About Chirality in Minkowski Spacetime

In this paper, we show that Lorentz boosts are direct isometries according to the recent mathematical definitions of direct and indirect isometries and of chirality, working for any metric space. Here, these definitions are extended to the Minkowski spacetime. We also show that the composition of pa...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Michel Petitjean
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: MDPI AG 2019-10-01
Series:Symmetry
Subjects:
Online Access:https://www.mdpi.com/2073-8994/11/10/1320
Description
Summary:In this paper, we show that Lorentz boosts are direct isometries according to the recent mathematical definitions of direct and indirect isometries and of chirality, working for any metric space. Here, these definitions are extended to the Minkowski spacetime. We also show that the composition of parity inversion and time reversal is an indirect isometry, which is the opposite of what could be expected in Euclidean spaces. It is expected that the extended mathematical definition of chirality presented here can contribute to the unification of several definitions of chirality in space and in spacetime, and that it helps clarify the ubiquitous concept of chirality.
ISSN:2073-8994