We show that the grading of fields by conformal weight, when built into the initial group symmetry, provides a discrete, non-central conformal extension of any group containing dilatations. We find a faithful vector representation of the extended conformal group and show that it has a scale-invariant scalar product and satisfies a closed commutator algebra. The commutator algebra contains the i...

Operator-ordering in quantum cosmology is a major as-yet unsettled ambiguity with not only formal but also physical consequences. We determine the Lagrangian origin of the conformal invariance that underlies the conformal operator-ordering choice in quantum cosmology. It is particularly naturally and simply manifest in relationalist producttype actions (such as the Jacobi action for mechanics o...

Conformal transformations of the following kinds are compared: (1) conformal coordinate transformations, (2) conformal transformations of Lagrangian models for a D-dimensional geometry, given by a Riemannian manifold M with metric g of arbitrary signature, and (3) conformal transformations of (mini-)superspace geometry. For conformal invariance under this transformations the following applicati...

A “conformal tensor” is constructed from the metric tensor gMN (or Vielbein e A M ) and is invariant against Weyl rescaling gMN → egMN (or eM → eeM ). Moreover, it vanishes if and only if the space is conformally flat, gMN = e ηMN (or e A M = eδ M ). In dimension four or greater the conformal tensor is the Weyl tensor. In three dimensions the Weyl tensor vanishes identically, while the Cotton t...

We obtain retarded Green’s functions for massless scalar fields in the background of near-extreme, nearhorizon rotating charged black holes of five-dimensional minimal gauged supergravity. The radial part of the (separable) massless Klein-Gordon equation in such general black hole backgrounds is Heun’s equation, due to the singularity structure associated with the three black hole horizons. On ...