Related papers: Lorentz Group in Ray Optics
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…
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…
.This article reexamines the genesis of special relativity by situating the contributions of Lorentz, Poincare, and Einstein within the scientific, documentary, and editorial context of the years 1895--1913. It emphasizes the rapid…
Henri Poincar\'e formulated the mathematics of Lorentz transformations, known as the Poincar\'e group. He also formulated the Poincar\'e sphere for polarization optics. It is shown that these two mathematical instruments can be derived from…
Some facts of the theory of the Lorentz group are specified for looking at the problems of light polarization optics in the frames of vector Stokes-Mueller and spinor Jones formalism. In view of great differences between properties of…
Einstein's Special Theory of Relativity was proposed a little over a hundred years back. It remained a bedrock of twentieth century physics right up to Quantum Field Theory. However, the failure over several decades to provide a unified…
When Einstein formulated his special relativity in 1905, he established the law of Lorentz transformations for point particles. It is now known that particles have internal space-time structures. Particles, such as photons and electrons,…
Einstein based his special theory of relativity on two postulates: (a) physical laws appear the same in all inertial frames, and (b) the speed of light in vacuum is an observer-independent constant. However, it is already known that the…
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…
According to Eugene Wigner, quantum mechanics is a physics of Fourier transformations, and special relativity is a physics of Lorentz transformations. Since two-by-two matrices with unit determinant form the group SL(2,c) which acts as the…
A century ago, Einstein formulated his elegant and elaborate theory of General Relativity, which has so far withstood a multitude of empirical tests with remarkable success. Notwithstanding the triumphs of Einstein's theory, the tenacious…
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…
I review, some of the algebraic and geometric structures that underlie the theory of Special Relativity. This includes a discussion of relativity as a symmetry principle, derivations of the Lorentz group, its composition law, its Lie…
Special relativity was discovered at the eve of the century, but finds its roots in the 19th century efforts to understand the optics and electromagnetism of moving bodies. These roots are reviewed in Parts 1 and 2, the latter being…
Henri Poincar\'e formulated the mathematics of the Lorentz transformations, known as the Poincar\'e group. He also formulated the Poincar\'e sphere for polarization optics. It is shown that these two mathematical instruments can be combined…
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…
Henri Poincar\'e formulated the mathematics of the Lorentz transformations, known as the Poincar\'e group. He also formulated the Poincar\'e sphere for polarization optics. It is noted that his sphere contains the symmetry of the Lorentz…
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…
This work deals with the questions of absolute space and relativity. In particular, an alternative derivation of the effects described by special relativity is provided, which is based on a description that assumes a privileged reference…