Dressing vs. Fixing: On How to Extract and Interpret Gauge-Invariant Content

Result code in IS VaVaI

<a href="https://www.isvavai.cz/riv?ss=detail&h=RIV%2F00216224%3A14310%2F24%3A00138327" target="_blank" >RIV/00216224:14310/24:00138327 - isvavai.cz</a>

Result on the web

<a href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10701-024-00809-y" target="_blank" >https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10701-024-00809-y</a>

DOI - Digital Object Identifier

<a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10701-024-00809-y" target="_blank" >10.1007/s10701-024-00809-y</a>

Result language

angličtina

Original language name

Dressing vs. Fixing: On How to Extract and Interpret Gauge-Invariant Content

Original language description

There is solid consensus among physicists and philosophers that, in gauge field theory, for a quantity to be physically meaningful or real, it must be gauge-invariant. Yet, every "elementary" field in the Standard Model of particle physics is actually gauge-variant. This has led a number of researchers to insist that new manifestly gauge-invariant approaches must be established. Indeed, in the foundational literature, dissatisfaction with standard methods for reducing gauge symmetries has been expressed: Spontaneous symmetry breaking is deemed conceptually dubious, while gauge fixing suffers the same limitations and is subject to the same criticisms as coordinate choices in General Relativity. An alternative gauge-invariant proposal was recently introduced in the literature, the so-called "dressing field method" (DFM). It is a mathematically subtle tool, and unfortunately prone to be confused with simple gauge transformations, hence with standard gauge fixings. As a matter of fact, in the physics literature the two are often conflated, and in the philosophy community some doubts have been raised about whether there is any substantial difference between them. Clarifying this issue is of special significance for anyone interested in both the foundational issues of gauge theories and their invariant formulation. It is thus our objective to establish as precisely as possible the technical and conceptual distinctions between the DFM and gauge fixing.

Czech name

—

Czech description

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Type

J_imp - Article in a specialist periodical, which is included in the Web of Science database

CEP classification

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OECD FORD branch

10100 - Mathematics

Project

—

Continuities

I - Institucionalni podpora na dlouhodoby koncepcni rozvoj vyzkumne organizace

Publication year

2024

Confidentiality

S - Úplné a pravdivé údaje o projektu nepodléhají ochraně podle zvláštních právních předpisů

Name of the periodical

Foundations of Physics

ISSN

0015-9018

e-ISSN

1572-9516

Volume of the periodical

54

Issue of the periodical within the volume

6

Country of publishing house

US - UNITED STATES

Number of pages

26

Pages from-to

1-26

UT code for WoS article

001357778800001

EID of the result in the Scopus database

2-s2.0-85209568206