English

Bracket relations for relativity groups

Classical Physics 2016-03-22 v4

Abstract

Poisson bracket relations for generators of canonical transformations are derived directly from the Galilei and Poincar\'e groups of changes of space-time coordinates. The method is simple but rigorous. The meaning of each step is clear because it corresponds to an operation in the group of changes of space-time coordinates. Only products and inverses are used; differences are not used. It is made explicitly clear why constants occur in some bracket relations but not in others, and how some constants can be removed, so that in the end there is a constant in the bracket relations for the Galilei group but not for the Poincar\'e group. Each change of coordinates needs to be only to first order, so matrices are not needed for rotations or Lorentz transformations; simple three-vector descriptions are enough. Conversion to quantum mechanics is immediate. One result is a simpler derivation of the commutation relations for angular momentum directly from rotations. Problems are included.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.0810.4637,
  title  = {Bracket relations for relativity groups},
  author = {Thomas F. Jordan},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:0810.4637},
  year   = {2016}
}

Comments

27 pages, title changed, Problem 7.5 added - little-noticed point of historical interest

R2 v1 2026-06-21T11:34:55.128Z