Fields of Lorentz transformations on space-time (Q5948954)
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scientific article; zbMATH DE number 1672479
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English | Fields of Lorentz transformations on space-time |
scientific article; zbMATH DE number 1672479 |
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Fields of Lorentz transformations on space-time (English)
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21 May 2002
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A linear map \(F\) skew-symmetric with respect to the inner product \((\cdot,\cdot)\) of Minkowski space obviously satisfies \((Fu,v)=-(u,Fv),\text{ so that }(e^Fu,e^Fv)=(e^{-F}e^Fu,v)=(u,v)\) and thus \(e^F\) is an inner product preserving linear map on a Minkowski space, or, in other words, a Lorentz transformation. If all this is translated to a space-time manifold, where the tangent space at each point is a Minkowski space, the collection of the Lorentz transformations thus generated becomes a tensor field. The author examines this setup and finds that there is a homotopic obstruction and a differential obstruction to the existence of such a field of Lorentz transformations. His study of the singularity leads him to a geometric structure which he considers the right setting for the description of classical electrodynamics. In the sequel he finds an interesting and useful basis for the \(4\times 4\) complex matrices.
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exponential map
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singularity
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