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Physics LibreTexts

7.3: Internal and Space-Time Symmetries

( \newcommand{\kernel}{\mathrm{null}\,}\)

Above I have mentioned angular momentum, the vector product of position and momentum. This is defined in terms of properties of space (or to be more generous, of space-time). But we know that many particles carry the spin of the particle to form the total angular momentum, J=L+S.

The invariance of the dynamics is such that J is the conserved quantity, which means that we should not just rotate in ordinary space, but in the abstract “intrinsic space” where S is defined. This is something that will occur several times again, where a symmetry has a combination of a space-time and intrinsic part.


This page titled 7.3: Internal and Space-Time Symmetries is shared under a CC BY-NC-SA 2.0 license and was authored, remixed, and/or curated by Niels Walet via source content that was edited to the style and standards of the LibreTexts platform.

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