Beyond the Einstein addition law and its gyroscopic Thomas precession. The theory of gyrogroups and gyrovector spaces (Q5934758)

Generalizing the addition rule for special relativistic 3-velocities, the author introduces an operator \(\text{gyr}\), and builds up a whole theory of gyrogroups and gyrovector spaces. He makes these things plausible by comparing with the Thomas precession, and then develops several theorems about gyrogroups. From the space-time point of view, however, the \(3+1\)-decomposition is only secondary after fixing a system of reference; the primary notion is the 4-velocity. Nowadays, almost all papers on relativity write the velocity in the 4-velocity form, and there the addition rule of velocities is much simpler than in the 3-velocity picture. So I conclude that the gyrogroups may have some interest for themselves, but they are probably not very helpful in dealing with physical problems connected with the addition of velocities. The reference list contains 230 carefully listed items; however, it contains several misprints.