Theories, Models, Stories

Two papers by Stephan Hartmann via Online Papers in Philosophy, ‘Models as a Tool for Theory Construction: Some Strategies of Preliminary Physics’:

Theoretical models are an important tool for many aspects of scientific activity. They are used, i.a., to structure data, to apply theories or even to construct new theories. But what exactly is a model? It turns out that there is no proper definition of the term “model” that covers all these aspects. Thus, I restrict myself here to evaluate the function of models in the research process while using “model” in the loose way physicists do.

and ‘Models and Stories in Hadron Physics’:

[...] scientists typically use highly idealized models [...] to account for phenomena in [Quantum chromodynamics, QCD], to explain them and to gain understanding. Based on these models, which typically isolate a single feature of QCD [...] and disregard many others, scientists attempt to get a better understanding of the physics of strong interactions. But does this practice make sense? [...] Interestingly, these models do not even provide an accurate description of the mass spectrum of protons, neutrons and pions and their lowest lying excitations well – despite several adjustable parameters. And yet, the models are heavily used. I’ll argue that a qualitative story, which establishes an explanatory link between the fundamental theory and a model, plays an important role in model acceptance in these cases.