Special relativity on the light-front

Special Relativity

References 43 Index 45 ii Preface For me, the wonder of special relativity lies in its successful prediction of interesting and very nonintuitive phenomena from simple arguments with simple premises. These notes have three (perhaps ambitious) aims: (a) to introduce undergraduates to special relativity from its founding principle to its varied consequences, (b) to serve as a reference for those ...

Special Relativity

Inertial frames are frames related by a constant velocity along any axis. An object is at rest in an inertial frame when its position in space does not change with time. We consider two inertial frames: the 26-100 (S) frame in which we are at rest and the Space Shuttle frame (S ′) which moves relative to S with a velocity u along the x axis and in which the Shuttle is at rest. Newton postulated...

Fermions on the Light-front

Issues that are specific for formulating fermions in light-cone quantization are discussed. Special emphasis is put on the use of parity invariance in the non-perturbative renormalization of light-cone Hamiltonians. Light-front (LF) quantization is the most physical approach to calculating parton distributions on the basis of QCD . Before one can formulate QCD with quarks, it is necessary that ...

The Language of Special Relativity

The Special Theory of Relativity is often interpreted as forcing us to accept a conceptual revolution in our thinking about space, time, and the temporal distinction between past, present, and future. Most importantly, it is claimed that the notion of absolute simultaneity that is embodied in our pre-relativistic thinking about time must be abandoned. Thus, our natural language use of linguisti...

The Special Theory of Relativity