A Unified Perspective on Poincaré and Galilei Relativity: I. Special Relativity
A semantic adjustment to what physicists mean by the terms ‘special relativity’ and ‘general relativity’ is suggested, which prompts a conceptual shift to a more unified perspective on physics governed by the Poincaré group and physics governed by the Galilei group. After exploring the limits of a unified perspective available in the setting of 4-dimensional spacetime, a particular central extension of the Poincaré group—analogous to the Bargmann group that is a central extension of the Galilei group—is presented that deepens a unified perspective on Poincaré and Galilei physics in a 5-dimensional spacetime setting. The immediate focus of this paper is classical physics on affine 4-dimensional and 5-dimensional spacetimes (‘special relativity’ as redefined here), including the electrodynamics that gave rise to Poincaré physics in the first place, but the results here may suggest the existence of a ‘Galilei general relativity’ more extensive than generally known, to be pursued in the sequel.
- Sponsoring Organization:
- USDOE Office of Science (SC), Nuclear Physics (NP)
- Grant/Contract Number:
- AC05-00OR22725
- OSTI ID:
- 2301764
- Journal Information:
- Symmetry, Journal Name: Symmetry Journal Issue: 2 Vol. 16; ISSN SYMMAM; ISSN 2073-8994
- Publisher:
- MDPI AGCopyright Statement
- Country of Publication:
- Switzerland
- Language:
- English
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