Related papers: Same-diff? Conceptual similarities between gauge t…
We consider duality transformations in N=2, d=4 Yang--Mills theory coupled to N=2 supergravity. A symplectic and coordinate covariant framework is established, which allows one to discuss stringy `classical and quantum duality symmetries'…
Deformations of spacelike hypersurfaces in space-time play an important role in discussions of general covariance and slicing independence in gravitational theories. In a canonical formulation, they provide the geometrical meaning of gauge…
I discuss gauge and global symmetries in particle physics, condensed matter physics, and quantum gravity. In a modern understanding, global symmetries are approximate and gauge symmetries may be emergent. (Based on a lecture at the April,…
I discuss the (2,2)-formalism of general relativity based on the (2,2)-fibration of a generic 4-dimensional spacetime of the Lorentzian signature. In this formalism general relativity is describable as a Yang-Mills gauge theory defined on…
We study spacetime diffeomorphisms in Hamiltonian and Lagrangian formalisms of generally covariant systems. We show that the gauge group for such a system is characterized by having generators which are projectable under the Legendre map.…
We analyze how gauge fixing, which is required by any practical continuum approach to gauge systems, can interfere with the physical symmetries of such systems. In principle, the gauge fixing procedure, which deals with the (unphysical)…
"Physical theories of fundamental significance tend to be gauge theories. These are theories in which the physical system being dealt with is described by more variables than there are physically independent degree of freedom. The…
This is the first of a couple of papers in which, by exploiting the capabilities of the Hamiltonian approach to general relativity, we get a number of technical achievements that are instrumental both for a disclosure of \emph{new} results…
It is well-known that if we gauge a $\mathbb{Z}_n$ symmetry in two dimensions, a dual $\mathbb{Z}_n$ symmetry appears, such that re-gauging this dual $\mathbb{Z}_n$ symmetry leads back to the original theory. We describe how this can be…
We revisit the dynamical action, developed in earlier studies [1-3], of the gravitational analog of Yang-Mills field, called the diffeomorphism field. We show an inconsistency in the construction of this action and solve it by a…
We present a novel, manifestly Lorentz-invariant, polynomial, and straightforwardly quantisable action for duality-symmetric gauge theories formulated using gauge potentials. Central to our construction is the identification of a harmonic…
A basic problem of classical field theory, which has attracted growing attention over the past decade, is to find and classify all nonlinear deformations of linear abelian gauge theories. The first part of this paper summarizes and…
Symmetry is often treated in philosophy of physics as an interpretive problem. A particularly lively dispute concerns local symmetries: do they indicate surplus structure that ought to be expunged, or are they merely a harmless redundancy?…
The paper addresses the question whether in four spacetime dimensions, besides standard supergravity theories, field theories exist whose symmetries include local spacetime translations and supersymmetries generated by transformations whose…
The logic of gauge theory is considered by tracing its development from general relativity to Yang-Mills theory, through Weyl's two gauge theories. A handful of elements---which for want of better terms can be called \emph{geometrical…
We discuss two distinct realizations of the diffeomorphism group for metric gravity, which give rise to theories that are classically equivalent, but quantum mechanically distinct. We renormalize them in $d=2+\epsilon$ dimensions,…
We define a discrete gauge-invariant Yang-Mills-Higgs action on spacetime simplicial meshes. The formulation is a generalization of classical lattice gauge theory, and we prove consistency of the action in the sense of approximation theory.…
We consider the role of the diffeomorphism constraint in the quantization of lattice formulations of diffeomorphism invariant theories of connections. It has been argued that in working with abstract lattices, one automatically takes care…
A Yang-Mills theory linear in the scalar curvature for 2d gravity with symmetry generated by the semidirect product formed with the Lie derivative of the algebra of diffeomorphisms with the two-dimensional Abelian algebra is formulated. As…
We show that a class of previously defined maps, called self-dual and causal morphisms, form classical symmetries of Yang-Mills fields in four complex dimensions. These maps generalize conformal transformations, and admit a nonlocal…