Functional Forms for Lorentz Invariant Velocities

Abstract

Lorentz invariance lies at the very heart of Einstein’s special relativity, and both the energy formula and the relative velocity formula are well-known to be invariant under a Lorentz transformation. Here, we investigate the spatial and temporal dependence of the velocity field itself u(x,t) and we pose the problem of the determination of the functional form of those velocity fields u(x,t) which are automatically invariant under a Lorentz transformation. For a single spatial dimension, we determine a first-order partial differential equation for the velocity u(x,t), which appears to be unknown in the literature, and we investigate its main consequences, including demonstrating that it is entirely consistent with many of the familiar outcomes of special relativity and deriving two new partial differential relations connecting energy and momentum that are fully compatible with the Lorentz invariant energy–momentum relations.

Keywords

• special relativity
• Lorentz invariance
• functional forms
• partial differential equation identities