The Unreasonable Effectiveness of Quantum Field Theory

Abstract

Quantum field theory offers physicists a tremendously wide range of application; it is both a language with which a vast variety of physical processes can be discussed and also it provides a model for fundamental physics, the so-called ``standard-model,'' which thus far has passed every experimental test. No other framework exists in which one can calculate so many phenomena with such ease and accuracy. Nevertheless, today some physicists have doubts about quantum field theory, and here I want to examine these reservations.