English

Milne-like Spacetimes and their Symmetries

General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology 2018-05-04 v2

Abstract

When developing a quantum theory for a physical system, one determines the system's symmetry group and its irreducible unitary representations. For Minkowski space, the symmetry group is the Poincar\'e group, R4O(1,3)\mathbb{R}^4 \rtimes \text{O}(1,3), and the irreducible unitary representations are interpreted as elementary particles which determine the particle's mass and spin. We determine the symmetry group for Milne-like spacetimes, a class of cosmological spacetimes, to be R×O(1,3)\mathbb{R} \times \text{O}(1,3) and classify their irreducible unitary representations. Again they represent particles with mass and spin. Unlike the classification for the Poincar\'e group, we do not obtain any faster-than-light particles. The factor R\mathbb{R} corresponds to cosmic time translations. These generate a mass Casimir operator which yields a Lorentz invariant Dirac equation on Milne-like spacetimes. In fact it's just the original Dirac equation multiplied by a conformal factor Ω\Omega. Therefore many of the invariants and symmetries still hold. We offer a new interpretation of the negative energy states and propose a possible solution to the matter-antimatter asymmetry problem in our universe.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.1803.00174,
  title  = {Milne-like Spacetimes and their Symmetries},
  author = {Eric Ling},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1803.00174},
  year   = {2018}
}

Comments

33 pages. v2: corrections made and references added. This paper supersedes arXiv:1706.01408