English

Zero mass as a Borel structure

General Physics 2025-09-08 v2

Abstract

The Lorentz group Lor1,3=_{1,3}=SO0(1,3)_0(1,3) has two point fixgroups, namely SO(3)(3) for time-like translations and SO0(1,1)×R2_0(1,1)\times R^2 for light-like translations. However, for light-like translations it is reasonable to consider a line fixgroup that leads to the Borel structure of the Lorentz group and gives appropriate helicities for massless particles. Therefore, whether a particle is massless or massive is not so much a physical question but rather a question of the underlying Lie group symmetry.

Cite

@article{arxiv.2506.12079,
  title  = {Zero mass as a Borel structure},
  author = {Rein Saar and Stefan Groote},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2506.12079},
  year   = {2025}
}

Comments

30 pages, no figures

R2 v1 2026-07-01T03:16:44.353Z