Lorentz transformation

In physics, the Lorentz transformations are a six-parameter family of linear transformations 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 physicist Hendrik Lorentz.
The most common form of the transformation, parametrized by the real constant formula_1 representing a velocity confined to the -direction, is expressed as
where and are the coordinates of an event in two frames, where the primed frame is seen from the unprimed frame as moving with speed along the -axis, is the speed of light, and formula_3 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", formula_4 grows without bound. The value of "v" must be smaller than "c" for the transformation to make sense.
Expressing the speed as formula_5 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.
They supersede the Galilean transformation of Newtonian physics, which assumes an absolute space and time (see Galilean relativity). The Galilean transformation is a good approximation only at relative speeds much less than the speed of light. Lorentz transformations have a number of unintuitive features that do not appear in Galilean transformations. For example, they reflect the fact that observers moving at different velocities may measure different distances, elapsed times, and even different orderings of events, but always such that the speed of light is the same in all inertial reference frames. The invariance of light speed is one of the postulates of special relativity.
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 Lorentz transformation is in accordance with Albert Einstein's special relativity, but was derived first.
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.
History.
Many physicists—including Woldemar Voigt, George FitzGerald, Joseph Larmor, and Hendrik Lorentz himself—had been discussing the physics implied by these equations since 1887. Early in 1889, Oliver Heaviside had shown from Maxwell's equations that the electric field surrounding a spherical distribution of charge should cease to have spherical symmetry once the charge is in motion relative to the aether. FitzGerald then conjectured that Heaviside's distortion result might be applied to a theory of intermolecular forces. Some months later, FitzGerald published the conjecture that bodies in motion are being contracted, in order to explain the baffling outcome of the 1887 aether-wind experiment of Michelson and Morley. In 1892, Lorentz independently presented the same idea in a more detailed manner, which was subsequently called FitzGerald–Lorentz contraction hypothesis. Their explanation was widely known before 1905.
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 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 coordinates to specify position in space in that frame. Subscripts label individual events.
From Einstein's second postulate of relativity (invariance of "c") it follows that:
in all inertial frames for events connected by "light signals". The quantity on the left is called the "spacetime interval" between events and . 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:
where are the spacetime coordinates used to define events in one frame, and are the coordinates in another frame. First one observes that is satisfied if an arbitrary -tuple of numbers are added to events and . 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:
(a solution satisfying the left formula automatically satisfies the right one also; 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 can be written more compactly as:
where refers to the bilinear form of signature on exposed by the right hand side formula in . The alternative notation defined on the right is referred to as the "relativistic dot product". Spacetime mathematically viewed as endowed with this bilinear form is known as Minkowski space . The Lorentz transformation is thus an element of the group , the Lorentz group or, for those that prefer the other metric signature, (also called the Lorentz group). One has:
which is precisely preservation of the bilinear form which implies (by linearity of and bilinearity of the form) that 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 "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 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.
Physical formulation of Lorentz boosts.
Coordinate transformation.
A "stationary" observer in frame defines events with coordinates . Another frame moves with velocity relative to , and an observer in this "moving" frame defines events using the coordinates .
The coordinate axes in each frame are parallel (the and axes are parallel, the and axes are parallel, and the and axes are parallel), remain mutually perpendicular, and relative motion is along the coincident axes. At , the origins of both coordinate systems are the same, . 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 records an event , then an observer in records the "same" event with coordinates
where is the relative velocity between frames in the -direction, is the speed of light, and
(lowercase gamma) is the Lorentz factor.
Here, 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 is motion along the positive directions of the axes, zero relative velocity is no relative motion, while negative relative velocity is relative motion along the negative directions of the axes. The magnitude of relative velocity cannot equal or exceed , so only subluminal speeds are allowed. The corresponding range of is .
The transformations are not defined if is outside these limits. At the speed of light () is infinite, and faster than light () 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 axes, because of the in the transformations. This has the equivalent effect of the "coordinate system" F′ boosted in the positive directions of the axes, while the event does not change and is simply represented in another coordinate system, a passive transformation.
The inverse relations ( in terms of ) can be found by algebraically solving the original set of equations. A more efficient way is to use physical principles. Here is the "stationary" frame while is the "moving" frame. According to the principle of relativity, there is no privileged frame of reference, so the transformations from to must take exactly the same form as the transformations from to . The only difference is moves with velocity relative to (i.e., the relative velocity has the same magnitude but is oppositely directed). Thus if an observer in notes an event , then an observer in notes the "same" event with coordinates
and the value of 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 (lowercase beta) instead of , so that
which shows much more clearly the symmetry in the transformation. From the allowed ranges of and the definition of , it follows . The use of and 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 direction, the results are
where (lowercase zeta) is a parameter called "rapidity" (many other symbols are used, including ). 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 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 or in the transformations. Squaring and subtracting the results, one can derive hyperbolic curves of constant coordinate values but varying , which parametrizes the curves according to the identity
Conversely the and axes can be constructed for varying coordinates but constant . The definition
provides the link between a constant value of rapidity, and the slope of the 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 , , and are
Taking the inverse hyperbolic tangent gives the rapidity
Since , it follows . From the relation between and , positive rapidity is motion along the positive directions of the axes, zero rapidity is no relative motion, while negative rapidity is relative motion along the negative directions of the axes.
The inverse transformations are obtained by exchanging primed and unprimed quantities to switch the coordinate frames, and negating rapidity since this is equivalent to negating the relative velocity. Therefore,
The inverse transformations can be similarly visualized by considering the cases when and .
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 (uppercase delta) indicates a difference of quantities; e.g., for two values of coordinates, and so on.
These transformations on "differences" rather than spatial points or instants of time are useful for a number of reasons:
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 the equation for a pulse of light along the direction is , then in the Lorentz transformations give , and vice versa, for any .
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:
Vector transformations.
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 vector with a magnitude that cannot equal or exceed , so that .
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 vector as measured in , and as measured in , each into components perpendicular (⊥) and parallel ( ‖ ) to ,
then the transformations are
where · is the dot product. The Lorentz factor retains its definition for a boost in any direction, since it depends only on the magnitude of the relative velocity. The definition with magnitude is also used by some authors.
Introducing a unit vector in the direction of relative motion, the relative velocity is with magnitude and direction , and vector projection and rejection give respectively
Accumulating the results gives the full transformations,
 \mathbf{r}' &= \mathbf{r} + (\gamma-1)(\mathbf{r}\cdot\mathbf{n})\mathbf{n} - \gamma t v\mathbf{n} \.
\end{align}</math>
The projection and rejection also applies to . For the inverse transformations, exchange and to switch observed coordinates, and negate the relative velocity (or simply the unit vector since the magnitude is always positive) to obtain
 \mathbf{r} &= \mathbf{r}' + (\gamma-1)(\mathbf{r}'\cdot\mathbf{n})\mathbf{n} + \gamma t' v\mathbf{n} \,
\end{align}</math>
The unit vector has the advantage of simplifying equations for a single boost, allows either or to be reinstated when convenient, and the rapidity parametrization is immediately obtained by replacing and . 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 is the absolute value of the rapidity scalar confined to , which agrees with the range .
Transformation of velocities.
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 and 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 relative to F, or equivalently with velocity relative to F′, in turn F′ moves with velocity relative to F. The inverse transformations can be obtained in a similar way, or as with position coordinates exchange and , and change to .
The transformation of velocity is useful in stellar aberration, the Fizeau experiment, and the relativistic Doppler effect.
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 and and their Lorentz-boosted counterparts and , a relation of the form
implies the quantities transform under Lorentz transformations similar to the transformation of spacetime coordinates;
The decomposition of (and ) into components perpendicular and parallel to is exactly the same as for the position vector, as is the process of obtaining the inverse transformations (exchange and to switch observed quantities, and reverse the direction of relative motion by the substitution ).
The quantities collectively make up a "four-vector", where is the "timelike component", and the "spacelike component". Examples of and are the following:
For a given object (e.g., particle, fluid, field, material), if or 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 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 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 , 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 momentum does not have a timelike quantity, and neither does the electric field nor the magnetic field . The definition of angular momentum is , and in a boosted frame the altered angular momentum is . Applying this definition using the transformations of coordinates and momentum leads to the transformation of angular momentum. It turns out transforms with another vector quantity related to boosts, see relativistic angular momentum for details. For the case of the and fields, the transformations cannot be obtained as directly using vector algebra. The Lorentz force is the definition of these fields, and in it is while in it is . 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.
Mathematical formulation.
Throughout, italic non-bold capital letters are 4×4 matrices, while non-italic bold letters are 3×3 matrices.
Homogeneous Lorentz group.
Writing the coordinates in column vectors and the Minkowski metric as a square matrix
the spacetime interval takes the form (T denotes transpose)
and is invariant under a Lorentz transformation
where Λ is a square matrix which can depend on parameters.
The set of all Lorentz transformations Λ in this article is denoted formula_30. This set together with matrix multiplication forms a group, in this context known as the "Lorentz group". Also, the above expression 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 to ensure relativistic invariance. Not much information can be directly extracted from all the conditions, however one of the results
is useful; always so it follows that
The negative inequality may be unexpected, because multiplies the time coordinate and this has an effect on time symmetry. If the positive equality holds, then 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.
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 and from a particular set, the composite Lorentz transformations and must be in the same set as and . 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 formula_37, formula_38, formula_39, and formula_40 all form subgroups, the sets containing improper and/or antichronous transformations without enough proper orthochronous transformations (e.g. formula_41, formula_42, formula_43) do not form subgroups.
Proper transformations.
If a Lorentz covariant 4-vector is measured in one inertial frame with result formula_44, and the same measurement made in another inertial frame (with the same orientation and origin) gives result formula_45, the two results will be related by
where the boost matrix formula_47 represents the Lorentz transformation between the unprimed and primed frames and formula_48 is the velocity of the primed frame as seen from the unprimed frame. The matrix is given by
where formula_50 is the magnitude of the velocity and formula_51 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 formula_52.
If a frame is boosted with velocity relative to frame , and another frame is boosted with velocity relative to , the separate boosts are
and the composition of the two boosts connects the coordinates in and ,
Successive transformations act on the left. If and are collinear (parallel or antiparallel along the same line of relative motion), the boost matrices commute: . This composite transformation happens to be another boost, , where is collinear with and .
If and are not collinear but in different directions, the situation is considerably more complicated. Lorentz boosts along different directions do not commute: and are not equal. Also, each of these compositions is "not" a single boost, but they are still Lorentz transformations they each preserve 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 or . The and are composite velocities, while and are rotation parameters (e.g. axis-angle variables, Euler angles, etc.). The rotation in block matrix form is simply
where 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 and (or and ) to the original boost parameters and . In a composition of boosts, the 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 .
In this article the axis-angle representation is used for . The rotation is about an axis in the direction of a unit vector , through angle (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 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:
The most general proper Lorentz transformation includes a boost and rotation together, and is a nonsymmetric matrix. As special cases, and . 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 and .
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 ,
where the higher order terms not shown are negligible because is small, and 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 ,
For now, 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
where the limit definition of the exponential has been used (see also characterizations of the exponential function). More generally
The axis-angle vector and rapidity vector are altogether six continuous variables which make up the group parameters (in this particular representation), and the generators of the group are and , each vectors of matrices with the explicit forms
These are all defined in an analogous way to above, although the minus signs in the boost generators are conventional. Physically, the generators of the Lorentz group correspond to important symmetries in spacetime: are the "rotation generators" which correspond to angular momentum, and are the "boost generators" which correspond to the motion of the system in spacetime. The derivative of any smooth curve with in the group depending on some group parameter with respect to that group parameter, evaluated at , serves as a definition of a corresponding group generator , 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 smoothly back into the group via for all ; this curve will yield again when differentiated at .
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 and 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 and ), 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 form a basis set of "V", and the components of the axis-angle and rapidity vectors, , are the coordinates of a Lorentz generator with respect to this basis.
Three of the commutation relations of the Lorentz generators are
where the bracket 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 formula_71. In summary, a Lie algebra is defined as a vector space "V" 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.
The exponential map from the Lie algebra to the Lie group,
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. It 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.
Improper transformations.
Lorentz transformations also include parity inversion
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 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 is a proper orthochronous Lorentz transformation, then is improper antichronous, is improper orthochronous, and is proper antichronous.
Inhomogeneous Lorentz group.
Two other spacetime symmetries have not been accounted for. 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.
Tensor formulation.
Contravariant vectors.
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. 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 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. This notation cuts risk of exhausting the Greek alphabet roughly in half.
For a general -component object one may write
where is the appropriate representation of the Lorentz group, an matrix for every . In this case, the indices should "not" be thought of as spacetime indices (sometimes called Lorentz indices), and they run from to . E.g., if 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 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, is the inverse of . As it happens, . This is referred to as "raising an index". To transform a covariant vector , first raise its index, then transform it according to the same rule as for contravariant -vectors, then finally lower the index;
But
I. e., it is the -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 . Thus, in terms of matrices, this transformation should be thought of as the "inverse transpose" of acting on the column vector . 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 with .
Tensors.
If and are linear operators on vector spaces and , then a linear operator may be defined on the tensor product of and , denoted according to
From this it is immediately clear that if and are a four-vectors in , then transforms as
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 .
These observations generalize in an obvious way to more factors, and using the fact that a general tensor on a vector space 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 . It is given by
_\mu {\Lambda^{\beta'}}_\nu \cdots {\Lambda^{\zeta'}}_\rho
 {\Lambda_{\theta'}}^\sigma {\Lambda_{\iota'}}^\upsilon \cdots {\Lambda_{\kappa'}}^\zeta
 T^{\mu\nu \cdots \rho}_{\sigma\upsilon \cdots \zeta},
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where is defined above. This form can generally be reduced to the form for general -component objects given above with a single matrix () operating on column vectors. This latter form is sometimes preferred; e.g., for the electromagnetic field tensor.
Transformation of the electromagnetic field.
Lorentz transformations can also be used to illustrate that the magnetic field and electric field 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.
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 and the magnetic induction have the same units making the appearance of the electromagnetic field tensor more natural. Consider a Lorentz boost in the -direction. It is given by
where the field tensor is displayed side by side for easiest possible reference in the manipulations below.
The general transformation law becomes
For the magnetic field one obtains
For the electric field results
Here, is used. These results can be summarized by
and are independent of the metric signature. For SI units, substitute . refer to this last form as the 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 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 (alone) and (alone) do not have well defined Lorentz transformation properties. The mathematical underpinnings are equations and that immediately yield . 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 density and current density , 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,
One says that charge density transforms as the time component of a four-vector. It is a rotational scalar. The current density is a 3-vector.
The Maxwell equations are invariant under Lorentz transformations.
Spinors.
Equation hold unmodified for any representation of the Lorentz group, including the bispinor representation. In one simply replaces all occurrences of by the bispinor representation ,
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
 \left( \sum_{\sigma_1'\sigma_2' \cdots} D_{\sigma_1'\sigma_1}^{(j_1)}\left[W(\Lambda, p_1)\right] D_{\sigma_2'\sigma_2}^{(j_2)}\left[W(\Lambda, p_2)\right] \cdots \right)
 \Psi_{\Lambda p_1 \sigma_1' n_1; \Lambda p_2 \sigma_2' n_2; \cdots},
 \end{align}</math>
where is the Wigner rotation and is the representation of .