Article ID Journal Published Year Pages File Type
5130434 Studies in History and Philosophy of Science Part B: Studies in History and Philosophy of Modern Physics 2017 6 Pages PDF
Abstract

I argue that, underneath the glitz, dual theories are simply examples of theoretically equivalent descriptions of the same underlying physical content: I distinguish them from cases of genuine underdetermination on the grounds that there is no real incompatibility involved between the descriptions. The incompatibility is at the level of purely unphysical structure. I argue that dual pairs are in fact very strongly analogous to gauge-related solutions even for dual pairs that look the most radically distinct, such as AdS/CFT. However, again by analogy with gauge freedom, I conjecture that dualities always point to a more fundamental (intrinsic) description, namely that in which the representational redundancy is eliminated.

Related Topics
Physical Sciences and Engineering Physics and Astronomy Physics and Astronomy (General)
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