Conformal groups and Vahlen matrices (Q2361016)

Given a real non-degenerate quadratic space \((V,Q)\), the conformal group \(\text{Conf}(V,Q)\) is defined to be the group of transformations of \(V\) generated by translations, homotheties, orthogonal transformations and inversions. This group is of great significance in modern theoretical physics, and understanding its structure is the goal of this paper. The extended quadratic space \((V^\dag,Q^\dag)\) is the direct sum of \((V,Q)\) and a hyperbolic plane. The main theorem of this paper is the existence of a surjective group morphism from \(\text{O}(V^\dag,Q^\dag)\) to \(\text{Conf}(V,Q)\) whose kernel is the subgroup consisting of the two transformations \(\pm\text{id}_{V^\dag}\). It is a known fact from the theory of quadratic forms that \(\text{C}\ell(V^\dag,Q^\dag)\) is isomorphic to \(M_2(\mathbb{R}) \otimes \text{C}\ell(V,Q)\). Therefore, elements of \(\text{C}\ell(V^\dag,Q^\dag)\) can be expressed as \(2\times 2\) matrices with entries in \(\text{C}\ell(V,Q)\). Vahlen matrices are the matrices which correspond (under this identification) to elements in the multiplicative monoid \(\text{Lip}(V^\dag,Q^\dag)\) generated by the elements of \(V'\) inside \(\text{C}\ell(V^\dag,Q^\dag)\). The author shows how elements in \(\text{O}(V^\dag,Q^\dag)\) and \(\text{Conf}(V,Q)\) can be represented by Vahlen matrices.