Probing Wigner Rotations for Any Group

Abstract

Wigner rotations are transformations that affect spinning particles and cause the observable phenomenon of Thomas precession. Here we study these rotations for arbitrary symmetry groups with a semi-direct product structure. In particular we establish a general link between Wigner rotations and Thomas precession by relating the latter to the holonomies of a certain Berry connection on a momentum orbit. Along the way we derive a formula for infinitesimal, Lie-algebraic transformations of one-particle states.