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Abandoning Galileo’s Ship: The Quest for Non-relational Empirical Significance
The British Journal for the Philosophy of Science ( IF 3.2 ) Pub Date : 2021-12-10 , DOI: 10.1086/718494
Sebastián Murgueitio Ramírez , Nicholas J Teh

The recent debate about whether gauge symmetries can be empirically significant has focused on the possibility of 'Galileo's ship' types of scenarios, where the symmetries effect relational differences between a subsystem and the environment. However, it has gone largely unremarked that apart from such Galileo's ship scenarios, Greaves and Wallace (2014) proposed that gauge transformations can also be empirically significant in a 'non-relational' manner that is analogous to a Faraday-cage scenario, where the subsystem symmetry is related to a change in a charged boundary state. In this paper, we investigate the question of whether such non-relational scenarios are possible for gauge theories. Remarkably, the answer to this question turns out to be closely related to a foundational puzzle that has driven a host of recent developments at the frontiers of theoretical physics. By drawing on these recent developments, we show that a very natural way of elaborating on Greaves and Wallace's claim of non-relational empirical significance for gauge symmetry is incoherent. However, we also argue that much of what they suggest is correct in spirit: one can indeed construct non-relational models of the kind they sketch, albeit ones where the empirical significance is not witnessed by a gauge symmetry but instead by a superficially similar boundary symmetry. Furthermore, the latter casts doubt on whether one really abandons Galileo's ship in such scenarios.

中文翻译:

放弃伽利略的船:探索非关系的经验意义

最近关于规范对称性是否具有经验意义的争论主要集中在“伽利略船”类型场景的可能性上,其中对称性会影响子系统和环境之间的关系差异。然而,除了伽利略的船舶场景之外,Greaves 和 Wallace(2014 年)提出,规范变换也可以以类似于法拉第笼场景的“非关系”方式在经验上显着,这在很大程度上没有引起注意,其中子系统对称性与带电边界状态的变化有关。在本文中,我们研究了规范理论是否可能存在这种非关系场景的问题。值得注意的是,事实证明,这个问题的答案与一个基础难题密切相关,该难题推动了理论物理学前沿的一系列最新发展。通过利用这些最近的发展,我们表明,一种非常自然的方式来阐述 Greaves 和华莱士关于规范对称性的非关系经验意义的主张是不连贯的。然而,我们也认为,他们所建议的大部分内容在精神上是正确的:人们确实可以构建他们所描绘的那种非关系模型,尽管这些模型的经验意义不是通过规范对称而是通过表面上相似的边界来证明的对称。此外,后者让人怀疑在这种情况下是否真的放弃了伽利略的船。我们表明,对 Greaves 和 Wallace 关于规范对称性的非关系经验意义的主张进行详细阐述的一种非常自然的方式是不连贯的。然而,我们也认为,他们所建议的大部分内容在精神上是正确的:人们确实可以构建他们所描绘的那种非关系模型,尽管这些模型的经验意义不是通过规范对称而是通过表面上相似的边界来证明的对称。此外,后者让人怀疑在这种情况下是否真的放弃了伽利略的船。我们表明,对 Greaves 和 Wallace 关于规范对称性的非关系经验意义的主张进行详细阐述的一种非常自然的方式是不连贯的。然而,我们也认为,他们所建议的大部分内容在精神上是正确的:人们确实可以构建他们所描绘的那种非关系模型,尽管这些模型的经验意义不是通过规范对称而是通过表面上相似的边界来证明的对称。此外,后者让人怀疑在这种情况下是否真的放弃了伽利略的船。尽管经验意义不是由规范对称性而是由表面上相似的边界对称性见证的。此外,后者让人怀疑在这种情况下是否真的放弃了伽利略的船。尽管经验意义不是由规范对称性而是由表面上相似的边界对称性见证的。此外,后者让人怀疑在这种情况下是否真的放弃了伽利略的船。
更新日期:2021-12-10
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