Monday, June 15, 2015

quantum field theory - Lorentz invariance of the integration measure


This is regards to the lorentz invariance of a classical scalar field theory. We assume that the action which is S=d4xL, is invariant under a Lorentz transformation. How do you prove that the integration measure d4x is Lorentz invariant.



Answer



It's invariant because the Lorentz group is SO(3,1) and the letter "S" stands for "special" which mathematically means the condition detM=+1.

But the determinant is exactly the coefficient by which the volume form gets multiplied when the coordinates are Lorentz-transformed: xMxd4xdetMd4x
(this determinant-based transformation rule may also be derived if one views the volume form as an antisymmetric tensor with 4 indices) so if the determinant is equal to +1, the measure doesn't change. Well, d4x is usually interpreted as |d4x|, so it's actually invariant under the whole O(3,1), including the metrices with detM=1. And the condition detM=±1 (with "OR") follows from the orthogonality condition itself, so the adjective "special" is really unnecessary when we're already focusing on pseudoorthogonal matrices.


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