Covariant Model of Relativistic Extended Particles based on the Oscillator Representation of the Poincaré Group

Abstract

While internal space-time symmetries of relativistic particles are dictated by the little groups of the Poincaré group, it is possible to construct representations of the little group for massive particles starting from harmonic oscillator wave functions for the quark model. The resulting oscillator wave functions are covariant and can be Lorentz-boosted. It is thus possible to obtain the parton model by boosting the quark model. A review of Wigner's theory of the little groups is given. It is shown that the covariant oscillator wave functions become squeezed as as the system becomes boosted. It is shown also that the Lorentz-squeezed quark distribution exhibits the peculiarities of Feynman's parton model including the lack of coherence in the calculation of cross sections. A historical review of the concept of covariance is given.