Related papers: Algebraic and geometric structures of Special Rela…
Special Relativity is taught to physics sophomores at Johns Hopkins University in a series of eight lectures. Lecture 1 covers the principle of relativity and the derivation of the Lorentz transform. Lecture 2 covers length contraction and…
A gauge theory of the Lorentz group with a mass-dimension one gauge field coupling to matter of any spin is developed. As a completely new feature the "Vierbein" assuring local gauge invariance enters not as an independent dynamical field,…
We study the symmetry group of the geodesic equations of the spatial solutions of the space-time generated by a noninertial rotating system of reference. It is a seven dimensional Lie group, which is neither solvable nor nilpotent. The…
In special-relativistic physics, spacetime is imbued with a fixed, non-dynamical metric tensor. A path to gravitational theory is to promote this tensor to a genuine dynamical field. An alternative description of special-relativistic…
The Poincar\'e (inhomogeneous Lorentz) group underlies special relativity. In these lectures a consistent formalism is developed allowing an appropriate gauging of the Poincar\'e group. The physical laws are formulated in terms of points,…
Inertial motion is considered in the plane of events characterized by the homogeneous Lorentz group L. On the basis of this group, a set of inertial movements and its decomposition into sets which are disconnected from one another with…
Based on the work of Adams and Stuck as well as on the work of Zeghib, we classify the Lie groups which can act isometrically and locally effectively on Lorentzian manifolds of finite volume. In the case that the corresponding Lie algebra…
The interaction of matter with gravity in two dimensional spacetimes can be supplemented with a geometrical force analogous to a Lorentz force produced on a surface by a constant perpendicular magnetic field. In the special case of constant…
We present a list of open questions on various aspects of AdS geometry, that is, the geometry of Lorentz spaces of constant curvature -1. When possible we point out relations with homogeneous spaces and discrete subgroups of Lie groups, to…
We summarize the main ideas of General Relativity and Lorentzian geometry, leading to a proof of the simplest of the celebrated Hawking-Penrose singularity theorems. The reader is assumed to be familiar with Riemannian geometry and point…
It is shown that the use of extended sets of irreducible representations of the Lorentz group opens new possibilities for the theory of relativistic wave equations from the point of view of the space-time description of both the internal…
In order to generalize the relativistic notion of boost to the case of non inertial particles and to general relativity, we come back to the definition of Lie group of Lorentz matrices and its Lie algebra and we study how this group acts on…
According to general relativity, the interaction of a matter field with gravitation requires the simultaneous introduction of a tetrad field, which is a field related to translations, and a spin connection, which is a field assuming values…
Two common misconceptions about the theory of Special Relativity that are actively taught in textbooks are discussed. It is shown, first, that the Lorentz transformations are actually transformations of the coordinates of a photon, not the…
Gravity can be formulated as a gauge theory by combining symmetry principles and geometrical methods in a consistent mathematical framework. The gauge approach to gravity leads directly to non-Euclidean, post-Riemannian spacetime…
Evaluation of the additive constants in the space-time Lorentz transformation equations required, according to Einstein, to correctly describe synchronised clocks at different spatial locations, reveals the spurious and unphysical nature of…
New symmetry transformations for the n-dimensional Toda lattice are presented. Their existence allows for the construction of several first order Lagrangian structures associated to them. The multi-Hamiltonian structures are derived from…
I apply the algebraic framework introduced in arXiv:1101.4542v3[math.MG] to Minkowski (pseudo-Euclidean) spaces in 2, 3, and 4 dimensions. The exposition follows the template established in arXiv:1307.2917[math.MG] for Euclidean spaces. The…
Hamilton in the course of his studies on quaternions came up with an elegant geometric picture for the group SU(2). In this picture the group elements are represented by ``turns'', which are equivalence classes of directed great circle arcs…
The Einstein theory of general relativity provides a peculiar example of classical field theory ruled by non-linear partial differential equations. A number of supplementary conditions (more frequently called gauge conditions) have also…