de Sitter invariant special relativity

In mathematical physics, de Sitter invariant special relativity is the speculative idea that the fundamental symmetry group of spacetime is the indefinite orthogonal group SO(4,1), that of de Sitter space. In the standard theory of general relativity, de Sitter space is a highly symmetrical special vacuum solution, which requires a cosmological constant or the stress–energy of a constant scalar field to sustain. In mathematical physics, de Sitter invariant special relativity is the speculative idea that the fundamental symmetry group of spacetime is the indefinite orthogonal group SO(4,1), that of de Sitter space. In the standard theory of general relativity, de Sitter space is a highly symmetrical special vacuum solution, which requires a cosmological constant or the stress–energy of a constant scalar field to sustain. The idea of de Sitter invariant relativity is to require that the laws of physics are not fundamentally invariant under the Poincaré group of special relativity, but under the symmetry group of de Sitter space instead. With this assumption, empty space automatically has de Sitter symmetry, and what would normally be called the cosmological constant in general relativity becomes a fundamental dimensional parameter describing the symmetry structure of spacetime. First proposed by Luigi Fantappiè in 1954, the theory remained obscure until it was rediscovered in 1968 by Henri Bacry and Jean-Marc Lévy-Leblond. In 1972, Freeman Dyson popularized it as a hypothetical road by which mathematicians could have guessed part of the structure of general relativity before it was discovered. The discovery of the accelerating expansion of the universe has led to a revival of interest in de Sitter invariant theories, in conjunction with other speculative proposals for new physics, like doubly special relativity. De Sitter suggested that spacetime curvature might not be due solely to gravity but he did not give any mathematical details of how this could be accomplished. In 1968 Henri Bacry and Jean-Marc Lévy-Leblond showed that the de Sitter group was the most general group compatible with isotropy, homogeneity and boost invariance. Later, Freeman Dyson advocated this as an approach to making the mathematical structure of general relativity more self-evident. Minkowski's unification of space and time within special relativity replaces the Galilean group of Newtonian mechanics with the Lorentz group. This is called a unification of space and time because the Lorentz group is simple, while the Galilean group is a semi-direct product of rotations and Galilean boosts. This means that the Lorentz group mixes up space and time such that they cannot be disentangled, while the Galilean group treats time as a parameter with different units of measurement than space. An analogous thing can be made to happen with the ordinary rotation group in three dimensions. If you imagine a nearly flat world, one in which pancake-like creatures wander around on a pancake flat world, their conventional unit of height might be the micrometre (μm), since that is how high typical structures are in their world, while their unit of distance could be the metre, because that is their body's horizontal extent. Such creatures would describe the basic symmetry of their world as SO(2), being the known rotations in the horizontal (x–y) plane. Later on, they might discover rotations around the x- and y-axes—and in their everyday experience such rotations might always be by an infinitesimal angle, so that these rotations would effectively commute with each other. The rotations around the horizontal axes would tilt objects by an infinitesimal amount. The tilt in the x–z plane (the 'x-tilt') would be one parameter, and the tilt in the y–z plane (the 'y-tilt') another. The symmetry group of this pancake world is then SO(2) semidirect product with R2, meaning that a two-dimensional rotation plus two extra parameters, the x-tilt and the y-tilt. The reason it is a semidirect product is that, when you rotate, the x-tilt and the y-tilt rotate into each other, since they form a vector and not two scalars. In this world, the difference in height between two objects at the same x, y would be a rotationally invariant quantity unrelated to length and width. The z-coordinate is effectively separate from x and y. Eventually, experiments at large angles would convince the creatures that the symmetry of the world is SO(3). Then they would understand that z is really the same as x and y, since they can be mixed up by rotations. The SO(2) semidirect product R2 limit would be understood as the limit that the free parameter μ, the ratio of the height range μm to the length range m, approaches 0. The Lorentz group is analogous—it is a simple group that turns into the Galilean group when the time range is made long compared to the space range, or where velocities may be regarded as infinitesimal, or equivalently, may be regarded as the limit c → ∞, where relativistic effects become observable 'as good as at infinite velocity'. The symmetry group of special relativity is not entirely simple, due to translations. The Lorentz group is the set of the transformations that keep the origin fixed, but translations are not included. The full Poincaré group is the semi-direct product of translations with the Lorentz group. If translations are to be similar to elements of the Lorentz group, then as boosts are non-commutative, translations would also be non-commutative.