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Physics > History and Philosophy of Physics

Title: Gauge Invariance through Gauge Fixing

Authors: David Wallace
Abstract: Phenomena in gauge theory are often described in the physics literature via a specific choice of gauge. In foundational and philosophical discussions this is often criticized as introducing gauge dependence, and contrasted against (often aspirational) "gauge-invariant" descriptions of the physics. I argue, largely in the context of scalar electrodynamics, that this is misguided, and that descriptions of a physical process within a specific gauge are in fact gauge-invariant descriptions. However, most of them are non-local descriptions of that physics, and I suggest that this ought to be the real objection to such descriptions. I explore the unitary gauge as the exception to this nonlocality and consider its strengths and limitations, as well as (more briefly) its extension beyond scalar electrodynamics.
Comments: 19 pages. Updated due to initial typo in title
Subjects: History and Philosophy of Physics (physics.hist-ph); High Energy Physics - Theory (hep-th)
Cite as: arXiv:2404.15456 [physics.hist-ph]
  (or arXiv:2404.15456v2 [physics.hist-ph] for this version)

Submission history

From: David Wallace [view email]
[v1] Tue, 23 Apr 2024 18:58:20 GMT (20kb)
[v2] Thu, 25 Apr 2024 19:52:35 GMT (20kb)

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