Friends of the Earth International (FoEI) is an international network of grassroots environmental organizations
in 73 countries. About half of the member groups call themselves
"Friends of the Earth" in their own languages; the others use other
names. The organization was founded in 1969 in San Francisco by David Brower, Donald Aitken and Gary Soucie after Brower's split with the Sierra Club because of the latter's positive approach to nuclear energy. The founding donation of $500,000 (in 2019 USD) was provided by Robert Orville Anderson, the owner of Atlantic Richfield oil company. It became an international network of organizations in 1971 with a meeting of representatives from four countries: U.S., Sweden, the UK and France.
FoEI currently has a secretariat (based in Amsterdam, Netherlands) which provides support for the network and its agreed major campaigns.
The executive committee of elected representatives from national groups
sets policy and oversees the work of the secretariat. In 2016, Uruguayan activist Karin Nansen
was elected to serve as chair of the organization. Sri Lankan activist
Hemantha Withanage has served as chair of FoEI since 2021.
Campaign issues
Friends
of the Earth International is an international membership organisation,
with members spread across the world. Its advocacy programs focus on
environmental, economic and social issues, highlighting their political
and human rights contexts.
FOEI claims that it has been successful as it has eliminated
billions in taxpayer subsidies to corporate polluters, reformed the World Bank
to address environmental and human rights concerns, pushed the debate
on global warming to pressure the U.S. and U.K. to attempt the best
legislation possible, stopped more than 150 destructive dams and water
projects worldwide, pressed and won landmark regulations of strip mines
and oil tankers and banned international whaling.
Its critics claim that the organization tries only to obtain media
attention (as by releasing the song "Love Song to the Earth"), but does
not stay with locals to actually solve complicated problems, and that it
prevents development in developing countries. They have also been
critical of its policy to accept high levels of funding from companies
and charities related to oil and gas.
One of Friends of the Earth's most recent campaigns and legal battles was the "Shell Case", led by Milieudefensie
(Friends of the Earth Netherlands). In 2021, a court in the Netherlands
ruled in a landmark case that the oil giant Shell must reduce its
emissions in 2030 by 45% compared to 2019 levels. This was the first
time that a company had been legally obliged to align its policies with
the Paris Agreement.
Structure of the network
The
member organization in a particular country may name itself Friends of
the Earth or an equivalent translated phrase in the national language,
e.g., Friends of the Earth (US), Friends of the Earth (EWNI) (England Wales and Northern Ireland), Amigos de la Tierra
(Spain and Argentina). However, roughly half of the member groups work
under their own names, sometimes reflecting an independent origin and
subsequent accession to the network, such as Pro Natura (Switzerland), the Korean Federation for Environmental Movement, Environmental Rights Action (FOE Nigeria) and WALHI (FOE Indonesia).
Friends of the Earth International (FoEI) is supported by a secretariat based in Amsterdam, and an executive committee known as ExCom. The ExCom is elected by all member groups at a general meeting held every two years, and it is the ExCom which employs the secretariat. At the same general meeting, overall policies and priority activities are agreed.
In addition to work which is coordinated at the FoEI level,
national member groups are free to carry out their own campaigns and to
work bi- or multi-laterally as they see fit, as long as this does not go
against agreed policy at the international level.
Publications
The Meat Atlas is an annual report on the methods and impact of industrial animal agriculture.
The publication consists of 27 short essays and, with the help of
graphs, visualises facts about the production and consumption of meat.
The Meat Atlas is jointly published by Friends of the Earth and Heinrich Böll Foundation.
Notable supporters
Rock musician George Harrison became associated with Friends of the Earth after attending their anti-nuclear demonstrations in London in 1980. He dedicated his 1989 greatest hits album, Best of Dark Horse, to Friends of the Earth, among other environmental organisations.
Jay Kay, frontman of the funk and acid jazz group Jamiroquai, is known for donating a part of the profits earned from his album sales to Friends of the Earth and Oxfam, among other causes.
Thom Yorke, lead singer of Radiohead, has publicly supported a number of Friends of the Earth campaigns, including the Big Ask,
which led the UK government to introduce the Climate Change Bill in the
Queen's Speech on 15 November 2006. This was after 130,000 people
across the country had asked their MP to support such a bill.
In physics, the Lorentz transformations are a six-parameter family of lineartransformations from a coordinate frame in spacetime to another frame that moves at a constant velocity
relative to the former. The respective inverse transformation is then
parameterized by the negative of this velocity. The transformations are
named after the Dutch physicistHendrik Lorentz.
The most common form of the transformation, parametrized by the real constant representing a velocity confined to the x-direction, is expressed as
where (t, x, y, z) and (t′, x′, y′, z′) are the coordinates of an event in two frames with the origins coinciding at t=t′=0, where the primed frame is seen from the unprimed frame as moving with speed v along the x-axis, where c is the speed of light, and is the Lorentz factor. When speed v is much smaller than c, the Lorentz factor is negligibly different from 1, but as v approaches c, grows without bound. The value of v must be smaller than c for the transformation to make sense.
Expressing the speed as an equivalent form of the transformation is
Frames of reference can be divided into two groups: inertial (relative motion with constant velocity) and non-inertial (accelerating, moving in curved paths, rotational motion with constant angular velocity, etc.). The term "Lorentz transformations" only refers to transformations between inertial frames, usually in the context of special relativity.
In each reference frame, an observer can use a local coordinate system (usually Cartesian coordinates in this context) to measure lengths, and a clock to measure time intervals. An event is something that happens at a point in space at an instant of time, or more formally a point in spacetime. The transformations connect the space and time coordinates of an event as measured by an observer in each frame.
Historically, the transformations were the result of attempts by Lorentz and others to explain how the speed of light was observed to be independent of the reference frame, and to understand the symmetries of the laws of electromagnetism. The transformations later became a cornerstone for special relativity.
The Lorentz transformation is a linear transformation. It may include a rotation of space; a rotation-free Lorentz transformation is called a Lorentz boost. In Minkowski space—the mathematical model of spacetime in special relativity—the Lorentz transformations preserve the spacetime interval
between any two events. This property is the defining property of a
Lorentz transformation. They describe only the transformations in which
the spacetime event at the origin is left fixed. They can be considered
as a hyperbolic rotation of Minkowski space. The more general set of transformations that also includes translations is known as the Poincaré group.
Lorentz (1892–1904) and Larmor (1897–1900), who believed the
luminiferous aether hypothesis, also looked for the transformation under
which Maxwell's equations are invariant when transformed from the aether to a moving frame. They extended the FitzGerald–Lorentz contraction hypothesis and found out that the time coordinate has to be modified as well ("local time"). Henri Poincaré gave a physical interpretation to local time (to first order in v/c,
the relative velocity of the two reference frames normalized to the
speed of light) as the consequence of clock synchronization, under the
assumption that the speed of light is constant in moving frames. Larmor is credited to have been the first to understand the crucial time dilation property inherent in his equations.
In 1905, Poincaré was the first to recognize that the transformation has the properties of a mathematical group,
and he named it after Lorentz.
Later in the same year Albert Einstein published what is now called special relativity, by deriving the Lorentz transformation under the assumptions of the principle of relativity and the constancy of the speed of light in any inertial reference frame, and by abandoning the mechanistic aether as unnecessary.
Derivation of the group of Lorentz transformations
An event
is something that happens at a certain point in spacetime, or more
generally, the point in spacetime itself. In any inertial frame an event
is specified by a time coordinate ct and a set of Cartesian coordinatesx, y, z to specify position in space in that frame. Subscripts label individual events.
in all inertial frames for events connected by light signals. The quantity on the left is called the spacetime interval between events a1 = (t1, x1, y1, z1) and a2 = (t2, x2, y2, z2). The interval between any two
events, not necessarily separated by light signals, is in fact
invariant, i.e., independent of the state of relative motion of
observers in different inertial frames, as is shown using homogeneity and isotropy of space. The transformation sought after thus must possess the property that:
(D2)
where (t, x, y, z) are the spacetime coordinates used to define events in one frame, and (t′, x′, y′, z′) are the coordinates in another frame. First one observes that (D2) is satisfied if an arbitrary 4-tuple b of numbers are added to events a1 and a2. Such transformations are called spacetime translations and are not dealt with further here. Then one observes that a linear solution preserving the origin of the simpler problem solves the general problem too:
(D3)
(a solution satisfying the first formula automatically satisfies the second one as well; see polarization identity). Finding the solution to the simpler problem is just a matter of look-up in the theory of classical groups that preserve bilinear forms of various signature. First equation in (D3) can be written more compactly as:
(D4)
where (·, ·) refers to the bilinear form of signature(1, 3) on R4 exposed by the right hand side formula in (D3). The alternative notation defined on the right is referred to as the relativistic dot product. Spacetime mathematically viewed as R4 endowed with this bilinear form is known as Minkowski spaceM. The Lorentz transformation is thus an element of the group O(1, 3), the Lorentz group or, for those that prefer the other metric signature, O(3, 1) (also called the Lorentz group). One has:
(D5)
which is precisely preservation of the bilinear form (D3) which implies (by linearity of Λ and bilinearity of the form) that (D2) is satisfied. The elements of the Lorentz group are rotations and boosts and mixes thereof. If the spacetime translations are included, then one obtains the inhomogeneous Lorentz group or the Poincaré group.
Generalities
The relations between the primed and unprimed spacetime coordinates are the Lorentz transformations, each coordinate in one frame is a linear function of all the coordinates in the other frame, and the inverse functions
are the inverse transformation. Depending on how the frames move
relative to each other, and how they are oriented in space relative to
each other, other parameters that describe direction, speed, and
orientation enter the transformation equations.
Transformations describing
relative motion with constant (uniform) velocity and without rotation
of the space coordinate axes are called Lorentz boosts or simply boosts,
and the relative velocity between the frames is the parameter of the
transformation. The other basic type of Lorentz transformation is
rotation in the spatial coordinates only, these like boosts are inertial
transformations since there is no relative motion, the frames are
simply tilted (and not continuously rotating), and in this case
quantities defining the rotation are the parameters of the
transformation (e.g., axis–angle representation, or Euler angles, etc.). A combination of a rotation and boost is a homogeneous transformation, which transforms the origin back to the origin.
The full Lorentz group O(3, 1) also contains special transformations that are neither rotations nor boosts, but rather reflections in a plane through the origin. Two of these can be singled out; spatial inversion in which the spatial coordinates of all events are reversed in sign and temporal inversion in which the time coordinate for each event gets its sign reversed.
Boosts should not be conflated with mere displacements in
spacetime; in this case, the coordinate systems are simply shifted and
there is no relative motion. However, these also count as symmetries
forced by special relativity since they leave the spacetime interval
invariant. A combination of a rotation with a boost, followed by a shift
in spacetime, is an inhomogeneous Lorentz transformation, an element of the Poincaré group, which is also called the inhomogeneous Lorentz group.
A "stationary" observer in frame F defines events with coordinates t, x, y, z. Another frame F′ moves with velocity v relative to F, and an observer in this "moving" frame F′ defines events using the coordinates t′, x′, y′, z′.
The coordinate axes in each frame are parallel (the x and x′ axes are parallel, the y and y′ axes are parallel, and the z and z′ axes are parallel), remain mutually perpendicular, and relative motion is along the coincident xx′ axes. At t = t′ = 0, the origins of both coordinate systems are the same, (x, y, z) = (x′, y′, z′) = (0, 0, 0).
In other words, the times and positions are coincident at this event.
If all these hold, then the coordinate systems are said to be in standard configuration, or synchronized.
If an observer in F records an event t, x, y, z, then an observer in F′ records the same event with coordinates
Lorentz boost (x direction)
where v is the relative velocity between frames in the x-direction, c is the speed of light, and
Here, v is the parameter
of the transformation, for a given boost it is a constant number, but
can take a continuous range of values. In the setup used here, positive
relative velocity v > 0 is motion along the positive directions of the xx′ axes, zero relative velocity v = 0 is no relative motion, while negative relative velocity v < 0 is relative motion along the negative directions of the xx′ axes. The magnitude of relative velocity v cannot equal or exceed c, so only subluminal speeds −c < v < c are allowed. The corresponding range of γ is 1 ≤ γ < ∞.
The transformations are not defined if v is outside these limits. At the speed of light (v = c) γ is infinite, and faster than light (v > c) γ is a complex number,
each of which make the transformations unphysical. The space and time
coordinates are measurable quantities and numerically must be real
numbers.
As an active transformation, an observer in F′ notices the coordinates of the event to be "boosted" in the negative directions of the xx′ axes, because of the −v in the transformations. This has the equivalent effect of the coordinate system F′ boosted in the positive directions of the xx′ axes, while the event does not change and is simply represented in another coordinate system, a passive transformation.
The inverse relations (t, x, y, z in terms of t′, x′, y′, z′) can be found by algebraically solving the original set of equations. A more efficient way is to use physical principles. Here F′ is the "stationary" frame while F
is the "moving" frame. According to the principle of relativity, there
is no privileged frame of reference, so the transformations from F′ to F must take exactly the same form as the transformations from F to F′. The only difference is F moves with velocity −v relative to F′ (i.e., the relative velocity has the same magnitude but is oppositely directed). Thus if an observer in F′ notes an event t′, x′, y′, z′, then an observer in F notes the same event with coordinates
Inverse Lorentz boost (x direction)
and the value of γ remains
unchanged. This "trick" of simply reversing the direction of relative
velocity while preserving its magnitude, and exchanging primed and
unprimed variables, always applies to finding the inverse transformation
of every boost in any direction.
Sometimes it is more convenient to use β = v/c (lowercase beta) instead of v, so that
which shows much more clearly the symmetry in the transformation. From the allowed ranges of v and the definition of β, it follows −1 < β < 1. The use of β and γ is standard throughout the literature.
The Lorentz transformations can also be derived in a way that resembles circular rotations in 3d space using the hyperbolic functions. For the boost in the x direction, the results are
Lorentz boost (x direction with rapidity ζ)
where ζ (lowercase zeta) is a parameter called rapidity (many other symbols are used, including θ, ϕ, φ, η, ψ, ξ).
Given the strong resemblance to rotations of spatial coordinates in 3d
space in the Cartesian xy, yz, and zx planes, a Lorentz boost can be
thought of as a hyperbolic rotation of spacetime coordinates in the xt, yt, and zt Cartesian-time planes of 4d Minkowski space. The parameter ζ is the hyperbolic angle of rotation, analogous to the ordinary angle for circular rotations. This transformation can be illustrated with a Minkowski diagram.
The hyperbolic functions arise from the difference between
the squares of the time and spatial coordinates in the spacetime
interval, rather than a sum. The geometric significance of the
hyperbolic functions can be visualized by taking x = 0 or ct = 0
in the transformations. Squaring and subtracting the results, one can
derive hyperbolic curves of constant coordinate values but varying ζ, which parametrizes the curves according to the identity
Conversely the ct and x axes can be constructed for varying coordinates but constant ζ. The definition
provides the link between a constant value of rapidity, and the slope of the ct axis in spacetime. A consequence these two hyperbolic formulae is an identity that matches the Lorentz factor
Comparing the Lorentz transformations in terms of the relative
velocity and rapidity, or using the above formulae, the connections
between β, γ, and ζ are
Taking the inverse hyperbolic tangent gives the rapidity
Since −1 < β < 1, it follows −∞ < ζ < ∞. From the relation between ζ and β, positive rapidity ζ > 0 is motion along the positive directions of the xx′ axes, zero rapidity ζ = 0 is no relative motion, while negative rapidity ζ < 0 is relative motion along the negative directions of the xx′ axes.
The inverse transformations are obtained by exchanging primed and
unprimed quantities to switch the coordinate frames, and negating
rapidity ζ → −ζ since this is equivalent to negating the relative velocity. Therefore,
Inverse Lorentz boost (x direction with rapidity ζ)
The inverse transformations can be similarly visualized by considering the cases when x′ = 0 and ct′ = 0.
So far the Lorentz transformations have been applied to one event. If there are two events, there is a spatial separation and time interval between them. It follows from the linearity
of the Lorentz transformations that two values of space and time
coordinates can be chosen, the Lorentz transformations can be applied to
each, then subtracted to get the Lorentz transformations of the
differences;
with inverse relations
where Δ (uppercase delta) indicates a difference of quantities; e.g., Δx = x2 − x1 for two values of x coordinates, and so on.
These transformations on differences rather than spatial points or instants of time are useful for a number of reasons:
in calculations and experiments, it is lengths between two
points or time intervals that are measured or of interest (e.g., the
length of a moving vehicle, or time duration it takes to travel from one
place to another),
the transformations of velocity can be readily derived by making the
difference infinitesimally small and dividing the equations, and the
process repeated for the transformation of acceleration,
if the coordinate systems are never coincident (i.e., not in
standard configuration), and if both observers can agree on an event t0, x0, y0, z0 in F and t0′, x0′, y0′, z0′ in F′,
then they can use that event as the origin, and the spacetime
coordinate differences are the differences between their coordinates and
this origin, e.g., Δx = x − x0, Δx′ = x′ − x0′, etc.
Physical implications
A
critical requirement of the Lorentz transformations is the invariance
of the speed of light, a fact used in their derivation, and contained in
the transformations themselves. If in F the equation for a pulse of light along the x direction is x = ct, then in F′ the Lorentz transformations give x′ = ct′, and vice versa, for any −c < v < c.
For relative speeds much less than the speed of light, the Lorentz transformations reduce to the Galilean transformation
in accordance with the correspondence principle. It is sometimes said that nonrelativistic physics is a physics of "instantaneous action at a distance".
Three counterintuitive, but correct, predictions of the transformations are:
Suppose two events occur along the x axis simultaneously (Δt = 0) in F, but separated by a nonzero displacement Δx. Then in F′, we find that , so the events are no longer simultaneous according to a moving observer.
Suppose there is a clock at rest in F. If a time interval is measured at the same point in that frame, so that Δx = 0, then the transformations give this interval in F′ by Δt′ = γΔt. Conversely, suppose there is a clock at rest in F′. If an interval is measured at the same point in that frame, so that Δx′ = 0, then the transformations give this interval in F by Δt = γΔt′. Either way, each observer measures the time interval between ticks of a moving clock to be longer by a factor γ than the time interval between ticks of his own clock.
Suppose there is a rod at rest in F aligned along the x axis, with length Δx. In F′, the rod moves with velocity -v, so its length must be measured by taking two simultaneous (Δt′ = 0) measurements at opposite ends. Under these conditions, the inverse Lorentz transform shows that Δx = γΔx′. In F the two measurements are no longer simultaneous, but this does not matter because the rod is at rest in F. So each observer measures the distance between the end points of a moving rod to be shorter by a factor 1/γ
than the end points of an identical rod at rest in his own frame.
Length contraction affects any geometric quantity related to lengths, so
from the perspective of a moving observer, areas and volumes will also
appear to shrink along the direction of motion.
The use of vectors allows positions and velocities to be expressed in
arbitrary directions compactly. A single boost in any direction depends
on the full relative velocity vectorv with a magnitude |v| = v that cannot equal or exceed c, so that 0 ≤ v < c.
Only time and the coordinates parallel to the direction of
relative motion change, while those coordinates perpendicular do not.
With this in mind, split the spatial position vectorr as measured in F, and r′ as measured in F′, each into components perpendicular (⊥) and parallel ( ‖ ) to v,
then the transformations are
where · is the dot product. The Lorentz factor γ
retains its definition for a boost in any direction, since it depends
only on the magnitude of the relative velocity. The definition β = v/c with magnitude 0 ≤ β < 1 is also used by some authors.
Introducing a unit vectorn = v/v = β/β in the direction of relative motion, the relative velocity is v = vn with magnitude v and direction n, and vector projection and rejection give respectively
Accumulating the results gives the full transformations,
Lorentz boost (in direction n with magnitude v)
The projection and rejection also applies to r′. For the inverse transformations, exchange r and r′ to switch observed coordinates, and negate the relative velocity v → −v (or simply the unit vector n → −n since the magnitude v is always positive) to obtain
Inverse Lorentz boost (in direction n with magnitude v)
The unit vector has the advantage of simplifying equations for a single boost, allows either v or β to be reinstated when convenient, and the rapidity parametrization is immediately obtained by replacing β and βγ. It is not convenient for multiple boosts.
The vectorial relation between relative velocity and rapidity is
and the "rapidity vector" can be defined as
each of which serves as a useful abbreviation in some contexts. The magnitude of ζ is the absolute value of the rapidity scalar confined to 0 ≤ ζ < ∞, which agrees with the range 0 ≤ β < 1.
Defining the coordinate velocities and Lorentz factor by
taking the differentials in the coordinates and time of the vector transformations, then dividing equations, leads to
The velocities u and u′ are the velocity of some massive object. They can also be for a third inertial frame (say F′′), in which case they must be constant. Denote either entity by X. Then X moves with velocity u relative to F, or equivalently with velocity u′ relative to F′, in turn F′ moves with velocity v relative to F. The inverse transformations can be obtained in a similar way, or as with position coordinates exchange u and u′, and change v to −v.
The Lorentz transformations of acceleration can be similarly obtained by taking differentials in the velocity vectors, and dividing these by the time differential.
Transformation of other quantities
In general, given four quantities A and Z = (Zx, Zy, Zz) and their Lorentz-boosted counterparts A′ and Z′ = (Z′x, Z′y, Z′z), a relation of the form
implies the quantities transform under Lorentz transformations similar to the transformation of spacetime coordinates;
The decomposition of Z (and Z′) into components perpendicular and parallel to v is exactly the same as for the position vector, as is the process of obtaining the inverse transformations (exchange (A, Z) and (A′, Z′) to switch observed quantities, and reverse the direction of relative motion by the substitution n ↦ −n).
The quantities (A, Z) collectively make up a four-vector, where A is the "timelike component", and Z the "spacelike component". Examples of A and Z are the following:
For a given object (e.g., particle, fluid, field, material), if A or Z correspond to properties specific to the object like its charge density, mass density, spin,
etc., its properties can be fixed in the rest frame of that object.
Then the Lorentz transformations give the corresponding properties in a
frame moving relative to the object with constant velocity. This breaks
some notions taken for granted in non-relativistic physics. For example,
the energy E of an object is a
scalar in non-relativistic mechanics, but not in relativistic mechanics
because energy changes under Lorentz transformations; its value is
different for various inertial frames. In the rest frame of an object,
it has a rest energy
and zero momentum. In a boosted frame its energy is different and it
appears to have a momentum. Similarly, in non-relativistic quantum
mechanics the spin of a particle is a constant vector, but in relativistic quantum mechanics spin s
depends on relative motion. In the rest frame of the particle, the spin
pseudovector can be fixed to be its ordinary non-relativistic spin with
a zero timelike quantity st, however a boosted observer will perceive a nonzero timelike component and an altered spin.
Not all quantities are invariant in the form as shown above, for example orbital angular momentumL does not have a timelike quantity, and neither does the electric fieldE nor the magnetic fieldB. The definition of angular momentum is L = r × p, and in a boosted frame the altered angular momentum is L′ = r′ × p′.
Applying this definition using the transformations of coordinates and
momentum leads to the transformation of angular momentum. It turns out L transforms with another vector quantity N = (E/c2)r − tp related to boosts, see relativistic angular momentum for details. For the case of the E and B fields, the transformations cannot be obtained as directly using vector algebra. The Lorentz force is the definition of these fields, and in F it is F = q(E + v × B) while in F′ it is F′ = q(E′ + v′ × B′).
A method of deriving the EM field transformations in an efficient way
which also illustrates the unit of the electromagnetic field uses tensor
algebra, given below.
where Λ is a square matrix which can depend on parameters.
The set of all Lorentz transformations in this article is denoted . This set together with matrix multiplication forms a group, in this context known as the Lorentz group. Also, the above expression X·X is a quadratic form of signature (3,1) on spacetime, and the group of transformations which leaves this quadratic form invariant is the indefinite orthogonal group O(3,1), a Lie group. In other words, the Lorentz group is O(3,1). As presented in this article, any Lie groups mentioned are matrix Lie groups. In this context the operation of composition amounts to matrix multiplication.
From the invariance of the spacetime interval it follows
and this matrix equation contains the general conditions on the Lorentz
transformation to ensure invariance of the spacetime interval. Taking
the determinant of the equation using the product rule gives immediately
Writing the Minkowski metric as a block matrix, and the Lorentz transformation in the most general form,
carrying out the block matrix multiplications obtains general conditions on Γ, a, b, M
to ensure relativistic invariance. Not much information can be directly
extracted from all the conditions, however one of the results
is useful; bTb ≥ 0 always so it follows that
The negative inequality may be unexpected, because Γ multiplies the time coordinate and this has an effect on time symmetry. If the positive equality holds, then Γ is the Lorentz factor.
The determinant and inequality provide four ways to classify Lorentz Transformations (herein LTs for brevity). Any particular LT has only one determinant sign and only one inequality. There are four sets which include every possible pair given by the intersections ("n"-shaped symbol meaning "and") of these classifying sets.
Intersection, ∩
Antichronous (or non-orthochronous) LTs
Orthochronous LTs
Proper LTs
Proper antichronous LTs
Proper orthochronous LTs
Improper LTs
Improper antichronous LTs
Improper orthochronous LTs
where "+" and "−" indicate the determinant sign, while "↑" for ≥ and "↓" for ≤ denote the inequalities.
The full Lorentz group splits into the union ("u"-shaped symbol meaning "or") of four disjoint sets
A subgroup of a group must be closed under the same operation of the group (here matrix multiplication). In other words, for two Lorentz transformations Λ and L from a particular subgroup, the composite Lorentz transformations ΛL and LΛ must be in the same subgroup as Λ and L.
This is not always the case: the composition of two antichronous
Lorentz transformations is orthochronous, and the composition of two
improper Lorentz transformations is proper. In other words, while the
sets , , , and
all form subgroups, the sets containing improper and/or antichronous
transformations without enough proper orthochronous transformations
(e.g. , , ) do not form subgroups.
Proper transformations
If a Lorentz covariant 4-vector is measured in one inertial frame with result , and the same measurement made in another inertial frame (with the same orientation and origin) gives result , the two results will be related by
where the boost matrix represents the rotation-free Lorentz transformation between the unprimed and primed frames and is the velocity of the primed frame as seen from the unprimed frame. The matrix is given by
where is the magnitude of the velocity and
is the Lorentz factor. This formula represents a passive
transformation, as it describes how the coordinates of the measured
quantity changes from the unprimed frame to the primed frame. The active
transformation is given by .
If a frame F′ is boosted with velocity u relative to frame F, and another frame F′′ is boosted with velocity v relative to F′, the separate boosts are
and the composition of the two boosts connects the coordinates in F′′ and F,
Successive transformations act on the left. If u and v are collinear (parallel or antiparallel along the same line of relative motion), the boost matrices commute: B(v)B(u) = B(u)B(v). This composite transformation happens to be another boost, B(w), where w is collinear with u and v.
If u and v
are not collinear but in different directions, the situation is
considerably more complicated. Lorentz boosts along different directions
do not commute: B(v)B(u) and B(u)B(v) are not equal. Although each of these compositions is not
a single boost, each composition is still a Lorentz transformation as
it preserves the spacetime interval. It turns out the composition of any
two Lorentz boosts is equivalent to a boost followed or preceded by a
rotation on the spatial coordinates, in the form of R(ρ)B(w) or B(w)R(ρ). The w and w are composite velocities, while ρ and ρ are rotation parameters (e.g. axis-angle variables, Euler angles, etc.). The rotation in block matrix form is simply
where R(ρ) is a 3d rotation matrix,
which rotates any 3d vector in one sense (active transformation), or
equivalently the coordinate frame in the opposite sense (passive
transformation). It is not simple to connect w and ρ (or w and ρ) to the original boost parameters u and v. In a composition of boosts, the R matrix is named the Wigner rotation, and gives rise to the Thomas precession. These articles give the explicit formulae for the composite transformation matrices, including expressions for w, ρ, w, ρ.
In this article the axis-angle representation is used for ρ. The rotation is about an axis in the direction of a unit vectore, through angle θ (positive anticlockwise, negative clockwise, according to the right-hand rule). The "axis-angle vector"
will serve as a useful abbreviation.
Spatial rotations alone are also Lorentz transformations since
they leave the spacetime interval invariant. Like boosts, successive
rotations about different axes do not commute. Unlike boosts, the
composition of any two rotations is equivalent to a single rotation.
Some other similarities and differences between the boost and rotation
matrices include:
inverses: B(v)−1 = B(−v) (relative motion in the opposite direction), and R(θ)−1 = R(−θ) (rotation in the opposite sense about the same axis)
The most general proper Lorentz transformation Λ(v, θ) includes a boost and rotation together, and is a nonsymmetric matrix. As special cases, Λ(0, θ) = R(θ) and Λ(v, 0) = B(v).
An explicit form of the general Lorentz transformation is cumbersome to
write down and will not be given here. Nevertheless, closed form
expressions for the transformation matrices will be given below using
group theoretical arguments. It will be easier to use the rapidity
parametrization for boosts, in which case one writes Λ(ζ, θ) and B(ζ).
The Lie group SO+(3,1)
The set of transformations
with matrix multiplication as the operation of composition forms a group, called the "restricted Lorentz group", and is the special indefinite orthogonal group SO+(3,1). (The plus sign indicates that it preserves the orientation of the temporal dimension).
For simplicity, look at the infinitesimal Lorentz boost in the
x direction (examining a boost in any other direction, or rotation
about any axis, follows an identical procedure). The infinitesimal boost
is a small boost away from the identity, obtained by the Taylor expansion of the boost matrix to first order about ζ = 0,
where the higher order terms not shown are negligible because ζ is small, and Bx is simply the boost matrix in the x direction. The derivative of the matrix
is the matrix of derivatives (of the entries, with respect to the same
variable), and it is understood the derivatives are found first then
evaluated at ζ = 0,
For now, Kx is
defined by this result (its significance will be explained shortly). In
the limit of an infinite number of infinitely small steps, the finite
boost transformation in the form of a matrix exponential is obtained
The axis-angle vector θ and rapidity vector ζ
are altogether six continuous variables which make up the group
parameters (in this particular representation), and the generators of
the group are K = (Kx, Ky, Kz) and J = (Jx, Jy, Jz), each vectors of matrices with the explicit forms
These are all defined in an analogous way to Kx
above, although the minus signs in the boost generators are
conventional. Physically, the generators of the Lorentz group correspond
to important symmetries in spacetime: J are the rotation generators which correspond to angular momentum, and K are the boost generators which correspond to the motion of the system in spacetime. The derivative of any smooth curve C(t) with C(0) = I in the group depending on some group parameter t with respect to that group parameter, evaluated at t = 0, serves as a definition of a corresponding group generator G,
and this reflects an infinitesimal transformation away from the
identity. The smooth curve can always be taken as an exponential as the
exponential will always map G smoothly back into the group via t → exp(tG) for all t; this curve will yield G again when differentiated at t = 0.
Expanding the exponentials in their Taylor series obtains
which compactly reproduce the boost and rotation matrices as given in the previous section.
It has been stated that the general proper Lorentz transformation is a product of a boost and rotation. At the infinitesimal level the product
is commutative because only linear terms are required (products like (θ·J)(ζ·K) and (ζ·K)(θ·J)
count as higher order terms and are negligible). Taking the limit as
before leads to the finite transformation in the form of an exponential
The converse is also true, but the decomposition of a finite
general Lorentz transformation into such factors is nontrivial. In
particular,
because the generators do not commute. For a description of how to find
the factors of a general Lorentz transformation in terms of a boost and a
rotation in principle (this usually does not yield an intelligible expression in terms of generators J and K), see Wigner rotation. If, on the other hand, the decomposition is given in terms of the generators, and one wants to find the product in terms of the generators, then the Baker–Campbell–Hausdorff formula applies.
The Lie algebra so(3,1)
Lorentz generators can be added together, or multiplied by real numbers, to obtain more Lorentz generators. In other words, the set of all Lorentz generators
together with the operations of ordinary matrix addition and multiplication of a matrix by a number, forms a vector space over the real numbers. The generators Jx, Jy, Jz, Kx, Ky, Kz form a basis set of V, and the components of the axis-angle and rapidity vectors, θx, θy, θz, ζx, ζy, ζz, are the coordinates of a Lorentz generator with respect to this basis.
where the bracket [A, B] = AB − BA is known as the commutator, and the other relations can be found by taking cyclic permutations of x, y, z components (i.e. change x to y, y to z, and z to x, repeat).
These commutation relations, and the vector space of generators, fulfill the definition of the Lie algebra. In summary, a Lie algebra is defined as a vector spaceV over a field of numbers, and with a binary operation [ , ] (called a Lie bracket in this context) on the elements of the vector space, satisfying the axioms of bilinearity, alternatization, and the Jacobi identity.
Here the operation [ , ] is the commutator which satisfies all of these
axioms, the vector space is the set of Lorentz generators V as given previously, and the field is the set of real numbers.
Linking terminology used in mathematics and physics: A group
generator is any element of the Lie algebra. A group parameter is a
component of a coordinate vector representing an arbitrary element of
the Lie algebra with respect to some basis. A basis, then, is a set of
generators being a basis of the Lie algebra in the usual vector space
sense.
provides a one-to-one correspondence between small enough neighborhoods
of the origin of the Lie algebra and neighborhoods of the identity
element of the Lie group. In the case of the Lorentz group, the
exponential map is just the matrix exponential. Globally, the exponential map is not one-to-one, but in the case of the Lorentz group, it is surjective
(onto). Hence any group element in the connected component of the
identity can be expressed as an exponential of an element of the Lie
algebra.
which negates all the spatial coordinates only, and time reversal
which negates the time coordinate only, because these transformations leave the spacetime interval invariant. Here I is the 3d identity matrix. These are both symmetric, they are their own inverses (see involution (mathematics)), and each have determinant −1. This latter property makes them improper transformations.
If Λ is a proper orthochronous Lorentz transformation, then TΛ is improper antichronous, PΛ is improper orthochronous, and TPΛ = PTΛ is proper antichronous.
Inhomogeneous Lorentz group
Two other spacetime symmetries have not been accounted for. In order for the spacetime interval to be invariant, it can be shown that it is necessary and sufficient for the coordinate transformation to be of the form
where C is a constant column containing translations in time and space. If C ≠ 0, this is an inhomogeneous Lorentz transformation or Poincaré transformation. If C = 0, this is a homogeneous Lorentz transformation. Poincaré transformations are not dealt further in this article.
Writing the general matrix transformation of coordinates as the matrix equation
allows the transformation of other physical quantities that cannot be expressed as four-vectors; e.g., tensors or spinors of any order in 4d spacetime, to be defined. In the corresponding tensor index notation, the above matrix expression is
where lower and upper indices label covariant and contravariant components respectively, and the summation convention is applied. It is a standard convention to use Greek indices that take the value 0 for time components, and 1, 2, 3 for space components, while Latin
indices simply take the values 1, 2, 3, for spatial components (the
opposite for Landau and Lifshitz). Note that the first index (reading
left to right) corresponds in the matrix notation to a row index. The second index corresponds to the column index.
The transformation matrix is universal for all four-vectors, not just 4-dimensional spacetime coordinates. If A is any four-vector, then in tensor index notation
Alternatively, one writes
in which the primed indices denote the indices of A in the primed frame. For a general n-component object one may write
where Π is the appropriate representation of the Lorentz group, an n×n matrix for every Λ. In this case, the indices should not be thought of as spacetime indices (sometimes called Lorentz indices), and they run from 1 to n. E.g., if X is a bispinor, then the indices are called Dirac indices.
Covariant vectors
There
are also vector quantities with covariant indices. They are generally
obtained from their corresponding objects with contravariant indices by
the operation of lowering an index; e.g.,
where η is the metric tensor.
(The linked article also provides more information about what the
operation of raising and lowering indices really is mathematically.) The
inverse of this transformation is given by
where, when viewed as matrices, ημν is the inverse of ημν. As it happens, ημν = ημν. This is referred to as raising an index. To transform a covariant vector Aμ, first raise its index, then transform it according to the same rule as for contravariant 4-vectors, then finally lower the index;
But
That is, it is the (μ, ν)-component of the inverse Lorentz transformation. One defines (as a matter of notation),
and may in this notation write
Now for a subtlety. The implied summation on the right hand side of
is running over a row index of the matrix representing Λ−1. Thus, in terms of matrices, this transformation should be thought of as the inverse transpose of Λ acting on the column vector Aμ. That is, in pure matrix notation,
This means exactly that covariant vectors (thought of as column matrices) transform according to the dual representation of the standard representation of the Lorentz group. This notion generalizes to general representations, simply replace Λ with Π(Λ).
Tensors
If A and B are linear operators on vector spaces U and V, then a linear operator A ⊗ B may be defined on the tensor product of U and V, denoted U ⊗ V according to
(T1)
From this it is immediately clear that if u and v are a four-vectors in V, then u ⊗ v ∈ T2V ≡ V ⊗ V transforms as
(T2)
The second step uses the bilinearity of the tensor product and the
last step defines a 2-tensor on component form, or rather, it just
renames the tensor u ⊗ v.
These observations generalize in an obvious way to more factors, and using the fact that a general tensor on a vector space V
can be written as a sum of a coefficient (component!) times tensor
products of basis vectors and basis covectors, one arrives at the
transformation law for any tensor quantity T. It is given by
(T3)
where Λχ′ψ is defined above. This form can generally be reduced to the form for general n-component objects given above with a single matrix (Π(Λ)) operating on column vectors. This latter form is sometimes preferred; e.g., for the electromagnetic field tensor.
Lorentz transformations can also be used to illustrate that the magnetic fieldB and electric fieldE are simply different aspects of the same force — the electromagnetic force, as a consequence of relative motion between electric charges and observers. The fact that the electromagnetic field shows relativistic effects becomes clear by carrying out a simple thought experiment.
An observer measures a charge at rest in frame F. The observer
will detect a static electric field. As the charge is stationary in
this frame, there is no electric current, so the observer does not
observe any magnetic field.
The other observer in frame F′ moves at velocity v relative to F and the charge. This observer sees a different electric field because the charge moves at velocity −v in their rest frame. The motion of the charge corresponds to an electric current, and thus the observer in frame F′ also sees a magnetic field.
The electric and magnetic fields transform differently from space and
time, but exactly the same way as relativistic angular momentum and the
boost vector.
The electromagnetic field strength tensor is given by
in SI units. In relativity, the Gaussian system of units is often preferred over SI units, even in texts whose main choice of units is SI units, because in it the electric field E and the magnetic induction B have the same units making the appearance of the electromagnetic field tensor more natural. Consider a Lorentz boost in the x-direction. It is given by
where the field tensor is displayed side by side for easiest possible reference in the manipulations below.
Here, β = (β, 0, 0) is used. These results can be summarized by
and are independent of the metric signature. For SI units, substitute E → E⁄c. Misner, Thorne & Wheeler (1973) refer to this last form as the 3 + 1 view as opposed to the geometric view represented by the tensor expression
and make a strong point of the ease with which results that are difficult to achieve using the 3 + 1 view can be obtained and understood. Only objects that have well defined Lorentz transformation properties (in fact under any
smooth coordinate transformation) are geometric objects. In the
geometric view, the electromagnetic field is a six-dimensional geometric
object in spacetime as opposed to two interdependent, but separate, 3-vector fields in space and time. The fields E (alone) and B (alone) do not have well defined Lorentz transformation properties. The mathematical underpinnings are equations (T1) and (T2) that immediately yield (T3). One should note that the primed and unprimed tensors refer to the same event in spacetime. Thus the complete equation with spacetime dependence is
Length contraction has an effect on charge densityρ and current densityJ,
and time dilation has an effect on the rate of flow of charge
(current), so charge and current distributions must transform in a
related way under a boost. It turns out they transform exactly like the
space-time and energy-momentum four-vectors,
or, in the simpler geometric view,
Charge density transforms as the time component of a four-vector. It is a rotational scalar. The current density is a 3-vector.
Equation (T1) hold unmodified for any representation of the Lorentz group, including the bispinor representation. In (T2) one simply replaces all occurrences of Λ by the bispinor representation Π(Λ),
(T4)
The above equation could, for instance, be the transformation of a state in Fock space describing two free electrons.
Transformation of general fields
A general noninteracting multi-particle state (Fock space state) in quantum field theory transforms according to the rule
(1)
where W(Λ, p) is the Wigner rotation and D(j) is the (2j + 1)-dimensional representation of SO(3).