A characterization of relativistic addition (Q5954697): Difference between revisions

Let \(X\) be an arbitrary, also infinite-dimensional, pre-Hilbert space of dimension at least one and denote its inner product \(\delta\) by \(\delta(x,y):= xy\), where \(x^2=: xx\). The author considers the ball \(V:= \{x\in X\mid x^2< 1\}\) and the inner composition \(*:V\times V\to V\), \[ p* q:= {p+q\over 1+pq}+ {1\over 1+\sqrt{1- p^2}} {(pq)p- p^2q\over 1+ pq}. \] If \(\dim(X)= 3\) and if we set the speed of light equal to \(1\), this is nothing else but the law of relativistic addition of velocities. For \(p,q\in V\) the separation \(S(p,q)\) of \(p\) and \(q\) is defined by \[ S(p,q):= {1- pq\over \sqrt{1-p^2} \sqrt{1- q^2}}. \] Then the pair \((V,d)\) with \(d\) defined by \(\cosh d(p,q)= S(p,q)\) is a metric space with the hyperbolic distance function \(d\). The paper deals with the functional equation \[ S(p,q)= S(f(x, p),f(x,q)),\quad f:V\to V,\quad p,q,x\in V.\tag{\(*\)} \] The emphasis of the paper lies on characterizing the solution \(f(p,q)= p* q\) of \((*)\). It is shown that a solution \(f\) of \((*)\) is of this form if and only if \(\|f(p,0)\|=\|p\|\) and if \(\mu(f(p,q))- \mu(q)\) is a positive multiple of \(p\) for all \(p,q\in V\). (\(\mu:V\to X\) denotes the Weierstrass map, \(\mu(x):= x/\sqrt{1-x^2}\)).