When scale is surplus

DOI10.1007/S11229-021-03443-7MaRDI QIDQ6180172zbMATH OpenFDO

Authors Sean Gryb, David Sloan

Publication date 19 January 2024

Published in Synthese (Search for Journal in Brave)

Copyright license Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International

Full work available at URL https://arxiv.org/abs/2103.07384

zbMATH Keywords

symmetrycosmologyarrow of timecontact geometrydynamical similaritysingularity resolutionsurplus structure

Mathematics Subject Classification ID

General relativity (83C99)

Abstract: We study a long-recognised but under-appreciated symmetry called "dynamical similarity" and illustrate its relevance to many important conceptual problems in fundamental physics. Dynamical similarities are general transformations of a system where the unit of Hamilton's principal function is rescaled, and therefore represent a kind of dynamical scaling symmetry with formal properties that differ from many standard symmetries. To study this symmetry, we develop a general framework for symmetries that distinguishes the observable and surplus structures of a theory by using the minimal freely specifiable initial data for the theory that is necessary to achieve empirical adequacy. This framework is then applied to well-studied examples including Galilean invariance and the symmetries of the Kepler problem. We find that our framework gives a precise dynamical criterion for identifying the observables of those systems, and that those observables agree with epistemic expectations. We then apply our framework to dynamical similarity. First we give a general definition of dynamical similarity. Then we show, with the help of some previous results, how the dynamics of our observables leads to singularity resolution and the emergence of an arrow of time in cosmology.

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Cited in

(7)

• Kirillov structures and reduction of Hamiltonian systems by scaling and standard symmetries
• Herglotz action for homogeneous cosmologies
• Dynamical similarity in field theories
• Orbital dynamics on invariant sets of contact Hamiltonian systems
• Contact Lie systems on Riemannian and Lorentzian spaces: from scaling symmetries to curvature-dependent reductions
• Scaling symmetries, contact reduction and Poincaré’s dream
• Pure shape dynamics: general framework

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