TL;DR
This paper explores the physical significance of gauge theories, proposing that gauge is not mere redundancy but reflects real relational structures that underpin how systems couple and are measured.
Contribution
It offers a novel interpretation of gauge as representing genuine relational structures, moving beyond the traditional view of gauge as mathematical redundancy.
Findings
Gauge-dependent quantities can be measured through relational structures.
Gauge reflects real physical relations, not just mathematical redundancy.
Provides a new physical interpretation of gauge theories.
Abstract
The world appears to be well described by gauge theories; why? I suggest that gauge is more than mathematical redundancy. Gauge-dependent quantities can not be predicted, but there is a sense in which they can be measured. They describe "handles" though which systems couple: they represent real relational structures to which the experimentalist has access in measurement by supplying one of the relata in the measurement procedure itself. This observation leads to a physical interpretation for the ubiquity of gauge: it is a consequence of a relational structure of physical quantities.
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