Conformal structures and twistors in the paravector model of spacetime

Abstract

Some properties of the Clifford algebras Cl(3,0), Cl(1,3), Cl(1,3)(C), Cl(4,1) and Cl(2,4) are presented, and three isomorphisms between the Dirac-Clifford algebra C x Cl(1,3) and Cl(4,1) are exhibited, in order to construct conformal maps and twistors, using the paravector model of spacetime. The isomorphism between the twistor space inner product isometry group SU(2,2) and the group Spin+(2,4) is also investigated, in the light of a suitable isomorphism between C x Cl(1,3) and Cl(4,1). After reviewing the conformal spacetime structure, conformal maps are described in Minkowski spacetime as the twisted adjoint representation of Spin+(2,4), acting on paravectors. Twistors are then presented via the paravector model of Clifford algebras and related to conformal maps in the Clifford algebra over the Lorentzian R(4,1) spacetime. We construct twistors in Minkowski spacetime as algebraic spinors associated with the Dirac-Clifford algebra C x Cl(1,3) using one lower spacetime dimension than standard Clifford algebra formulations, since for this purpose the Clifford algebra over R(4,1) is also used to describe conformal maps, instead of R(2,4). Our formalism sheds some new light on the use of the paravector model and generalizations.

arXiv comment23 pages, to be published in Int.J.Geom.Meth.Mod.Phys. 4 (4) (2007)

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