# On the interpretation of Feynman diagrams, or, did the LHC experiments observe $H \rightarrow \gamma \gamma$?

## TL;DR

This paper challenges the common view that Feynman diagrams are merely calculational tools, arguing instead that they can be interpreted as representations of physical processes, especially in the context of the Higgs boson discovery.

## Contribution

It offers a reinterpretation of Feynman diagrams as meaningful representations of physical processes, reconciling their use with experimental practices in high energy physics.

## Key findings

- Feynman diagrams can be viewed as representations of physical processes.
- The Higgs discovery story should be told differently, emphasizing the interpretative role of diagrams.
- A critique of the standard view on Feynman diagrams as purely calculational tools.

## Abstract

According to the received view Feynman diagrams are a bookkeeping device in complex perturbative calculations. Thus, they do not provide a representation or model of the underlying physical process. This view is in apparent tension with scientific practice in high energy physics, which analyses its data in terms of `channels'. For example the Higgs discovery was based on the observation of the decay $H \rightarrow \gamma\gamma$ -- a process which can be easily represented by the corresponding Feynman diagrams. I take issue with this tension and show that on closer analysis the story of the Higgs discovery should be told differently.