Related papers: Symmetries in Physics: Philosophical Reflections
The goal of this introduction to symmetries is to present some general ideas, to outline the fundamental concepts and results of the subject and to situate a bit the following lectures of this school. [These notes represent the write-up of…
In contemporary theoretical physics, the powerful notion of symmetry stands for a web of intricate meanings among which I identify four clusters associated with the notion of transformation, comprehension, invariance and projection. While…
Over the past few decades the notion of symmetry has played a major role in physics and in the philosophy of physics. Philosophers have used symmetry to discuss the ontology and seeming objectivity of the laws of physics. We introduce…
The concept of symmetries in physics is briefly reviewed. In the first part of these lecture notes, some of the basic mathematical tools needed for the understanding of symmetries in nature are presented, namely group theory, Lie groups and…
Symmetry is a fundamental concept in modern physics and other related sciences. Being such a powerful tool, almost all physical theories can be derived from symmetry, and the effectiveness of such an approach is astonishing. Since many…
Symmetries are widely used in modeling quantum systems but they do not contribute in postulates of quantum mechanics. Here we argue that logical, mathematical, and observational evidence require that symmetry should be considered as a…
The general concept of symmetry is realized in manifold ways in different realms of reality, such as plants, animals, minerals, mathematical objects or human artefacts in literature, fine arts and society. In order to arrive at a common…
Spacetime and internal symmetries can be used to severely restrict the form of the equations for the fundamental laws of physics. The success of this approach in the context of general relativity and particle physics motivates the…
Symmetries play a major role in physics, in particular since the work by E. Noether and H. Weyl in the first half of last century. Herein, we briefly review their role by recalling how symmetry changes allow to conceptually move from…
The generalized definition of symmetry is formulated. Application of this definition for symmetric analysis of theoretical physics equations is considered. The version of electrodynamics is constructed permitting the faster-than-light…
Symmetry can be used to help solve many problems. For instance, Einstein's famous 1905 paper ("On the Electrodynamics of Moving Bodies") uses symmetry to help derive the laws of special relativity. In artificial intelligence, symmetry has…
This is the first of a series of papers that we intend to publish about the epistemology of fundamental physics in its current state. One of the main objectives of these papers is to improve our understanding of fundamental physics (and…
For more than half a century, dualities have been at the heart of modern physics. From quantum mechanics to statistical mechanics, condensed matter physics, quantum field theory and quantum gravity, dualities have proven useful in solving…
"Symmetry" was one of the most important methodological themes in 20th-century physics and is probably going to play no lesser role in physics of the 21st century. As used today, there are a variety of interpretations of this term, which…
Are symmetries discovered or rather invented by humans ? The stand you may take firmly here reveals a lot of your epistemological position. Conversely, the arguments you may forge for answering to this question, or to one of its numerous…
Symmetry distills the simplicity of natural laws from the complexity of physical phenomena. The symmetry principle is of vital importance in various aspects of modern physics, including analyzing atomic spectra, determining fundamental…
Modern physics is largely defined by fundamental symmetry principles and Noether's Theorem. Yet these are not taught, or rarely mentioned, to beginning students, thus missing an opportunity to reveal that the subject of physics is as lively…
Symmetry is one of the most general and useful concepts in physics. A theory or a system that has a symmetry is fundamentally constrained by it. The same constraints do not apply when the symmetry is broken. The quantitative determination…
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…
A speculative discussion on the role of various symmetries in physics.