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The topological completion of a bilinear form. (English) Zbl 0998.57051

Summary: Let \(M=M_{n,m}\) be the Euclidean space \(\mathbb{R}^p\) equipped with a symmetric bilinear form \(B_M\) of rank \(p=n+m\) and signature \(n-m\). We compactify \(M\) so that \(M_c\) is homogeneous and has as its group of isometries a Lie group whose dimension is the dimension of \(M\) plus \(2p +1\). We observe that \(M_c\) is in two ways the total space of a non-trivial sphere bundle with base space the real projective space. The compactification is well understood in the classical case when \(M\) is Minkowski space. The contribution here is to observe that the construction works generally and that it admits a natural bundle description.

MSC:

57R22 Topology of vector bundles and fiber bundles
83A05 Special relativity
54D35 Extensions of spaces (compactifications, supercompactifications, completions, etc.)
81R25 Spinor and twistor methods applied to problems in quantum theory
Full Text: DOI

References:

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