Abstract
The bizarre and counterintuitive noncommutativity and nonassociativity of the relativistic composition of noncollinear velocities is attributed to the presence of the Thomas rotation. The Thomas rotation, in turn, gives rise to anonassociative group structure for the set of relativistically admissible velocities. This nonstandard group structure has been observed in other contexts and, hence, merits axiomatization.
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References and Notes
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Ungar, A.A. Axiomatic approach to the nonassociative group of relativistic velocities. Found Phys Lett 2, 199–203 (1989). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00696113
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00696113