Analogous to the famous Euler angle parametrization in three-dimensional Euclidean space, a reflection-free Lorentz transformation in (2 + 1)-dimensional Minkowski space can be decomposed into three simple parts. Applying this decomposition to the Wigner rotation problem, we are able to show that the related mathematics becomes much simpler and the physical meanings more comprehensible and enlightening.
I. INTRODUCTION
First discovered by Silberstein, then rediscovered by Thomas,1,2 the phenomenon that two successive non-parallel boosts (i.e., Lorentz transformations that contain neither rotation nor reflection) lead to a boost and a rotation is generally called the Wigner rotation.3 It has been studied by many authors for almost a century,4–9 yet the conclusion is still “paradoxical” for most people. “The spatial rotation resulting from the successive application of two non-parallel Lorentz transformations has been declared every bit as paradoxical as the more frequently discussed apparent violations of common sense, such as the so-called ‘twin paradox’…” said Goldstein in his classic work Classical Mechanics.10
As a matter of fact, relativistic boosts do not commute unless their directions are parallel, i.e., their composition is order-dependent in general. Moreover, as mentioned earlier, the composition of two non-parallel boosts is not a single boost, but a boost along with a rotation. This is quite counter-intuitive since the rotation seems to emerge out of nowhere from the three-dimensional point of view. Getting to the bottom of the matter, it is inappropriate to analogize boost to translation since the former is essentially a sort of rotation (or more precisely a pseudo-rotation) in four-dimensional spacetime. Therefore, the Wigner rotation may be regarded as a geometric problem that involves both rotation and pseudo-rotation, and the mathematical complexity is enough to cloud those subtle physical meanings.
If the mathematics could be substantially simplified, we believe the physical meanings of the Wigner rotation would become clear, and people would find this phenomenon is not so counter-intuitive as usually thought. To achieve this goal, we develop a formulation analogous to the Euler angle parametrization of SO(3), i.e., decomposing a reflection-free Lorentz transformation in (2 + 1)-dimensional Minkowski space into a product of two rotations and one pseudo-rotation (Sec. II). As a demonstration of its effectiveness, we show how simple it is to derive important rules about the Wigner rotation problem (Sec. III) and how little mathematical knowledge is needed to calculate the most general Wigner angle (Sec. IV). Physical insights into Wigner rotation via this decomposition are discussed in Sec. III, and a rigorous proof of this decomposition is provided in the Appendix.
II. PRELIMINARIES
A. (2 + 1)-dimensional Minkowski space
Similarly, since the Wigner rotation problem involves only two relative velocities, it is legitimate to put them in the xy-plane so that none of the z-components show up in the calculations. Therefore, our discussion will be restricted to the (2 + 1)-dimensional Minkowski space , which is sufficient for us to derive all of the related results.
It is apparent is an invariant under the transformation represented in Eq. (2). When we use this invariant as the criterion for the (1 + 1)-dimensional Lorentz transformation, the reflections such as or will be included as well. It is straightforward to generalize this criterion to (2 + 1)-dimensional Minkowski space, i.e., we may define the Lorentz transformation in this space as the one that preserves . Clearly, both of the x-direction and y-direction boosts as well as the xy-plane rotation are special cases of this (2 + 1)-dimensional Lorentz transformation.
B. Euler angles and their Minkowski counterparts
C. (2 + 1)-dimensional velocity
A boost transformation takes place between two inertial frames; hence, each boost is defined by a constant velocity that is the relative velocity between the frames. When a (2 + 1)-dimensional velocity undergoes a boost with being the relative velocity, the formula is analogous to the boost transformation of spacetime coordinates, where the column matrices W and represent the (2 + 1)-dimensional velocities in the old and the new frames, respectively. Conversely, the inverse boost transformation allows us to calculate the (2 + 1)-dimensional velocity in the old frame from that in the new one.
III. WIGNER ROTATION
A. Three rules
Rule 1. Two successive boosts are equivalent to a boost followed or preceded by a rotation, which may be taken as the definition of Wigner rotation.
If the boosts are parallel, i.e., their directions are the same or differ by , then it is easy to prove and . On the other hand, implies are not parallel. In other words, the non-parallelism of boosts is a necessary condition for the existence of a non-trivial Wigner rotation. It is also a sufficient condition as will be proved in Sec. IV B.
Rule 2. If the order of the boosts in Rule 1 is exchanged, then the sense of Wigner rotation is reversed.
For convenience sake, will be called Wigner angle from now on.
Rule 3. The two-dimensional velocities corresponding to and in the previous rules differ only by a Wigner angle.8,9
The physical meaning of Rule 3 is as follows: Consider three inertial frames and KC. If KB results from boosting KA by B1 and KC from boosting KB by then a rest observer in KA finds the two-dimensional velocity of KC is . On the other hand, if KB is from boosting KA by B2 and KC from boosting KB by the same observer will find KC moving with the same speed but toward the direction .
B. Two kinds of Wigner rotations
The physical meaning of the second line of Eq. (29) is the following. When we apply to to obtain a rest frame, the new frame will differ from the original rest frame by a Wigner angle . In other words, it is possible to engineer a Wigner rotation in two-dimensional Euclidean space since the rotation of a rest frame does not involve the temporal dimension.
IV. WIGNER ANGLE
In principle, for any two (2 + 1)-dimensional boosts , we can always use Eq. (9) to calculate the corresponding and obtain Wigner angle for the product . In practice, there is an easier way as shown in the following two examples.
A. Perpendicular case
B. General case
If the directions of the two boosts differ by an arbitrary angle , the calculation of Wigner angle becomes complicated and is usually performed using advanced mathematical tools.6–8 With the aid of Euler decomposition, however, it is not necessary to introduce any new tool and the derivation is just a little longer than that of the perpendicular case.
Since both η1 and η2 are positive, X is always finite and Eq. (58) leads to the conclusion that implies . Therefore, the non-parallelism of is a sufficient condition for the existence of a non-zero Wigner angle. Once the range of Θ is restricted to , we can deduce from that .
V. CONCLUSION
The Euler decomposition introduced in this paper is the most natural and powerful tool for studying the Wigner rotation problem. Once the mathematics is substantially simplified, the physical meanings are easier to comprehend even for the beginners.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
This paper is in memory of my father Colonel Li-jung Yeh (1930–2021) and my thesis advisor Professor Geoffrey F. Chew (1924–2019).
AUTHOR DECLARATIONS
Conflict of Interest
The author has no conflicts to disclose.
APPENDIX: VALIDITY OF EULER DECOMPOSITION
This correspondence may be achieved through the following three steps.
(1) Since , we can always find a unique positive η such that , and accordingly .