Related papers: Wigner's new physics frontier: Physics of two-by-t…
While the Lorentz group serves as the basic language for Einstein's special theory of relativity, it is turning out to be the basic mathematical instrument in optical sciences, particularly in ray optics and polarization optics. The beam…
Einstein had to learn the mathematics of Lorentz transformations in order to complete his covariant formulation of Maxwell's equations. The mathematics of Lorentz transformations, called the Lorentz group, continues playing its important…
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…
With its three independent parameters, the $ABCD$ matrix serves as the beam transfer matrix in optics. If it is transformed to an equi-diagonal form, the matrix has only two independent parameters determined by optical devices. It is shown…
It has been almost one hundred years since Einstein formulated his special theory of relativity in 1905. He showed that the basic space-time symmetry is dictated by the Lorentz group. It is shown that this group of Lorentz transformations…
The ABCD matrix is one of the essential mathematical instruments in optics. It is the two-by-two representation of the group Sp(2), which is applicable to many branches of physics, including squeezed states of light, special relativity and…
Two-photon states produce enough symmetry needed for Dirac's construction of the two-oscillator system which produces the Lie algebra for the O(3,2) space-time symmetry. This O(3,2) group can be contracted to the inhomogeneous Lorentz group…
While modern optics is largely a physics of harmonic oscillators and two-by-two matrices, it is possible to learn about some hidden properties of the two-by-two matrix from optical systems. Since two-by-two matrices can be divided into…
Since some experiments have found superluminality, we assume that the particles in the universe are divided into three classes: the subluminal, luminal and superluminal particles by the speed of light, their energy-momenum relations are E2…
The group $SL(2,\mathbb{C})$ of all complex $2\times 2$ matrices with determinant one is closely related to the group $\boldsymbol{\mathcal{L}}_{+}^\uparrow$ of real $4\times 4$ matrices representing the restricted Lorentz transformations.…
The Wigner rotation is a key word in many branches of physics, chemistry and engineering sciences. It is a group theoretical effect resulting from two Lorentz boosts. The net effect is one boost followed or preceded by a rotation. This…
The Lorentz group is the fundamental language for space-time symmetries of relativistic particles. This group can these days be derived from the symmetries observed in other branches of physics. It is shown that this group can be derived…
It is shown that the Lorentz group plays prominent roles in at least two areas in condensed matter physics, namely in the Bogoliubov transformation and optical filters. It is pointed out that the underlying symmetry of the Bogoliubov…
Other than scattering problems where perturbation theory is applicable, there are basically two ways to solve problems in physics. One is to reduce the problem to harmonic oscillators, and the other is to formulate the problem in terms of…
The beam transfer matrix, often called the $ABCD$ matrix, is a two-by-two matrix with unit determinant, and with three independent parameters. It is noted that this matrix cannot always be diagonalized. It can however be brought by rotation…
An unconventional outlook on relationship between the quantum mechanics and special relativity is proposed. We show that the two fundamental postulates of quantum mechanics of Planck and de Broglie combined with the idea of comparison scale…
We study a quantum mechanics with the usual postulates but in which the Heisenberg algebra of canonical commutation relations and the Poincare algebra are replaced by the Lie algebra of the homogeneous Lorentz group SO(5,1). It arises from…
It is shown that the one-lens system in para-axial optics can serve as an optical computer for contraction of Wigner's little groups and an analogue computer which transforms analytically computations on a spherical surface to those on a…
The two-by-two Sp(2) matrix has three parameters with unit determinant. Yet, there are no established procedures for diagonalizing this matrix. It is shown that this matrix can be written as a similarity transformation of the two-by-two…
This article shows that one can consistently incorporate nonunitary representations of at least one group into the ``ordinary'' nonrelativistic quantum mechanics. This group turns out to be Lorentz group thus giving us an alternative…