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Gauge Theory and the Geometrisation of Physics

Gauge Theory and the Geometrisation of Physics

Gauge Theory and the Geometrisation of Physics

Henrique De Andrade Gomes, University of Oxford
January 2025
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9781009014083
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    This Element is broadly about the geometrization of physics, but mostly it is about gauge theories. Gauge theories lie at the heart of modern physics: in particular, they constitute the Standard Model of particle physics. At its simplest, the idea of gauge is that nature is best described using a descriptively redundant language; the different descriptions are said to be related by a gauge symmetry. The over-arching question this Element aims to answer is: why is descriptive redundancy fruitful for physics? I will provide three inter-related answers to the question: ``Why gauge theory?'', that is: why introduce redundancies in our models of nature in the first place? The first is pragmatic, or methodological; the second is based on geometrical considerations, and the third is broadly relational.

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    Table of Contents

    • 1. Introduction
    • 2. Why gauge? A Noether, methodological reason
    • 3. Gauge theory and the geometry of fiber bundles
    • 4. Why gauge? a geometrical reason
    • 5. The Aharonov-Bohm effect, non-locality, and non-separability
    • References.
      Author
    • Henrique De Andrade Gomes , University of Oxford