Contents

1 Introduction 1.1 Notations and Conventions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 Relativity 2.1 Fundamental Aspects of Lorentz Transformations . . . . . . . 2.2 Electromagnetism and Relativity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2.3 The Hyperbolic Parametrization of the Lorentz Transformations 2.4 Lorentz Transformations in an Arbitrary Direction . . . . . . 2.5 The Commutation Rules of the Boost Generators . . . . . . . 3 5 6 7 12 15 18 20 25 25 30 36 41 43 49

3 Relativistic Quantum Wave Equations 3.1 Generalities and Spin 0 Equation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3.2 Spin 1/2 Dirac Equation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3.3 The Gamma Dirac Matrices and the Standard Representation 3.4 Parity Transformations and the Matrix 5 . . . . . . . . . . . 3.5 Plane Wave Solutions and the Conserved Dirac Current . . . 4 Appendix. Properties of the Pauli Matrices