-------------------------------------------- S6f. The classical limit in relativistic QFT -------------------------------------------- The classical limit of a quantum field theory is the theory defined by taking the Lagrangian occuring in the functional formalism and making the corresponding action stationary. Note that a functional integral is an integral in which all fields have classical meaning. The quantum interpretation comes from taking the functional integral as a generating functional for S-matrix elements, while the classical interpretation comes from taking a saddle point approximation. Since the k loop contributions scale with hbar^k, they disappear in the classical limit hbar to 0, so only the tree diagrams are left in the expansion, which correspond to the saddle point approximation in the functional integral. This needs a slight qualification for Fermions, e.g., electrons. A fermion field Psi(x) itself, being an anticommuting field, has no direct classical meaning, but has the numerical advantage that it is a field in 3 instead of 6 variables. Products of two Psi terms commute with each other, hence have a direct classical interpretation. Indeed, classically there is an electron density field W(x,p) given by the Wigner transform of Psi(x)Psi(y)^*, where Psi(x) is the classical Grassmann field occuring in the Lagrangian, satisfying a Dirac equation with an electromagnetic interaction added. This field W(x,p) is measurable and plays a role in semiconductor modeling. (In the definition of the Wigner transform, a second hbar appears, a remnant of second quantization. If one moves this to zero, too, the description in terms of Psi is no longer possible, and one gets instead a Vlasov equation for W.) Thus the classical limit of the standard model is a mathematically well-defined theory, while the quantum version is only perturbatively defined, which means, it is mathematically undefined - even for QED. Nevertheless, the renormalization prescription make at least the coefficients of the asymptotoc series in hbar well-defined, which is what particle physicists use to extract approximate physical information. In this relaxed sense, the quantum standard model is also well-defined.