Relativity, Groups, Particles: Special Relativity and Relativistic Symmetry in Field and Particle Physics

by Roman Sexl

This textbook bridges the gap between the level of introductory courses on mechanics and electrodynamics and the level of application in high energy physics and quantum field theory. After explaining the postulates that lead to the Lorentz transformation and after going through the main points special relativity has to make in classical mechanics and electrodynamics, the authors gradually lead the reader up to a more abstract point of view on relativistic symmetry - illustrated by physical examples - until finally motivating and developing Wigner's classification of the unitary irreducible representations of the inhomogeneous Lorentz group. Numerous historical and mathematical asides contribute to the conceptual clarification.

Genres: Physics

400 pages, Paperback

First published February 4, 1982

About the author

Roman Ulrich Sexl (1939 – 1986) was a leading Austrian theoretical physicist. He is most famous for his textbooks on special relativity.