De Sitter relativity and Lorentz contraction

[oldman]

De Sitter relativity and Lorentz contraction

I need help in understanding the elements of a paper that I think could turn out to be quite important, namely http://arxiv.org/abs/0711.2274 de Sitter Relativity: a New Road to Quantum Gravity
R. Aldrovandi, J. G. Pereira)

Inter aliathey say that:

in de Sitter relativity “... conformal transformations will naturally be incorporated in the kinematics of spacetime, and the corresponding conformal current will appear as part of the Noether conserved current [7].” This is because “ ... a cosmological term naturally introduces the conformal generators in the definition of spacetime transitivity.”

I understand (probably wrongly) that the main feature of conformal transformations is that they are shape-preserving on a small enough scale. If this is so, I have a question:

Lorentz transformations are not shape-preserving; the Lorentz contaction is uniaxial, as in the explanation of the null-result of the Michelson-Morley experiment.

Are the conformal transformations of de Sitter SR bolt-on additions that leave Lorentz contraction intact, while providing dilation via a non-zero cosmological constant?

And also, what exactly is the "proper conformal current" they talk of? Is it a sort of extra momentum-energy flux?

 

[Chris Hillman]

Off topic but gruesomely notable

J. G. Pereira was one of the victims in the second Turkish Plagiariasm Ring scandal at the archive (the first was centered at METU, the second at COMU); see http://arstechnica.com/articles/culture/plagiarism-and-falsified-data-slip-into-the-scientific-literature.ars and http://arxiv.org/new/withdrawals.aug.07.html.

 

[Fredrik]

I don't have any answers for you, but I remember seeing a thread thread about this paper in the "beyond the standard model" forum. https://www.physicsforums.com/showthread.php?t=198890

 

[oldman]

Thanks, Chris Hillman, and Fredrik, for your kind replies. I wasn't aware of the plagiarism scandal emanating from Turkey --- it must be so easy to patch together articles by cutting and pasting. I'm not surprised that some folk have tried it. And thanks for the pointer to Marcus' thread about this paper, Fredrik. I'm as intrigued by it as he seems to be, and had hoped that a second thread about it would stimulate more discussion.

The Aldrovandi and Pereira paper could just be the start of a new perspective with the potential to rival the impact that Garrett Lisi has had, if their work makes real sense. But the fact that these authors are not alternative-lifestyle Nord Americano surfing-skiing dudes may at first blunt their impact!