Holism and structuralism in U(1) gauge theory

Abstract

After decades of neglect philosophers of physics have discovered gauge theories-arguably the paradigm of modern field physics-as a genuine topic for foundational and philosophical research. Incidentally, in the last couple of years interest from the philosophy of physics in structural realism-in the eyes of its proponents the best suited realist position towards modern physics-has also raised. This paper tries to connect both topics and aims to show that structural realism gains further credence from an ontological analysis of gauge theories-in particular U (1) gauge theory. In the first part of the paper the framework of fiber bundle gauge theories is briefly presented and the interpretation of local gauge symmetry will be examined. In the second part, an ontological underdetermination of gauge theories is carved out by considering the various kinds of non-locality involved in such typical effects as the Aharonov-Bohm effect. The analysis shows that the peculiar form of non-separability figuring in gauge theories is a variant of spatiotemporal holism and can be distinguished from quantum theoretic holism. In the last part of the paper the arguments for a gauge theoretic support of structural realism are laid out and discussed.

Is There a Compelling Argument for Ontic Structural Realism?

“…13 See also (Castellani 1998) and (French 2000). (Kantorovich 2003;Lyre 2004) argue in analogous fashion that in gauge quantum field theories objects are secondary to structure because symmetries are fundamental in the constitution of fields. In general, OSRists interpret the mathematical nature of physical theory and the fact that all physical properties must be "extracted" somehow from symmetries and invariants that can be traced in the formalism of the theory as clear signs that the things described by the theory and their properties are themselves reducible to the relations that define such symmetries and invariants.…”

Symmetries and the Identity of Physical States

“…Nicholas Teh (2015) has recently argued that according to this criterion there exist interesting analogies to the Galileo ship scenario in the gauge theories that underlie modern elementary particle physics. He takes his analysis to partly vindicates an earlier claim by Greaves and Wallace according to which some of the "local" gauge symmetries in gauge theories have direct empirical significance (Greaves and Wallace 2014), contrary to the claims made by other philosophers (Kosso 2000, Redhead 2002, Brading and Brown 2004, Lyre 2004, Healey 2009). Greaves and Wallace argue that the local gauge symmetries with direct empirical significance are those that do not reduce to the identity transformation on the subsystem boundary.…”

Humean Perspectives on Structural Realism

“…Healey 2007, chap. 4.5;Lyre 2004b;Maudlin 2007, chap. 2 If, after all that, it still teaches nonlocality, I shall submit willingly to the best of authority."…”