Symmetry (Mar 2019)

Poincaré Symmetry from Heisenberg’s Uncertainty Relations

  • Sibel Başkal,
  • Young S. Kim,
  • Marilyn E. Noz

DOI
https://doi.org/10.3390/sym11030409
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 11, no. 3
p. 409

Abstract

Read online

It is noted that the single-variable Heisenberg commutation relation contains the symmetry of the S p ( 2 ) group which is isomorphic to the Lorentz group applicable to one time-like dimension and two space-like dimensions, known as the S O ( 2 , 1 ) group. According to Paul A. M. Dirac, from the uncertainty commutation relations for two variables, it possible to construct the de Sitter group S O ( 3 , 2 ) , namely the Lorentz group applicable to three space-like variables and two time-like variables. By contracting one of the time-like variables in S O ( 3 , 2 ) , it is possible to construct the inhomogeneous Lorentz group I S O ( 3 , 1 ) which serves as the fundamental symmetry group for quantum mechanics and quantum field theory in the Lorentz-covariant world. This I S O ( 3 , 1 ) group is commonly known as the Poincaré group.

Keywords