279 research outputs found
Relativistic Chasles' theorem and the conjugacy classes of the inhomogeneous Lorentz group
This work is devoted to the relativistic generalization of Chasles' theorem,
namely to the proof that every proper orthochronous isometry of Minkowski
spacetime, which sends some point to its chronological future, is generated
through the frame displacement of an observer which moves with constant
acceleration and constant angular velocity. The acceleration and angular
velocity can be chosen either aligned or perpendicular, and in the latter case
the angular velocity can be chosen equal or smaller than than the acceleration.
We start reviewing the classical Euler's and Chasles' theorems both in the Lie
algebra and group versions. We recall the relativistic generalization of
Euler's theorem and observe that every (infinitesimal) transformation can be
recovered from information of algebraic and geometric type, the former being
identified with the conjugacy class and the latter with some additional
geometric ingredients (the screw axis in the usual non-relativistic version).
Then the proper orthochronous inhomogeneous Lorentz Lie group is studied in
detail. We prove its exponentiality and identify a causal semigroup and the
corresponding Lie cone. Through the identification of new Ad-invariants we
classify the conjugacy classes, and show that those which admit a causal
representative have special physical significance. These results imply a
classification of the inequivalent Killing vector fields of Minkowski spacetime
which we express through simple representatives. Finally, we arrive at the
mentioned generalization of Chasles' theorem.Comment: Latex2e, 49 pages. v2: few typos correcte
Future asymptotic expansions of Bianchi VIII vacuum metrics
Bianchi VIII vacuum solutions to Einstein's equations are causally
geodesically complete to the future, given an appropriate time orientation, and
the objective of this article is to analyze the asymptotic behaviour of
solutions in this time direction. For the Bianchi class A spacetimes, there is
a formulation of the field equations that was presented in an article by
Wainwright and Hsu, and in a previous article we analyzed the asymptotic
behaviour of solutions in these variables. One objective of this paper is to
give an asymptotic expansion for the metric. Furthermore, we relate this
expansion to the topology of the compactified spatial hypersurfaces of
homogeneity. The compactified spatial hypersurfaces have the topology of
Seifert fibred spaces and we prove that in the case of NUT Bianchi VIII
spacetimes, the length of a circle fibre converges to a positive constant but
that in the case of general Bianchi VIII solutions, the length tends to
infinity at a rate we determine.Comment: 50 pages, no figures. Erronous definition of Seifert fibred spaces
correcte
Causal symmetries
Based on the recent work \cite{PII} we put forward a new type of
transformation for Lorentzian manifolds characterized by mapping every causal
future-directed vector onto a causal future-directed vector. The set of all
such transformations, which we call causal symmetries, has the structure of a
submonoid which contains as its maximal subgroup the set of conformal
transformations. We find the necessary and sufficient conditions for a vector
field \xiv to be the infinitesimal generator of a one-parameter submonoid of
pure causal symmetries. We speculate about possible applications to gravitation
theory by means of some relevant examples.Comment: LaTeX2e file with CQG templates. 8 pages and no figures. Submitted to
Classical and Quantum gravit
Simple Space-Time Symmetries: Generalizing Conformal Field Theory
We study simple space-time symmetry groups G which act on a space-time
manifold M=G/H which admits a G-invariant global causal structure. We classify
pairs (G,M) which share the following additional properties of conformal field
theory: 1) The stability subgroup H of a point in M is the identity component
of a parabolic subgroup of G, implying factorization H=MAN, where M generalizes
Lorentz transformations, A dilatations, and N special conformal
transformations. 2) special conformal transformations in N act trivially on
tangent vectors to the space-time manifold M. The allowed simple Lie groups G
are the universal coverings of SU(m,m), SO(2,D), Sp(l,R), SO*(4n) and E_7(-25)
and H are particular maximal parabolic subgroups. They coincide with the groups
of fractional linear transformations of Euklidean Jordan algebras whose use as
generalizations of Minkowski space time was advocated by Gunaydin. All these
groups G admit positive energy representations. It will also be shown that the
classical conformal groups SO(2,D) are the only allowed groups which possess a
time reflection automorphism; in all other cases space-time has an intrinsic
chiral structure.Comment: 37 pages, 4 Table
Causal structures and causal boundaries
We give an up-to-date perspective with a general overview of the theory of
causal properties, the derived causal structures, their classification and
applications, and the definition and construction of causal boundaries and of
causal symmetries, mostly for Lorentzian manifolds but also in more abstract
settings.Comment: Final version. To appear in Classical and Quantum Gravit
Cross sections for geodesic flows and \alpha-continued fractions
We adjust Arnoux's coding, in terms of regular continued fractions, of the
geodesic flow on the modular surface to give a cross section on which the
return map is a double cover of the natural extension for the \alpha-continued
fractions, for each in (0,1]. The argument is sufficiently robust to
apply to the Rosen continued fractions and their recently introduced
\alpha-variants.Comment: 20 pages, 2 figure
Adaptive Evolution of the Myo6 Gene in Old World Fruit Bats (Family: Pteropodidae)
PMCID: PMC3631194This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited
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