Operational spacetime. Interactions and particles (Q1039322)

The main thesis of the book is that all physical structures -- including spacetime and interactions -- can be interpreted in terms of realizations or representations of basic (``operational'') Lie groups or Lie algebras. These operation group structures are considered to be more fundamental than the commonly used analytic structures such as Lagrangian-based differential equations. In the first six chapters the author proposes an according reformulation of general relativity, quantum mechanics and quantum gauge field theory in flat spacetime. The last six chapters are devoted to developing the concept of ``electroweak spacetime'' as the four-dimensional homogeneous space parametrizing the coset \(GL(2,C)/U(2)\) (``unitary relativity''), whose representations and harmonic analysis are intended to provide a common language for interactions and elementary particles. The book requires from the reader a thorough knowledge of the theory of Lie groups and their representations as well as of general relativity and quantum field theory. But anybody who has learned the latter subjects in their modern formulations will have difficulty in following the author's proposal (which in fact can be traced back to the early days of quantum mechanics) to reduce them to applied group theory. In any case the reader should be aware that the point of view taken in this book is not the prevailing one in modern theories of fundamental interactions.