Related papers: Laws of inertia in higher degree binary forms
A characterization of the general linear equation in standard form admitting a maximal symmetry algebra is obtained in terms of a simple set of conditions relating the coefficients of the equation. As a consequence, it is shown that in its…
We survey various classical results on invariants of polynomials, or equivalently, of binary forms, focussing on explicit calculations for invariants of polynomials of degrees 2, 3, 4.
We develop a theory of sesquilinear forms over finite fields, investigating their representations via polynomials and coefficient matrices, along with classification results for these forms. Through their connection to quadratic forms, we…
It is an old speculation in physics that, once the gravitational field is successfully quantized, it should serve as the natural regulator of infrared and ultraviolet singularities that plague quantum field theories in a background metric.…
A simple, general discussion of the problem of inertia is provided both in classical physics and in the quantum world. After briefly reviewing the classical principles of equivalence (weak (WEP), Einstein (EEP), strong (SEP)), I pass to a…
We give an alternative description of the physical content of general relativity that does not require a Lorentz invariant spacetime. Instead, we find that gravity admits a dual description in terms of a theory where local size is…
This paper addresses two fundamental problems posed by Qi regarding the sufficiency of eigenvalues for the classification of symmetric tensors in the two-dimensional setting. For $2\times2\times2$ and $2\times2\times2\times2$ complex…
A simple theorem on proportionality of indefinite real quadratic forms is proved, and is used to clarify the proof of the invariance of the interval in Special Relativity from Einstein's postulate on the universality of the speed of light;…
We study real ternary forms whose real rank equals the generic complex rank, and we characterize the semialgebraic set of sums of powers representations with that rank. Complete results are obtained for quadrics and cubics. For quintics we…
It is shown that the sum of class numbers of orders in totally complex quartic fields with no real quadratic subfield obeys an asymptotic law similar to the prime numbers, as the bound on the regulators tends to infinity. Here only orders…
We obtain the matter-graviton scattering amplitude in the gravitational theory of quadratic curvature, which has $R_{\mu\nu}^2$ term in the action. Unitarity bound is not satisfied because of the existence of negative norm states, while an…
We investigate the presence of twinlike models in theories described by several real scalar fields. We focus on the first-order formalism, and we show how to build distinct scalar field theories that support the same extended solution, with…
Rotational invariance of physical laws is a generally accepted principle. We show that it leads to an additional external constraint on local realistic models of physical phenomena involving measurements of multiparticle spin 1/2…
We prove a local-global principle for representations of binary by quaternary quadratic forms. One of the main ingredients is a recent measure rigidity result of Einsiedler and Lindenstrauss for diagonalizable actions on quotients of…
Following an early observation of Ignatowsky, we present a derivation of the transformation rules between inertial systems making no other assumptions than the existence of the latter, and show that generically these rules are characterized…
We first see that the inertia of Newtonian mechanics is absolute and troublesome. General relativity can be viewed as Einstein's attempt to remedy, by making inertia relative, to matter---perhaps imperfectly though, as at least a couple of…
There is a natural equivalence relation on representations of the states of a given quantum system in a Hilbert space, two representations being equivalent iff they are related by a unitary transformation. There are two equivalence classes,…
Symmetries of generalized gravitational actions, yielding field equations which typically involve at most second-order derivatives of the metric, are considered. The field equations for several different higher-derivative theories in the…
Let $q$ be a unimodular quadratic form over a field $K$. Pfister's famous local--global principle asserts that $q$ represents a torsion class in the Witt group of $K$ if and only if it has signature $0$, and that in this case, the order of…
The problem of the classification of the indefinite binary quadratic forms with integer coefficients is solved introducing a special partition of the de Sitter world, where the coefficients of the forms lie, into separate domains. Every…