The Heuristic Function of Duality

Abstract

I conceptualise the role of dualities in quantum gravity, in terms of their functions for theory construction. I distinguish between two functions of duality in physical practice: namely, discovering and describing 'equivalent physics', vs. suggesting 'new physics'. I dub these the 'theoretical' vs. the 'heuristic' functions of dualities. The distinction seems to have gone largely unnoticed in the philosophical literature: and it exists both for dualities, and for the more general relation of theoretical equivalence. The paper develops the heuristic function of dualities: illustrating how they can be used, if one has any luck, to find and formulate new theories. I also point to the different physical commitments about the theories in question that underlie these two functions. I show how a recently developed schema for dualities articulates the differences between the two functions.

37 pages. v2: references updated, published version

References in corpus (6)

• Emergence in Holographic Scenarios for Gravity
• Dualities and Emergent Gravity: Gauge/Gravity Duality
• Target Space $\ne$ Space
• Interpreting Theories without a Spacetime
• The Heuristic Function of Duality
• Towards a Theory of Emergence for the Physical Sciences

Cited by in corpus (7)

• Interpreting Theories without a Spacetime
• The Heuristic Function of Duality
• Conceptual Analysis of Black Hole Entropy in String Theory
• String theory, Einstein, and the identity of physics: Theory assessment in absence of the empirical
• Predicting the Future is like Completing a Painting!
• Emergence and Correspondence for String Theory Black Holes
• Entanglement entropy and non-local duality: quantum channels and quantum algebras