Related papers: Lorentz Group in Ray Optics
We take causality and uniqueness of events observation as our driving forces. They are built in in the way we define distinct observers, which then require a finite time to communicate between each other. This unavoidably leads to the…
In 1963, Eugene Paul Wigner was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics for his contributions to the theory of the atomic nucleus and the elementary particles, particularly through the discovery and application of fundamental symmetry…
This paper, which is meant to be a tribute to Minkowski's geometrical insight, rests on the idea that the basic observed symmetries of spacetime homogeneity and of isotropy of space, which are displayed by the spacetime manifold in the…
Lorentz invariance, the fundamental symmetry of Einstein's theory of Special Relativity, has been established and tested by many classical and modern experiments. However, many theories that unify the Standard Model of particle physics and…
Starting with the Chern-Simons formulation of (2+1)-dimensional gravity we show that the gravitational interactions deform the Poincare symmetry of flat space-time to a quantum group symmetry. The relevant quantum group is the quantum…
In this article Ehrhart quasi-polynomials of simplices are employed to determine isospectral lens spaces in terms of a finite set of numbers. Using the natural lattice associated with a lens space the associated toric variety of a lens…
The principal time properties - the one-dimensionality and the irreversibility -, the space metric properties and the spatial-temporal principles of the theory of the relativity are deduced from three natural logic properties of the…
The Lorentz Transformation is derived from only three simple postulates: (i) a weak kinematical form of the Special Relativity Principle that requires the equivalence of reciprocal space-time measurements by two different inertial…
Ever since the work of von Ignatowsky circa 1910 it has been known (if not always widely appreciated) that the relativity principle, combined with the basic and fundamental physical assumptions of locality, linearity, and isotropy, leads…
Special relativity beyond its basic treatment can be inaccessible, in particular because introductory physics courses typically view special relativity as decontextualized from the rest of physics. We seek to place special relativity back…
This paper constitutes a background to the paper 'Quantum mechanics as "space-time statistical mechanics"?', arXiv:quant-ph/0501133, presented previously by the author. But it is also a free-standing and self-contained paper. The purpose of…
The nature of 'time', 'space' and 'reality' are to large extent dependent on our interpretation of Special (SRT) and General Relativity Theory (GRT). In SRT essentially two distinct interpretations exist; the "geometrical" interpretation by…
The relativity of simultaneity implies that the image of a Lorentz transformed (LT) spherical (circular) wavefront is not a spherical (circular) wavefront (Einstein 1905) but an ellipsoidal (elliptical) wavefront (Moreau, Am.J.of Phys).We…
We show that the kinematics underlying Poincare's elongated ellipse, immediately deduced from Lorentz Transformation (LT), is not the same as Einstein's kinematics. The two main differences are : On one hand the relationship of Lorentz…
We show that starting with the fact that special relativity theory is concerned with a distortion of the observed length of a moving rod, without mentioning if it is a "contraction" or "dilation", we can derive the Lorentz transformations…
The parity violation at the level of weak interactions and other similar discrete symmetries breaking show that the invariance of laws under the full group of Lorentz transformations can not be taken granted. We examine the principle of…
General relativity is reconsidered by starting from the unquestionable interpretation of special relativity, which (Klein 1910) is the theory of the invariants of the metric under the Poincar\'e group of collineations. This invariance…
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…
First, some superluminal phenomena and experiments are introduced briefly. Next, based on the basic principles of the special relativity, the Lorentz transformation (LT) with smaller velocity and the general Lorentz transformation (GLT)…
In the history of physics 1905 can be considered as the year of Einstein's proclamation of independence of events. Indeed the concept of independent events occupies a essential place in the three main 1905 Einstein's papers (quanta of…