Gauges, Holes, and their `Connections'

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to present a generalized hole argument for gauge field theories and their geometrical setting in terms of fiber bundles. The generalized hole argument is motivated and extended from the spacetime hole arguments which appear in spacetime theories based on differentiable manifolds such as general relativity. Analogously, the generalized hole argument rules out fiber bundle substantivalism and, thus, a relationalistic interpretation of the geometry of fiber bundle spaces is favoured. Along the way, the concept of gauge field theories will be analyzed via considering the gauge principle and thereby hopefully clarifying certain terminological ambiguities.