Standard Research Grant: A Novel Philosophical Analysis of How Modern Gauge Symmetries Can Have Empirical Content

该奖项支持一个研究项目，该项目将开发一种新的对称哲学。该项目诊断了伽利略范式（其中对称性具有经验内容）对规范对称性的挑战;这是我们最好的物理理论的关键对称性，但它似乎没有任何经验内容。研究人员将提出一个新的对称性概念，可以解释规范对称性的经验内容。该项目将通过探索其与Emmy Noether，Albert Einstein和Felix Klein提出的深层概念问题的联系，将这种对对称性的新颖描述置于历史的视角中。该项目还将研究物理学基础中两个重要主题的新帐户的后果。这些结果将被纳入研究生、本科生和K-12水平的教育计划中;它们将被纳入科学哲学的本科生和研究生课程中，并被纳入南本德学校系统的推广活动中。研究人员将分析物理学家目前对对称性的经验内容的概念如何以及为什么超越了天真的伽利略范式。他们将利用这一分析的结果来发展一种新的解释，说明规范对称性（我们最好的物理理论的关键对称性）是如何经验的。然后，他们将把经验内容的概念与对称性历史上的一个重要事件联系起来，即关于广义相对论中能量守恒的诺特-克莱因-爱因斯坦对应。 Noether和Klein著名地指责爱因斯坦为广义相对论推导出的守恒定律是微不足道的;它们没有任何物理意义。研究人员将证明，诺特和克莱因的担忧正是关于伽利略范式的失败，而爱因斯坦的反驳（尽管不完全成功）是该项目对对称性的新颖解释的重要线索。研究人员还将把他们的经验内容概念应用于物理学基础中的两个重要主题;他们将用它来阐明牛顿引力中边界可观测量存在的可能性，以及量子霍尔效应的现象。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并被认为值得通过使用基金会的智力价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估来支持。

This award supports a research project that will develop a new philosophy of symmetry. The project diagnoses the challenge of the Galilean paradigm (in which symmetries have empirical content) for gauge symmetry; this is the key symmetry of our best physical theories, but it does not seem to have any empirical content. The researchers will put forward a novel conception of symmetry that can account for the empirical content of gauge symmetry. The project will place this novel account of symmetry in historical perspective by exploring its connection to deep conceptual issues raised by Emmy Noether, Albert Einstein, and Felix Klein. The project will also examine the consequences of the new account for two important topics in the foundations of physics. These results will be incorporated into educational programs at graduate, undergraduate, and K-12 levels; they will be incorporated in undergraduate and graduate courses in the philosophy of science, and in the creation of outreach events for the South Bend School System.This project develops a new philosophy of symmetry. The researchers will analyze how and why physicists' present conception of the empirical content of symmetries outstrips the naive Galilean paradigm. They will use the results of this analysis to develop a new account of how gauge symmetry (the key symmetry of our best physical theories) can be empirical. They will then connect their notion of empirical content to an important episode in the history of symmetry, the Noether-Klein-Einstein correspondence about energy conservation in General Relativity. Noether and Klein famously charged that the conservation laws derived by Einstein for General Relativity were trivial; they do not bear any physical significance. The researchers will show that Noether and Klein's concerns were precisely about the failure of the Galilean paradigm, and that Einstein's rejoinders (though not entirely successful) were important clues towards the project's novel account of symmetry. The researchers will also apply their notion of empirical content to two important topics in the foundations of physics; they will use it to shed light on the possible of existence of boundary observables in Newtonian gravity, and on the phenomena of the quantum Hall effectThis award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.