonetheless,t we are moving nearer to an understanding. As I have acknowledged, the physics that has been done using quantum field theory should not be thrown out of the window. Just as Bohr's atom did not invalidate the applicability of the Periodic Table of the Elements. There has been extraordinary successes like the W and Z particles; however, I do not believe that these theories are complete theories and their complexity is, to my mind, also an indication that there must be simpler mechanisms behind the symmetries predicted and observed. I believe that the real physics involved might be simpler than we anticipate at present. Sometimes I think that we are trying to fix what do not need fixing; and in the process we are developing wonderful new mathematics but less and less of an understanding of the physics involved.
In turn you do have to acknowledge that on another thread I have shown aspects of superconduction which the BCS model cannot explain; and I have postulated a single mechanism that explains superconduction in all the superconductors that have been discovered to date. Whatever you might think of me subjectively; do you not think that under such circumstances the "experts on superconduction" should evaluate the new model objectively vis-avis the BCS model; instead of just running away in horror while slinging around insults? Is this what scientists have become? Or have they always been the real dogmatists?
