Gauge forces and internal symmetries

Click For Summary

Discussion Overview

The discussion centers on the nature of gauge forces and their relationship with global and local symmetries in physics. Participants explore the implications of these symmetries for conservation laws, the existence of gauge bosons, and the role of quantum mechanics in relation to locality and symmetry.

Discussion Character

  • Exploratory
  • Debate/contested
  • Technical explanation

Main Points Raised

  • Some participants assert that global symmetries do not have associated gauge bosons or gauge forces, contrasting this with local symmetries which do, such as the photon for electric charge conservation.
  • Questions arise regarding whether global symmetries are solely related to conservation laws, with inquiries into other possible conservation laws beyond baryon conservation.
  • Participants discuss the nature of quantum mechanics, suggesting that while it is fundamentally nonlocal, it still adheres to local symmetries, raising questions about the implications of contextuality and Bell's theorem.
  • There is mention of various global symmetries, including parity, charge conjugation, time reversal, and flavor conservation laws, with inquiries into whether there are additional global symmetries.
  • Some participants note that while certain symmetries are broken, they still contribute to valid global symmetries, and discuss the implications of Poincare symmetry on conservation laws.
  • Concerns are raised about the absence of global symmetry fields and the reasons behind this, with explanations involving gauge comparators and the nature of global versus local symmetry.
  • Discussions include the relationship between mass and global symmetry, with differing views on whether mass can be considered a conserved quantity under relativistic physics.

Areas of Agreement / Disagreement

Participants exhibit a range of views on the relationship between global and local symmetries, the nature of conservation laws, and the implications for quantum mechanics. There is no consensus on several points, particularly regarding the existence of global symmetry fields and the treatment of mass in relation to symmetry.

Contextual Notes

Some discussions reference complex mathematical concepts and the need for further exploration of gauge theory, indicating that certain assumptions and definitions may be context-dependent. Additionally, the implications of symmetry breaking and super symmetry are noted but not fully resolved.

kye
Messages
166
Reaction score
2
gauge forces like electromagnetic, weak and strong forces have local gauge symmetry invariance in terms of u(1), su(2), su(3) because the em for example can't have the same global phase or global symmetry at all points of space. but is there no corresponding gauge forces for global symmetry?
 
Physics news on Phys.org
No, global symmetries have no gauge bosons or gauge forces associated with them. For instance, there is not gauge boson associated with baryon number conservation but there is a boson associated with electric charge conservation - the photon. That's because baryon conservation is a consequence from a global symmetry while charge conservation is a consequence from a local symmetry.
 
dauto said:
No, global symmetries have no gauge bosons or gauge forces associated with them. For instance, there is not gauge boson associated with baryon number conservation but there is a boson associated with electric charge conservation - the photon. That's because baryon conservation is a consequence from a global symmetry while charge conservation is a consequence from a local symmetry.

1. does global symmetry only have to do with conservations? what other conservations are there beside baryon conservation in global symmetry?

2. quantum is supposed to be random and even nonlocal. why does it have go obey local symmetry of phase for example when global simultaneous change of phase may not be problem since quantum mechanics is fundamentally nonlocal?
 
Each symmetry has a conserved charge. There are four symmetries and four charges. U(1)xSU(2) gives you conserved electric and weak charges. SU(3) gives you conserved color-charge. And if you throw in a bit of GR and consider Poincare symmetry, you end up with stress-energy tensor as another conserved charge. The later is a generalization of energy, momentum, and angular momentum conservation from classical theory.

And Quantum Mechanics is actually very local. You shouldn't think of "delocalization" as particles starting to behave as diffuse clouds. They still behave as point objects. These point objects simply have ability to take all the possible paths at once, and therefore, interact at many different places at once. But interaction at each location is still strictly local.
 
K^2 said:
Each symmetry has a conserved charge. There are four symmetries and four charges. U(1)xSU(2) gives you conserved electric and weak charges. SU(3) gives you conserved color-charge. And if you throw in a bit of GR and consider Poincare symmetry, you end up with stress-energy tensor as another conserved charge. The later is a generalization of energy, momentum, and angular momentum conservation from classical theory.

i read the global symmetry is composed of

1. parity
2. charge conjugation
3. time reversal
4. flavor conservation laws - lepton and baryon numbers

are there others?
but you will notice all of them are not fields like em or weak fields. but why is there no global symmetry fields. what laws forbid them?


And Quantum Mechanics is actually very local. You shouldn't think of "delocalization" as particles starting to behave as diffuse clouds. They still behave as point objects. These point objects simply have ability to take all the possible paths at once, and therefore, interact at many different places at once. But interaction at each location is still strictly local.

but in contextuality and bells theorem which discoung local realism, bill hobba for example in the other thread said particles don't exist before measurement, meaning the other entangled pair for example don't exist before measurement. maybe you subscribe to realism compared to others?
 
kye said:
i read the global symmetry is composed of

1. parity
2. charge conjugation
3. time reversal
4. flavor conservation laws - lepton and baryon numbers

are there others?
Parity, charge, and time symmetries, individually, are broken. There are PC violations which suggest that T violations also exist. Together, PCT is a valid global symmetry, but since it follows from Poincare symmetry, I would expect it to have the same conservation law.

Flavors aren't strictly conserved either. Baryon and lepton numbers appear to be, but their conservation follows from super symmetry, and there is symmetry breaking there as well. Unfortunately, I know very little about the subject. You can try your luck in high energy section for that.

kye said:
but you will notice all of them are not fields like em or weak fields. but why is there no global symmetry fields. what laws forbid them?
Because the corresponding force fields result from gauge comparators. If the gauge is global, comparator is unity throughout space, and the connection field vanishes. So you can say that there is a field corresponding to global symmetry, but it's zero everywhere. There is a bit of algebra in here that I'm glossing over. I can run through it if you are comfortable with multi-variable calculus.
 
K^2 said:
Parity, charge, and time symmetries, individually, are broken. There are PC violations which suggest that T violations also exist. Together, PCT is a valid global symmetry, but since it follows from Poincare symmetry, I would expect it to have the same conservation law.

Flavors aren't strictly conserved either. Baryon and lepton numbers appear to be, but their conservation follows from super symmetry, and there is symmetry breaking there as well. Unfortunately, I know very little about the subject. You can try your luck in high energy section for that.


Because the corresponding force fields result from gauge comparators. If the gauge is global, comparator is unity throughout space, and the connection field vanishes. So you can say that there is a field corresponding to global symmetry, but it's zero everywhere. There is a bit of algebra in here that I'm glossing over. I can run through it if you are comfortable with multi-variable calculus.

K^2. I searched for "Gauge Comparators" and all references I can find are tire gauge comparators. What is the other name for this in gauge theory that I can find in the net? Anyway. I found this paper by David Gloss "Gauge: Past, Present and Future" and there is a line that mentioned "A local symmetry is much more in keeping with the lessons of field theory and relativity than a postulated global symmetry, which smells of action at a distance.". Now let me go back the quantum entanglement thing. Is quantum correlations or Bell's theorem not related to the global symmetry of Gauge theory? Or Is gauge theory nothing to do with quantum entanglement at all? It is not described by local symmetry nor global symmetry? Why? Hope others can comment too. Thanks.
 
Gauge Global Symmetry

I read that global symmetry is composed of

1. parity
2. charge conjugation
3. time reversal
4. flavor conservation laws - lepton and baryon numbers

Why is mass not a global symmetry? are there others global symmetry besides the above? Why them specifically?

I know local symmetry produced the gauge fields like em, electroweak, strong in the form of U(1), SU(2), SU(3)
 
Since mass is not conserved within relativistic physics, there's no symmetry related to it.

In non-relativistic physics mass is a central charge of the Galilei group and thus not only conserved but there's also a superselection rule, according to which there are no superpositions of states with different mass. See, e.g.,

http://arxiv.org/abs/quant-ph/9508002
 
  • #10
Mass is a conserved quantity. The relevant global symmetry in relativistic physics is translation invariance of spacetime: ##x^\mu \rightarrow x^\mu + \alpha^\mu##. Under this symmetry, 4-momentum ##p_\mu## (energy and spatial momentum) is conserved. Mass is the length squared of this 4-momentum, ##p^\mu p_\mu = m^2## and is a conserved, Lorentz-invariant quantity.
 

Similar threads

  • · Replies 6 ·
Replies
6
Views
2K
  • · Replies 5 ·
Replies
5
Views
2K
  • · Replies 6 ·
Replies
6
Views
2K
  • · Replies 47 ·
2
Replies
47
Views
7K
  • · Replies 8 ·
Replies
8
Views
1K
  • · Replies 2 ·
Replies
2
Views
2K
  • · Replies 4 ·
Replies
4
Views
2K
  • · Replies 46 ·
2
Replies
46
Views
8K
  • · Replies 7 ·
Replies
7
Views
2K
  • · Replies 6 ·
Replies
6
Views
3K