Continuous Space-Time Symmetries

Unlike other branches of physics, thermodynamics in its standard postulation approach [272] does not provide direct numerical predictions. For example, it does not evaluate the specific heat or compressibility of a system, instead, it predicts that apparently unrelated quantities are equal, such as (1 A"XdQ/dP)T = - (dV/dT)P or that two coupled irreversible processes satisfy the Onsager reciprocity theorem (L 2 L2O under a linear optimization [153]. Recent development in both the many-body and field theories towards the interpretation of phase transitions and the general theory of symmetry can provide another plausible attitude applicable to a new conceptual basis of thermodynamics, in the middle of Seventies Cullen suggested that thermodynamics is the study of those properties of macroscopic matter that follows from the symmetry properties of physical laws, mediated through the statistics of large systems [273], It is an expedient happenstance that a conventional simple systems , often exemplified in elementary thermodynamics, have one prototype of each of the three characteristic classes of thermodynamic coordinates, i.e., (i) coordinates conserved by the continuous space-time symmetries (internal energy, U), (ii) coordinates conserved by other symmetry principles (mole number, N) and (iii) non-conserved (so called broken ) symmetry coordinates (volume, V). 

Clearly, the above procedure can be continued (in principle) as many times as required. Thus, if the wave function includes n = —4 3 paths, we have simply to dehne the function I 4((t)) = —+ 8ti), and then map onto the (j) = 0 16ti cover space, which will unwind the function completely. In general, if there are h homotopy classes of Feynman paths that contribute to the Kernel, then one can unwind ihG by computing the unsymmetrised wave function ih in the 0 2hn cover space. The symmetry group of the latter will be a direct product of the symmetry group in the single space and the group... 

The four different periodic tables account for the observed elemental diversity and provide compelling evidence that the properties of atomic matter are intimately related to the local properties of space-time, conditioned by the golden parameter r = l/. The appearance of r in the geometrical description of the very small (atomic nuclei) and the very large (spiral galaxies) emphasizes its universal importance and implies the symmetry relationship of self-similarity between all states of matter. This property is vividly illustrated by the formulation of r as a continued fraction ... 

By this time Polya s Theorem had become a familiar combinatorial tool, and it was no longer necessary to explain it whenever it was used. Despite that, expositions of the theorem have continued to proliferate, to the extent that it would be futile to attempt to trace them any further. I take space, however, to mention the unusual exposition by Merris [MerRSl], who analyzes in detail the 4-bead 3-color necklace problem, and interprets it in terms of symmetry classes of tensors — an interpretation that he has used to good effect elsewhere (see [MerRSO, 80a]). 

In this manner the broken 3-symmetry of the magnetic dipole (permanent magnet) allows the dipole to continuously receive reactive power from the vacuum s time domain, transduce the reactive power into real EM power in 3-space, and reemit the absorbed energy as real magnetic energy pouring into... 

The key to the generalization achieved is then the removal of the reflection symmetry elements in the space and time coordinates in the laws of nature. This then leads to the Poincare group (of special relativity) or the Einstein group (of general relativity), since these are Lie groups—groups of only continuous, analytical transformations of the spacetime coordinate systems that leave the laws of nature covariant. 

If the particle is an electron, then ipif/ is proportional to the average electric density at x, y, z. if/if/, being independent of time, can be represented in space as a continuous cloud of electrification varying from point to point in a manner shown by the solution of the wave equation which has yielded if/. Although this cloud is fictitious and corresponds to a probability or to a time-average, it is very convenient to visualize its spatial symmetry, and even to look upon the electrical distribution as a real one. This in one sense illustrates the reluctance with which naive realism is forsaken. 

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