Related papers: The Philosophy and Physics of Duality
One of the dualities in string theory, the F-theory/heterotic string duality in eight dimensions, predicts an interesting correspondence between two seemingly disparate geometrical objects. On one side of the duality there are elliptically…
Classical particle mechanics on curved spaces is related to the flow of ideal fluids, by a dual interpretation of the Hamilton-Jacobi equation. As in second quantization, the procedure relates the description of a system with a finite…
Duality groups of Abelian gauge theories on four manifolds and their reduction to two dimensions are considered. The duality groups include elements that relate different space-times in addition to relating different gauge-coupling…
I review the philosophical literature on the question of when two physical theories are equivalent. This includes a discussion of empirical equivalence, which is often taken to be necessary, and sometimes taken to be sufficient, for…
Using the recently developed soldering formalism we highlight certain features of quantum mechanical models. The complete correspondence between these models and self dual field theoretical models in odd dimensions is established. The…
We review the status of duality symmetries in superstring theories. These discrete symmetries mark the striking differences between theories of pointlike objects and theories of extended objects. They prove to be very helpful in…
We clarify how mirror symmetry acts on 3d theories with N=2,3 or 4 supersymmetries and non-abelian Chern-Simons terms and then construct many new examples. We identify a new duality, geometric duality, that allows us to generate large…
Micro-Macro Duality means here the universal mutual relations between the microscopic quantum world and various macroscopic classical levels, which can be formulated mathematically as categorical adjunctions. It underlies a unified scheme…
Since the 5D canonical metric embeds all 4D vacuum solutions of Einstein's equations, I review its application to the cosmological 'constant', quantized particles, deBroglie waves, scalar fields and wave-particle duality. There are several…
We consider duality transformations in N=2 Yang--Mills theory coupled to N=2 supergravity, in a manifestly symplectic and coordinate covariant setting. We give the essential of the geometrical framework which allows one to discuss stringy…
These notes are an elaboration on: (i) a short course that I gave at the IPhT-Saclay in May-June 2012; (ii) a previous letter on reversibility in quantum mechanics. They present an introductory, but hopefully coherent, view of the main…
This work deals with the notion of Newton complementary duality as raised originally in the work of the second author and B. Costa. A conceptual revision of the main steps of the notion is accomplished which then leads to a vast…
This is a survey on selected developments in the theory of natural dualities where the author had the opportunity to make with his foreign colleagues several breakthroughs and move the theory forward. It is aimed as author's reflection on…
Stunning progresses in the experimental resolution and control of natural or man-made complex systems at the level of their quantum mechanical constituents raises the question, across diverse subdisciplines of physics, chemistry and…
Some recent results on the applications of duality (and related) transformations to general four-dimensional, spherically symmetric, asymptotically flat and time-independent string configurations are summarized. Two classes of results have…
The strong coupling limit of a quantum system is in general quite complicated, but in some cases a great simplification occurs: the strongly coupled limit is equivalent to the weakly coupled limit of some other system. In string theory…
Individual quantum objects display inseparable coexisting wave-like properties and particle-like properties; such inseparable coexistence can seem paradoxical and mind-boggling. The apparent paradox is resolved by the unified theory of…
The pros and cons of various forms of atomism and holism that are applicable both in physical science and today's philosophy of nature are evaluated. To this end, Lewis' thesis of Humean supervenience is presented as an important case study…
This book contains the material of my research on stereotype duality theories in geometry. It was intended as a continuation of my recently published monograph in De Gruyter on stereotype spaces and algebras.
In string theory it is known that abelian isometries in the sigma model lead to target space duality. We generalize this duality to backgrounds with non--abelian isometries. The procedure we follow consists of gauging the isometries of the…