Non-RQFT Derivations of CPT Invariance and the Spin–Statistics Connection
Jonathan Bain · Oxford University Press eBooks · 2016
Chapter 4 evaluates attempts to derive CPT invariance and the spin–statistics connection (SSC) outside the framework of relativistic quantum theories. It first considers attempts at non-relativistic quantum mechanical derivations of the SSC. These attempts split into those that adopt the framework of finite-dimensional (i.e., non-field-theoretic) non-relativistic quantum mechanics, and fall under the general heading of “configuration space approaches,” and an approach that adopts the framework of non-relativistic quantum field theory. The chapter indicates how recent work in the philosophy of physics literature on the relation between permutation invariance and indistinguishability sheds light on the limitations of the former, while the discussion in Chapter 3 demonstrates where the latter fails. The chapter then considers attempts to derive CPT invariance in relativistic classical field theories from both a pragmatist (Lagrangian) and a purist (algebraic) perspective.