The paper addresses the quantization of minisuperspace cosmological models, with application to the Taub Model. By desparametrizing the model with an extrinsic time, a formalism is developed in order to define a conserved Schrödinger inner product in the space of

Abstract. We analyze the geometric foundations of classical YangMills theory by studying the relationships between internal relativity, locality, global/local invariance, and background independence. We argue that internal relativity and background independence are the two independent defining principles of Yang-Mills theory. We show that local gauge invariance -heuristically implemented by means of the gauge argument -is a direct consequence of internal relativity. Finally, we analyze the conceptual meaning of BRST symmetry in terms of the invariance of the gauge fixed theory under general local gauge transformations.

Abstract. We propose a conceptual framework for understanding the relationship between observables and operators in mechanics. To do so, we introduce a postulate that establishes a correspondence between the objective properties permitting to identify physical states and the symmetry transformations that modify their gauge dependant properties. We show that the uncertainty principle results from a faithful -or equivariant -realization of this correspondence. It is a consequence of the proposed postulate that the quantum notion of objective physical states is not incomplete, but rather that the classical notion is overdetermined.

Abstract. We use the theory of Cartan connections to analyze the geometrical structures underpinning the gauge-theoretical descriptions of the gravitational interaction. According to the theory of Cartan connections, the spin connection ω and the soldering form θ that define the fundamental variables of the Palatini formulation of general relativity can be understood as different components of a single field, namely a Cartan connection A = ω + θ. In order to stress both the similarities and the differences between the notions of Ehresmann connection and Cartan connection, we explain in detail how a Cartan geometry (PH → M, A) can be obtained from a G-principal bundle PG → M endowed with an Ehresmann connection (being the Lorentz group H a subgroup of G) by means of a bundle reduction mechanism. We claim that this reduction must be understood as a partial gauge fixing of the local gauge symmetries of PG, i.e. as a gauge fixing that leaves "unbroken" the local Lorentz invariance. We then argue that the "broken" part of the symmetry-that is the internal local translational invariance-is implicitly preserved by the invariance under the external diffeomorphisms of M.