Gauge theory and chemical structure

Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences

Volumn 988, Issue , 2003, Pages 193-202

  Mattingly, James ^a  

^a GEORGETOWN UNIVERSITY   (United States)

Author keywords

Bader; Chemical structure; Gauge theory; Scientific explanation

Indexed keywords

CHEMICAL STRUCTURE; CONFERENCE PAPER; ELECTRIC FIELD; GEOMETRY; MAGNETIC FIELD; PHYSICS;

EID: 0038467629     PISSN: 00778923     EISSN: None     Source Type: Book Series    
DOI: 10.1111/j.1749-6632.2003.tb06098.x     Document Type: Conference Paper

References (15)

1. The idea of giving a retrospective reevaluation of what was true for older theories is an extremely interesting topic in its own right, but it would take us too far afield to consider it now. Some of this is done in MATTINGLY, J. 2001. Singularities and scalar fields: matter theory and general relativity. Philos. Sci. 68: S395-S406.
2. BADER, RICHARD F.W. 1990. Atoms in Molecules - A Quantum Theory. Clarendon Press. Oxford, UK.
3. MATTINGLY, JAMES. 2003. Why there are no gauge fields. Unpublished manuscript.
4. I speak all along in this paper as though I believe the story I'm telling about gauge theory. I don't But the proper connection between what I do believe and the story I'm telling here will have to wait. What I express is the overwhelming consensus in present discussions of the nature of gauge theories.
5. AHARONOV, Y. & DAVID BOHM. 1959. Significance of potentials in the quantum theory. Phys. Rev. 115: 485-491.
6. MATTINGLY, "Why there are no gauge fields."
7. I carry out a critical appraisal in the work cited in note 6.
8. These and other issues have received extensive treatment in the literature. See for instance: BELOT, G. 1998. Understanding electromagnetism. Br. J. Philos. Sci. 49: 531-555; HEALEY, R. 1997. Nonlocality and the Aharonov-Bohm effect. Philos. Sci. 64: 18-40; LEEDS, S. 1999. Gauges: Aharonov, Bohm, Yang, Healey. Philos. Sci. 66: 606-627; and for an early and still crucial treatment, WU, T.T. & C.N. YANG. 1975. Concept of nonintegrable phase factors and global formulation of gauge fields. Phys. Rev. D12: 3845-3846.
9. These and other issues have received extensive treatment in the literature. See for instance: BELOT, G. 1998. Understanding electromagnetism. Br. J. Philos. Sci. 49: 531-555; HEALEY, R. 1997. Nonlocality and the Aharonov-Bohm effect. Philos. Sci. 64: 18-40; LEEDS, S. 1999. Gauges: Aharonov, Bohm, Yang, Healey. Philos. Sci. 66: 606-627; and for an early and still crucial treatment, WU, T.T. & C.N. YANG. 1975. Concept of nonintegrable phase factors and global formulation of gauge fields. Phys. Rev. D12: 3845-3846.
10. These and other issues have received extensive treatment in the literature. See for instance: BELOT, G. 1998. Understanding electromagnetism. Br. J. Philos. Sci. 49: 531-555; HEALEY, R. 1997. Nonlocality and the Aharonov-Bohm effect. Philos. Sci. 64: 18-40; LEEDS, S. 1999. Gauges: Aharonov, Bohm, Yang, Healey. Philos. Sci. 66: 606-627; and for an early and still crucial treatment, WU, T.T. & C.N. YANG. 1975. Concept of nonintegrable phase factors and global formulation of gauge fields. Phys. Rev. D12: 3845-3846.
11. These and other issues have received extensive treatment in the literature. See for instance: BELOT, G. 1998. Understanding electromagnetism. Br. J. Philos. Sci. 49: 531-555; HEALEY, R. 1997. Nonlocality and the Aharonov-Bohm effect. Philos. Sci. 64: 18-40; LEEDS, S. 1999. Gauges: Aharonov, Bohm, Yang, Healey. Philos. Sci. 66: 606-627; and for an early and still crucial treatment, WU, T.T. & C.N. YANG. 1975. Concept of nonintegrable phase factors and global formulation of gauge fields. Phys. Rev. D12: 3845-3846.
12. See the first three references in note 4 for representative views.
13. However, these issues are addressed by other contributions to this volume, and references therein.
14. For those who are inclined to demand that "actually there" be given an operational definition, you are already opposed to saying that the expectation value is the average charge. Average charge is itself a nonoperational kind of quantity.
15. ROSENFELD, L. 1963. On quantization of fields. Nucl. Phys. 40: 353-356.