Relativistic Transformations. The Lorentz Group

  • Francisco J. Ynduráin
Part of the Texts and Monographs in Physics book series (TMP)

Abstract

A rotation1 may be specified by a vector, θ , in such a way that (Fig. 1.1.1) the rotation axis lies along θ , the rotation angle being θ = |θ|, and the direction of the rotation determined by the corkscrew rule. If we denote the rotation by R(θ ), it acts upon a vector r according to
$$r \to r = R\left( \theta \right)r = \left( {\cos \theta } \right)r + \left( {1 - \cos \theta } \right)\frac{{\theta r}}{{\theta ^2 }}\theta + \frac{{\sin \theta }}{\theta }\theta \times r;$$
(1.1.1a)
for θ infinitesimal,
$$R\left( \theta \right)r = r + \theta \times r + O\left( {\theta ^2 } \right).$$
(1.1.1b)

Keywords

Minkowski Space Lorentz Transformation Lorentz Group Relativistic Transformation Lorentz Boost 
These keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.

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Copyright information

© Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 1996

Authors and Affiliations

  • Francisco J. Ynduráin
    • 1
  1. 1.Departamento de Física TeóricaUniversidad Autónoma de MadridMadridSpain

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