On the Meaning of Local Symmetries: Epistemic-ontological Dialectics
We propose our account of the meaning of local symmetries. We argue that the general covariance principle and gauge principle both are principles of democratic epistemic access to the law of physics, leading to ontological insights about the objective nature of spacetime. We further argue that relationality is a core notion of general-relativistic gauge field theory, tacitly encoded by its (active) local symmetries.
Authors
- Lucrezia Ravera (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4516-5127)
- J François
Institutions
- University of Mons (BE)
- Politecnico di Torino (IT)
- Masaryk University (CZ)
- Universidad Católica de la Santísima Concepción (CL)
- Graz University of Technology (AT)
- Graz University Hospital (AT)
- Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare, Sezione di Torino (IT)
- Private Pädagogische Hochschule Augustinum (AT)
Publication Details
- Journal
- Foundations of Physics
- Published
- 2025-05-14
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1007/s10701-025-00849-y
- Citations
- 8
- Primary Topic
- Relativity and Gravitational Theory
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 9.24
Funders
- Austrian Science Fund