Quantcast
  • Register
PhysicsOverflow is a next-generation academic platform for physicists and astronomers, including a community peer review system and a postgraduate-level discussion forum analogous to MathOverflow.

Welcome to PhysicsOverflow! PhysicsOverflow is an open platform for community peer review and graduate-level Physics discussion.

Please help promote PhysicsOverflow ads elsewhere if you like it.

News

PO is now at the Physics Department of Bielefeld University!

New printer friendly PO pages!

Migration to Bielefeld University was successful!

Please vote for this year's PhysicsOverflow ads!

Please do help out in categorising submissions. Submit a paper to PhysicsOverflow!

... see more

Tools for paper authors

Submit paper
Claim Paper Authorship

Tools for SE users

Search User
Reclaim SE Account
Request Account Merger
Nativise imported posts
Claim post (deleted users)
Import SE post

Users whose questions have been imported from Physics Stack Exchange, Theoretical Physics Stack Exchange, or any other Stack Exchange site are kindly requested to reclaim their account and not to register as a new user.

Public \(\beta\) tools

Report a bug with a feature
Request a new functionality
404 page design
Send feedback

Attributions

(propose a free ad)

Site Statistics

205 submissions , 163 unreviewed
5,082 questions , 2,232 unanswered
5,355 answers , 22,793 comments
1,470 users with positive rep
820 active unimported users
More ...

  Homogeneity of space

+ 6 like - 0 dislike
2660 views

How do I verify homogeneity and isotropy of space, for example for hyperbolic space? My idea is to verify that Lorentz transformations in 4-vectors can move any desired point on the hyperboloid into the origin, and can rotate the hyperboloid about the origin by an arbitrary angle. The problem is I do not know how to map these statements into a precise mathematical language. Can you please help me?

This post imported from StackExchange Physics at 2014-06-18 14:05 (UCT), posted by SE-user titanium
asked Jun 10, 2014 in Astronomy by titanium (55 points) [ no revision ]
retagged Jun 18, 2014
The hyperbolic space $H_n$ has equation $- X_0^2 + \sum_{i=1}^n X_i^2 = -R^2$. For instance, $H_2$ is an hyperboloid with $2$ sheets. A "Lorentz transformation", assuming $X_0$ represents time, and the $X_i$ space, moves one point of the hyperbolic space to another point of this same space. The origin ($X_0=X_i =0$) is clearly excluded. The equation of the hyperbolic space is clearly homegenous and isotropic relatively to the space dimensions $X_i$

This post imported from StackExchange Physics at 2014-06-18 14:05 (UCT), posted by SE-user Trimok
@Trimok: Perhaps you could expand that comment into an answer?

This post imported from StackExchange Physics at 2014-06-18 14:05 (UCT), posted by SE-user Kyle Kanos
@Timoric, thanks for your answer. But,how do i write the lorentz transformation mathematically?

This post imported from StackExchange Physics at 2014-06-18 14:05 (UCT), posted by SE-user titanium

1 Answer

+ 2 like - 0 dislike

The hyperbolic space is defined by the constraint, $$t^2-\vec{x}^2=1 \quad \textbf{(1)},$$ where we think of $t$ as being a time coordinate and $\vec{x}=(x,y,z)$ as a spatial coordinate. This space is homogeneous and isotropic in the spatial coordinates which is what you are trying to prove.

Isotropy

Intuitively isotropy means that from the origin space looks the same in every direction. Formally this means that the space is invariant under rotations in space, since rotations can map any direction onto any other direction. By definition a rotations is a linear transformation of the spatial coordinates which leaves $\vec{x}^2 = x^2+y^2+z^2$ invariant or unchanged. The following three matrices are rotations about the $x$,$y$, and $z$ axes respectively. Every rotation can be written as a product of these matrices.

$$ R_x(\theta) = \left[ \begin{array} \ 1 & 0 & 0 \\ 0 & \cos(\theta) & -\sin(\theta) \\ 0 &\sin(\theta) & \cos(\theta) \\ \end{array} \right] $$

$$ R_y(\theta) = \left[ \begin{array} \ \cos(\theta) & 0 & -\sin(\theta) \\ 0 & 1 & 0 \\ \sin(\theta) & 0& \cos(\theta) \\ \end{array} \right] $$

$$ R_z(\theta) = \left[ \begin{array} \ \cos(\theta) & -\sin(\theta) & 0 \\ \sin(\theta) & \cos(\theta) & 0 \\ 0 & 0 & 1 \end{array} \right] $$

Where it is understood that these matrices are acting on the vector $\vec{x}=\left[x,y,z\right]^T$. In order to extend the definition of these operators to act on the three dimensional subspace of our space of four vectors $x^\mu=[t,x,y,z]^T$ we use the augmented matrix below which leave the time component alone,

$$ \left[ \begin{array} \ 1 & \vec{0}^T \\ \vec{0} & R(\theta) \\ \end{array}\right] $$

At this point it is elementary to see that this transformation leaves the quadratic form $t^2-\vec{x}^2$ invariant since the transformation doesn't change the value of $t$ or $\vec{x}^2$.

Homogeneity

We now wish to establish that the hyperbolic space is homogeneous. Intuitively this means that space is the same at every location. If we can show that space is isotropic when viewed from any location we will have established homogeneity. Mathematically this means that we need to show that every spatial coordinate can be mapped to the origin. So we need to find a transformation which leaves $t^2-\vec{x}^2$ invariant and maps $\vec{x}\rightarrow \vec{0}$.

To start suppose we have $\vec{x} = \vec{x}_0=(x_0,y_0,z_0)$. We start by rotating the vector so that it is parallel to the $x$ axis. The following transformation will accomplish this,

$$\frac{1}{\sqrt{x_0^2+y_0^2+z_0^2}\sqrt{y_0^2+z_0^2}} \left[\begin{array} \ x_0 & \sqrt{y_0^2+z_0^2} & 0 \\ -\sqrt{y_0^2+z_0^2} & x_0 & 0 \\ 0 & 0 & 1 \end{array}\right] \left[\begin{array} \ 1 & 0 & 0 \\ 0 & y_0 & z_0 \\ 0 & -z_0 & y_0 \end{array}\right] \left[\begin{array} \ x_0 \\ y_0 \\ z_0 \\ \end{array}\right] = \left[\begin{array} \ \sqrt{x_0^2+y_0^2+z_0^2} \\ 0 \\ 0 \\ \end{array}\right] $$

Now we can map the spatial coordinate to zero by boosting. This will have the consequence of changing the $t$ coordinate of the four vector. Since the $y$ and $z$ coordinates are both $0$ due to the rotation we will only explicitly write the transformation in the two dimensions with nonzero entries $t$ and $x$.

$$ \left[ \begin{array} \ \cosh(\psi) & \sinh(\psi) \\ \sin(\psi) & \cosh(\psi) \end{array} \right] \left[ \begin{array} \ t_0 \\ \vert \vec{x}_0 \vert \end{array} \right] = \left[ \begin{array} \ \cosh(\psi)t_0+\sinh(\psi)\vert \vec{x}_0 \vert \\ \sinh(\psi) t_0 + \cosh(\psi)\vert \vec{x}_0 \vert \end{array} \right] $$

We see that we can make the last spatial coordinate zero if $$\sinh(\psi) = -\frac{\vert \vec{x}_0 \vert}{\sqrt{t_0^2 - \vec{x}_0^2 }} \qquad \cosh(\psi) = \frac{t_0}{\sqrt{t_0^2-\vec{x}_0^2 }},$$ which is certainly possible for real values of $\psi$ so long as $\vec{x}_0^2 < t_0^2$ which is guaranteed by the condition $t^2=1+x^2$.

So we have shown that every point in space can be mapped to the origin.

This post imported from StackExchange Physics at 2014-06-18 14:05 (UCT), posted by SE-user Spencer
answered Jun 11, 2014 by Spencer (30 points) [ no revision ]

Your answer

Please use answers only to (at least partly) answer questions. To comment, discuss, or ask for clarification, leave a comment instead.
To mask links under text, please type your text, highlight it, and click the "link" button. You can then enter your link URL.
Please consult the FAQ for as to how to format your post.
This is the answer box; if you want to write a comment instead, please use the 'add comment' button.
Live preview (may slow down editor)   Preview
Your name to display (optional):
Privacy: Your email address will only be used for sending these notifications.
Anti-spam verification:
If you are a human please identify the position of the character covered by the symbol $\varnothing$ in the following word:
p$\hbar$ysic$\varnothing$Overflow
Then drag the red bullet below over the corresponding character of our banner. When you drop it there, the bullet changes to green (on slow internet connections after a few seconds).
Please complete the anti-spam verification




user contributions licensed under cc by-sa 3.0 with attribution required

Your rights
...