Related papers: Group Contractions: Inonu, Wigner, and Einstein
It is noted that the internal space-time symmetries of relativistic particles are dictated by Wigner's little groups. The symmetry of massive particles is like the three-dimensional rotation group, while the symmetry of massless particles…
As Einstein's $E = mc^{2}$ unifies the energy-momentum relation for massive and massless particles, Wigner's little group unifies their internal space-time symmetries. It is pointed out that translational symmetries play essential roles…
Wigner's little groups are subgroups of the Lorentz group dictating the internal space-time symmetries of massive and massless particles. These little groups are like O(3) and E(2) for massive and massless particles respectively. While the…
The internal space-time symmetries of relativistic particles are dictated by Wigner's little groups. The $O(3)$-like little group for a massive particle at rest and the $E(2)$-like little group of a massless particle are two different…
The connection between spin and symmetry was established by Wigner in his 1939 paper on the Poincar\'e group. For a massive particle at rest, the little group is O(3) from which the concept of spin emerges. The little group for a massless…
The Inonu-Wigner contraction is applied to special relativity and the little groups of the Lorentz group. If the O(3) symmetry group for massive particle is boosted to an infinite-momentum frame, it becomes contracted to a combination of…
The energy-mass content of Einstein's E = mc^{2} is well known. For a fixed value of mass, E = mc^{2} is an energy-momentum relation which takes the form E = \sqrt{m^{2} + p^{2}}. This relation was formulated in 1905 for point particles.…
If Einstein's photon is $E = cp = \hbar\omega$, Wigner's photon is its helicity which is a Lorentz-invariant concept coming from the E(2)-like little group for massless particles. In addition, the E(2)-like little group has two…
Einstein's photo-electric effect allows us to regard electromagnetic waves as massless particles. Then, how is the photon helicity translated into the electric and magnetic fields perpendicular to the direction of propagation? This is an…
Four $SL(2,C)$ spinors are considered within the framework of Wigner's little groups which dictate internal space-time symmetries of relativistic particles. It is indicated that the little group for a massive particle at rest is $O(3)$,…
The 20th-century physics starts with Einstein and ends with Feynman. Einstein introduced the Lorentz-covariant world with E = mc^{2}. Feynman observed that fast-moving hadrons consist of partons which act incoherently with external signals.…
The second-order differential equation for a damped harmonic oscillator can be converted to two coupled first-order equations, with two two-by-two matrices leading to the group $Sp(2)$. It is shown that this oscillator system contains the…
Extended particles are considered in terms of the fields on the Poincar\'{e} group. Dirac like wave equations for extended particles of any spin are defined on the various homogeneous spaces of the Poincar\'{e} group. Free fields of the…
Wigner's quantum-mechanical classification of particle-types in terms of irreducible representations of the Poincar\'e group has a classical analogue, which we extend in this paper. We study the compactness properties of the resulting phase…
R. P. Feynman was quite fond of inventing new physics. It is shown that some of his physical ideas can be supported by the mathematical instruments available from the Lorentz group. As a consequence, it is possible to construct a…
Solutions of the sourceless Einstein's equation with weak and strong cosmological constants are discussed by using In\"on\"u-Wigner contractions of the de Sitter groups and spaces. The more usual case corresponds to a weak…
Wigner's little groups are the subgroups of the Lorentz group whose transformations leave the momentum of a given particle invariant. They thus define the internal space-time symmetries of relativistic particles. These symmetries take…
By generalizing the Feynman proof of the Lorentz force law, recently reported by Dyson, we derive equations of motion for particles possessing internal degrees of freedom $I^a$ which do not, in general, generate a finite algebra. We obtain…
Recently, it has been shown that the effective field theory of the Ponzano-Regge model with which spinless massive particles are coupled is given by three dimensional Euclidean noncommutative scalar field theory in the Lie algebraic…
Heisenberg's uncertainty relation can be written in terms of the step-up and step-down operators in the harmonic oscillator representation. It is noted that the single-variable Heisenberg commutation relation contains the symmetry of the…