Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-gvvz8 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-25T06:58:40.607Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Gravity and Gauge Theory

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 April 2022

Steven Weinstein
Steven Weinstein*
Affiliation:
Northwestern University
*
†Department of Philosophy, 1879 Hall, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ 08544-1006.
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Gauge theories are theories that are invariant under a characteristic group of “gauge” transformations. General relativity is invariant under transformations of the diffeomorphism group. This has prompted many philosophers and physicists to treat general relativity as a gauge theory, and diffeomorphisms as gauge transformations. I argue that this approach is misguided.

Type
Foundations of Statistical Physics, Spacetime Theories, and Quantum Field Theory
Information
Philosophy of Science , Volume 66 , Issue S3: Supplement. Proceedings of the 1998 Biennial Meetings of the Philosophy of Science Association. Part I: Contributed Papers Sep., 1999 , 1999 , pp. S146 - S155
Copyright
Copyright © 1999 by the Philosophy of Science Association

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Footnotes

‡

Thanks to Arthur Fine, Chris Isham, and Bob Wald for helpful discussions.

References

Baez, John and Muniain, Javier P. (1994), Gauge Fields, Knots and Gravity. Singapore: World Scientific.10.1142/2324CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Belot, Gordon and Earman, John (1999a), “From physics to metaphysics”, in Butterfield, Jeremy and Pagonis, Constantine (eds.), From Physics to Philosophy. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Belot, Gordon and Earman, John (1999b), “Pre-Socratic quantum gravity”, to appear in Callender, Craig and Huggett, Nicholas (eds.), Philosophy at the Planck Length. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Bernstein, Herbert J. and Phillips, Anthony V. (1981), “Fiber bundles and quantum theory”, Scientific American 245: 94–109.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Earman, John and Norton, John (1987), “What price spacetime substantivalism?”, British Journal for the Philosophy of Science 38: 515–525.10.1093/bjps/38.4.515CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Göckeler, Meinulf and Schücker, Thomas (1987), Differential Geometry, Gauge Theories, and Gravity. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.10.1017/CBO9780511628818CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Isham, Chris J. (1993), “Canonical quantum gravity and the problem of time,” in Integrable Systems, Quantum Groups, and Quantum Field Theories. London: Kluwer Academic Publishers, p. 157–288.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kibble, Thomas W. B. (1961), “Lorentz invariance and the gravitational field,” Journal of Mathematical Physics 2: 212–221.10.1063/1.1703702CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kuchař, Karel (1992), “Time and interpretations of quantum gravity,” in Proceedings of the 4th Canadian Conference on General Relativity and Relativistic Astrophysics. Singapore: World Scientific, p. 211–314.Google Scholar
Rovelli, Carlo (1995), “Outline of a generally covariant quantum field theory and a quantum theory of gravity,” Journal of Mathematical Physics 36: 6529–6547. gr-qc/9503067.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Schwinger, Julian (1953), “The theory of quantized fields II,” Physical Review 91: 713–728.10.1103/PhysRev.91.713CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Stachel, John (1994), “The meaning of general covariance: the hole story”, in Earman, J., Janis, A., Massey, G., and Rescher, N., (eds.), Philosophical Problems of the Internal and External Worlds. Pittsburgh-Konstanz Series in the Philosophy and History of Science. Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh, 129–160.Google Scholar
Torre, Charles G. (1993), “Gravitational observables and local symmetries”, Physical Review D48: 2373–2376.Google Scholar
Torre, Charles G. (1994), “The problems of time and observables: some recent mathematical results”. gr-qc/9404029.Google Scholar
Utiyama, Ryoyu (1956), “Invariant theoretical interpretation of interaction”, Physical Review 101: 1597–1607.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wald, Robert M. (1984), General Relativity. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.10.7208/chicago/9780226870373.001.0001CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Weinstein, Steven (1998a), “Conceptual and Foundational Issues in the Quantization of Gravity”, Ph.D. dissertation, Northwestern University.Google Scholar
Weinstein, Steven. (1998b), “Time, gauge, and the superposition principle in quantum gravity”, in Piran, Tsvi (ed.), The Eighth Marcel Grossman Meeting. Singapore: World Scientific.gr-qc/9711056.Google Scholar
Weinstein, Steven. (1999), “Naive quantum gravity”, to appear in Craig Callender and Nicholas Huggett (eds), Philosophy at the Planck Length. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Wilczek, Frank (1998), “Riemann-Einstein structure from volume and gauge symmetry”, Physical Review Letters 80: 4851–4854. hep-th/9801184.10.1103/PhysRevLett.80.4851CrossRefGoogle Scholar