Space-time algebra. With a foreword by Anthony Lasenby. 2nd ed. (English) Zbl 1316.83005
Cham: Birkhäuser/Springer (ISBN 978-3-319-18412-8/hbk; 978-3-319-38688-1/pbk; 978-3-319-18413-5/ebook). xxiv, 102 p. (2015).
This book represents a reprint of the first edition from 1966, see [Zbl 0754.53002; Zbl 0183.28901]. It is remarkable that this book is still surprisingly up-to-date.
From the new foreword written by Anthony Lasenby: “This small book started a profound revolution in the development of mathematical physics, one which has reached many working physicists already, and which stands poised to bring about far-reaching change in the future. At its heart is the use of Clifford algebra to unify otherwise disparate mathematical languages, particularly those of spinors, quaternions, tensors and differential forms. It provides a unified approach covering all these areas and thus leads to a very efficient toolkit for use in physical problems including quantum mechanics, classical mechanics, electromagnetism and relativity (both special and general) only one mathematical system needs to be learned and understood, and one can use it at levels which extend right through to current research topics in each of these areas.
These same techniques, in the form of the geometric algebra, can be applied in many areas of engineering, robotics and computer science, with no changes necessary it is the same underlying mathematics, and enables physicists to understand topics in engineering, and engineers to understand topics in physics (including aspects in frontier areas), in a way which no other single mathematical system could hope to make possible.
There is another aspect to geometric algebra, which is less tangible, and goes beyond questions of mathematical power and range. This is the remarkable insight it gives to physical problems, and the way it constantly suggests new features of the physics itself, not just the mathematics. Examples of this are peppered throughout space-time algebra, despite its short length, and some of them are effectively still research topics for the future.”
From the new foreword written by Anthony Lasenby: “This small book started a profound revolution in the development of mathematical physics, one which has reached many working physicists already, and which stands poised to bring about far-reaching change in the future. At its heart is the use of Clifford algebra to unify otherwise disparate mathematical languages, particularly those of spinors, quaternions, tensors and differential forms. It provides a unified approach covering all these areas and thus leads to a very efficient toolkit for use in physical problems including quantum mechanics, classical mechanics, electromagnetism and relativity (both special and general) only one mathematical system needs to be learned and understood, and one can use it at levels which extend right through to current research topics in each of these areas.
These same techniques, in the form of the geometric algebra, can be applied in many areas of engineering, robotics and computer science, with no changes necessary it is the same underlying mathematics, and enables physicists to understand topics in engineering, and engineers to understand topics in physics (including aspects in frontier areas), in a way which no other single mathematical system could hope to make possible.
There is another aspect to geometric algebra, which is less tangible, and goes beyond questions of mathematical power and range. This is the remarkable insight it gives to physical problems, and the way it constantly suggests new features of the physics itself, not just the mathematics. Examples of this are peppered throughout space-time algebra, despite its short length, and some of them are effectively still research topics for the future.”
Reviewer: Hans-Jürgen Schmidt (Potsdam)
MSC:
83-02 | Research exposition (monographs, survey articles) pertaining to relativity and gravitational theory |
83C05 | Einstein’s equations (general structure, canonical formalism, Cauchy problems) |
53-02 | Research exposition (monographs, survey articles) pertaining to differential geometry |
53C27 | Spin and Spin\({}^c\) geometry |
81R25 | Spinor and twistor methods applied to problems in quantum theory |
53B30 | Local differential geometry of Lorentz metrics, indefinite metrics |
83C60 | Spinor and twistor methods in general relativity and gravitational theory; Newman-Penrose formalism |
53Z05 | Applications of differential geometry to physics |
01A75 | Collected or selected works; reprintings or translations of classics |
15A66 | Clifford algebras, spinors |
11R52 | Quaternion and other division algebras: arithmetic, zeta functions |
83A05 | Special relativity |
81S10 | Geometry and quantization, symplectic methods |