The Mathematical Foundations of Gauge Theory Revisited

We start recalling with critical eyes the mathematical methods used in gauge theory and prove that they are not coherent with continuum mechanics, in particular the analytical mechanics of rigid bodies or hydrodynamics, though using the same group theoretical methods and despite the well known couplings existing between elasticity and electromagnetism (piezzoelectricity, photoelasticity, streaming birefringence). The purpose of this paper is to avoid such contradictions by using new mathematical methods coming from the formal theory of systems of partial differential equations and Lie pseudogroups. These results finally allow to unify the previous independent tentatives done by the brothers E. and F. Cosserat in 1909 for elasticity or H. Weyl in 1918 for electromagnetism by using respectively the group of rigid motions of space or the conformal group of space-time. Meanwhile we explain why the Poincaré duality scheme existing between geometry and physics has to do with homological algebra and algebraic analysis. We insist on the fact that these results could not have been obtained before 1975 as the corresponding tools were not known before.