Background-Independence

Abstract

Intuitively speaking, a classical field theory is background-independent if the structure required to make sense of its equations is itself subject to dynamical evolution, rather than being imposed ab initio. The aim of this paper is to provide an explication of this intuitive notion. Background-independence is not a not formal property of theories: the question whether a theory is background-independent depends upon how the theory is interpreted. Under the approach proposed here, a theory is fully background-independent relative to an interpretation if each physical possibility corresponds to a distinct spacetime geometry; and it falls short of full background-independence to the extent that this condition fails.

arXiv commentForthcoming in General Relativity and Gravitation

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Cited by in corpus (8)

• Conceptual Aspects of Gauge/Gravity Duality
• Dualities and Emergent Gravity: Gauge/Gravity Duality
• On Geometric Objects, the Non-Existence of a Gravitational Stress-Energy Tensor, and the Uniqueness of the Einstein Field Equation
• Einstein's Equations for Spin $2$ Mass $0$ from Noether's Converse Hilbertian Assertion
• Gauge symmetry and background independence: Should the proton spin decomposition be path independent?
• Can Bohmian Mechanics Be Made Background Independent?
• A proposal for a Bohmian ontology of quantum gravity
• General Relativity and Background Independence