English

Fields of Lorentz transformations on space-time

Mathematical Physics 2007-05-23 v1 Algebraic Topology math.MP

Abstract

Fields of Lorentz transformations on a space--time are related to tangent bundle self isometries. In other words, a gauge transformation with respect to the Minkowski metric on each fibre. Any such isometry can be expressed, at least locally, as the exponential eFe^F where FF is antisymmetric with respect to the metric. We find there is a homotopy obstruction and a differential obstruction for a global FF. We completely study the structure of the singularity which is the heart of the differential obstruction and we find it is generated by "null" FF which are "orthogonal" to infinitesimal rotations FF with specific eigenvalues. We find that the classical electromagnetic field of a moving charged particle is naturally expressed using these ideas. The methods of this paper involve complexifying the FF bundle maps which leads to a very interesting algebraic situation. We use this not only to state and prove the singularity theorems, but to investigate the interaction of the "generic" and "null" FF, and we obtain, as a byproduct of our calculus, a very interesting basis for the four by four complex matrices, and we also observe that there are two different kinds of two dimensional complex null subspaces.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.math-ph/9812020,
  title  = {Fields of Lorentz transformations on space-time},
  author = {Daniel Henry Gottlieb},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:math-ph/9812020},
  year   = {2007}
}

Comments

19 pages. See http://www.math.purdue.edu:80/~gottlieb/Papers/papers.html for related papers and updates to this one