Am. Baldin, On symmetry in modern physics (dedicated to the 100th anniversary of the birth of academician V.A. Fock), PHYS PART N, 31(1), 2000, pp. 124-128
The development of the gauge symmetry has resulted in a complete determinat
ion of the Lagrangians for electromagnetic, weak, strong and gravitational
interactions and has created illusions about the construction of "the theor
y of everything." However, in just the same way as in classical physics, it
became clear that the deductive obtaining of solutions (laws of Nature) is
based not only on the principles of the Lagrangian symmetry. To find unamb
iguously solutions some additional conditions are needed without which the
solutions of the Lagrange equations are ambiguous. The additional condition
s such as hypotheses about the integral symmetries of solutions, the bounda
ry and initial conditions, the constants entering Lagrangians, and so on ar
e essential so that in a number of cases it is possible to construct models
(solutions, laws of Nature) without the recourse to the Lagrange method. A
n example of using such an approach in one of the rapidly developing domain
s of modern physics, namely relativistic nuclear physics, is given. An exac
t mathematical language of the gauge symmetry is the differential geometry
and that of the additional conditions in the topology, the parameter space
properties as a whole. In the present paper the fundamental contribution of
V.A. Fock to the development of the concept of space, the primary concept
of physics, is given.