Inertial Transformations and the Nonexistence of Tachyons for Spacetime Dimension Greater than Two
Abstract
We consider real linear transformations between two inertial frames with constant relative speed in a -dimensional spacetime where light moves with constant speed (for some chosen units) in all frames. For we show that the standard relative velocity formula holds and that any associated anisotropic conformal factor is multiplicative under composition of inertial transformations for . Assuming that the inertial transformation matrix is continuous in a neighbourhood of and differentiable at , we determine the conformal factor for all . For an isotropic spacetime, the general solution reduces to the standard Lorentz transformation for or to a Tachyonic transformation for , first described by Parker in 1969. For we show that no Tachyonic-like inertial transformations exist which are compatible with constant light speed.
Keywords
Cite
@article{arxiv.2410.22025,
title = {Inertial Transformations and the Nonexistence of Tachyons for Spacetime Dimension Greater than Two},
author = {David Acton and Owen Doyle and Michael P. Tuite},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2410.22025},
year = {2024}
}