External Inversion, Internal Inversion, and Reflection Invariance

Abstract

Having in mind that physical systems have different levels of structure we develop the concept of external, internal and total improper Lorentz transformation (space inversion and time reversal). A particle obtained from the ordinary one by the application of internal space inversion or time reversal is generally a different particle. From this point of view the intrinsic parity of a nuclear particle (`elementary particle') is in fact the external intrinsic parity, if we take into account the internal structure of a particle. We show that non-conservation of the external parity does not necessarily imply non-invariance of nature under space inversion. The conventional theory of beta-decay can be corrected by including the internal degrees of freedom to become invariant under total space inversion, though not under the external one.