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Galileo’s Gauge: Understanding the Empirical Significance of Gauge Symmetry

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2022

Nicholas J. Teh
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Abstract

This article investigates and resolves the question whether gauge symmetry can display analogs of the famous Galileo’s ship scenario. In doing so, it builds on and clarifies the work of Greaves and Wallace (“Empirical Consequences of Symmetries”) on this subject.

Type
Research Article
Information
Philosophy of Science , Volume 83 , Issue 1 , January 2016 , pp. 93 - 118
Copyright
Copyright © 2016 by the Philosophy of Science Association

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Footnotes

†

I would like to thank Jeremy Butterfield, Harvey Brown, Simon Friederich, and David Wallace for helpful exchanges about this material, as well as seminar audiences at the University of Cambridge, NYU, LSE, the University of Minnesota, and the University of Notre Dame.

References

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