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Re: Fields etc



Apropos to this discussion on the reality of fields is the "Reference
Frame" article in the January '99 Physics Today, entitled "The
Persistence of Ether". In it , Wilczek argues pretty convincingly that
physics understanding is evolving towards a point where fields are not
only "real", but are more fundamental (more "real"???) than particles.

I don't think this is anything new. Ever since 2nd/field quantization in
quantum field theory was invented over a half century ago it has been
essentially clear that particles are merely quantum excitations of the
underlying field degrees of freedom in nature (Jim Green's polemic not
withstanding). Even fully classical theories like general relativity
can only be consistently formulated in terms of fields as the fundamental
entities that can curve the spacetime metric *field*.

David Bowman
dbowman@georgetowncollege.edu