Why Gauges? Gauge symmetries for the classification of the physical states

TL;DR

This paper explores the foundational role of gauge symmetries in classifying physical states, emphasizing the importance of residual local gauge groups in quantum field theory and their topological and symmetry-breaking implications.

Contribution

It provides a principled motivation for gauge symmetries beyond practical success, highlighting the role of residual gauge groups in state classification and symmetry breaking.

Findings

Residual gauge groups enable physical state construction.

Topological invariants classify vacuum structures.

Mechanism for spontaneous symmetry breaking without Goldstone bosons.

Abstract

This note focuses the problem of motivating the use of gauge symmetries (being the identity on the observables) from general principles, beyond their practical success, starting from global gauge symmetries and then by emphasizing the substantially different role of local gauge symmetries. In the latter case, a deterministic time evolution of the local field algebra, necessary for field quantization, requires a reduction of the full local gauge group $\cal{G}$ to a residual local subgroup $\cal{G}_r$ satisfying suitable conditions. A non-trivial residual local gauge group allows for a description/construction of the physical states by using the vacuum representation of a local field algebra, otherwise precluded if $\cal{G}$ is reduced to the identity. Moreover, in the non-abelian case the non-trivial topology of the a residual $\cal{G}_r$ defines the (gauge invariant) topological invariants which classify the vacuum structure with important physical effects; furthermore, it provides a general mechanism of spontaneous symmetry breaking without Goldstone bosons.