paper

From the Lorentz Group to the Celestial Sphere

arXiv:1508.00920

Abstract

In these lecture notes we review the isomorphism between the (connected) Lorentz group and the set of conformal transformations of the sphere. More precisely, after establishing the main properties of the Lorentz group, we show that it is isomorphic to the group SL(2,C) of complex 2 by 2 matrices with unit determinant. We then classify conformal transformations of the sphere, define the notion of null infinity in Minkowski space-time, and show that the action of Lorentz transformations on the celestial spheres at null infinity is precisely that of conformal transformations. In particular, we discuss the optical phenomena observed by the pilots of the "Millenium Falcon" during the jump to lightspeed.

55 pages, 12 figures. Undergraduate-level lecture notes published in the proceedings of the seventh Brussels Summer School in Mathematics. v2: Minor cosmetic changes. v3: fixed a typo in section 4.2.2

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