A Second Poincare' Group

Abstract

Solutions of the sourceless Einstein's equation with weak and strong cosmological constants are discussed by using Inönü-Wigner contractions of the de Sitter groups and spaces. The more usual case corresponds to a weak cosmological-constant limit, in which the de Sitter groups are contracted to the Poincaré group, and the de Sitter spaces are reduced to the Minkowski space. In the strong cosmological-constant limit, however, the de Sitter groups are contracted to another group which has the same abstract Lie algebra of the Poincaré group, and the de Sitter spaces are reduced to a 4-dimensional cone-space of infinite scalar curvature, but vanishing Riemann and Ricci curvature tensors. In such space, the special conformal transformations act transitively, and the equivalence between inertial frames is that of special relativity.