Related papers: Same-diff? Conceptual similarities between gauge t…
The following questions are germane to our understanding of gauge-(in)variant quantities and physical possibility: how are gauge transformations and spacetime diffeomorphisms understood as symmetries, in which ways are they similar, and in…
We discuss the relation between spacetime diffeomorphisms and gauge transformations in theories of the Yang-Mills type coupled with Einstein's General Relativity. We show that local symmetries of the Hamiltonian and Lagrangian formalisms of…
In the philosophical literature, symmetries of physical theories are most often interpreted within the general doctrine called 'Sophistication'. Roughly speaking, it says that models related by symmetries can peacefully co-exist while…
Pure gravity and gauge theories in two dimensions are shown to be special cases of a much more general class of field theories each of which is characterized by a Poisson structure on a finite dimensional target space. A general scheme for…
We discuss some aspects of the relation between dualities and gauge symmetries. Both of these ideas are of course multi-faceted, and we confine ourselves to making two points. Both points are about dualities in string theory, and both have…
A general diffeomorphism invariant SU(2) gauge theory is a gravity theory with two propagating polarizations of the graviton. We develop this description of gravity, in particular for future applications to the perturbative quantization.…
We make some general remarks on long-ranged configurations in gauge or diffeomorphism invariant theories where the fields are allowed to assume some non vanishing values at spatial infinity. In this case the Gauss constraint only eliminates…
Gauge theories of conformal spacetime symmetries are presented which merge features of Yang-Mills theory and general relativity in a new way. The models are local but nonpolynomial in the gauge fields, with a nonpolynomial structure that…
We introduce a gauge and diffeomorphism invariant theory on Yang-Mills phase space. The theory is well defined for an arbitrary gauge group with an invariant bilinear form, it contains only first class constraints, and the spacetime metric…
We introduce a gauge and diffeomorphism invariant theory on the Yang-Mills phase space. The theory is well defined for an arbitrary gauge group with an invariant bilinear form, it contains only first class constraints, and the spacetime…
We introduce the natural lift of spacetime diffeomorphisms for conformal gravity and discuss the physical equivalence between the natural and gauge natural structure of the theory. Accordingly, we argue that conformal transformations must…
Symmetries and isomorphisms play similar conceptual roles when we consider how models represent physical situations, but they are formally distinct, as two models related by symmetries are not typically isomorphic. I offer a rigorous…
Comparing and recognizing metrics can be extraordinarily difficult because of the group of diffeomorphisms. Two metrics, that could even be the same, could look completely different in different coordinates. This is the gauge problem. The…
A gauge and diffeomorphism invariant theory in (2+1)-dimensions is presented in both first and second order Lagrangian form as well as in a Hamiltonian form. For gauge group $SO(1,2)$, the theory is shown to describe ordinary Einstein…
A modification of the gauge theory is proposed, in which the set of generalized coordinates is supplemented with symmetry transformation parameters, and a condition is additionally imposed on the latter that ensures the classical character…
In these lectures we review how the symmetries of gravitational theories may be regarded as originating from those of "Yang-Mills squared". We begin by motivating the idea that certain aspects of gravitational theories can be captured by…
The application of the notion of `observable' from gauge theory to diffeomorphism-invariant theories -- most relevantly to general relativity -- has led to numerous conceptual and technical issues when interpreting classical theories with…
We propose a generalization of Yang-Mills theory for which the symmetry algebra does not have to be factorized as mutually commuting algebras of a finite-dimensional Lie algebra and the algebra of functions on base space. The algebra of…
For the case of a first-class constrained system with an equivariant momentum map, we study the conditions under which the double process of reducing to the constraint surface and dividing out by the group of gauge transformations $G$ is…
We consider generalized (possibly depending on fields as well as on space-time variables) gauge transformations and gauge symmetries in the context of general -- that is, possibly non variational nor covariant -- differential equations. In…