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A Puzzle About General Covariance and Gauge

March, Eleanor and Weatherall, James Owen (2024) A Puzzle About General Covariance and Gauge. [Preprint]

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Abstract

We consider two simple criteria for when a physical theory should be said to be “generally covariant”, and we argue that these criteria are not met by Yang-Mills theory, even on geometric formulations of that theory. The reason, we show, is that the bundles encountered in Yang-Mills theory are not natural bundles; instead, they are gauge-natural. We then show how these observations relate to previous arguments about the significance of solder forms in assessing disanalogies between general relativity and Yang-Mills theory. We conclude by suggesting that general covariance is really about functoriality.


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Item Type: Preprint
Creators:
CreatorsEmailORCID
March, Eleanoreleanor.march@balliol.ox.ac.uk
Weatherall, James Owenweatherj@uci.edu0000-0003-1461-7821
Keywords: general covariance, Yang-Mills theory, solder forms, general relativity, natural bundles
Subjects: Specific Sciences > Physics
Specific Sciences > Physics > Quantum Field Theory
Specific Sciences > Physics > Relativity Theory
Specific Sciences > Physics > Symmetries/Invariances
Depositing User: James Owen Weatherall
Date Deposited: 19 Nov 2024 14:06
Last Modified: 19 Nov 2024 14:06
Item ID: 24241
Subjects: Specific Sciences > Physics
Specific Sciences > Physics > Quantum Field Theory
Specific Sciences > Physics > Relativity Theory
Specific Sciences > Physics > Symmetries/Invariances
Date: 2024
URI: https://philsci-archive.pitt.edu/id/eprint/24241

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