Born-Infeld Kinematics and Correction to the Thomas Precession

Abstract

Dynamical symmetries of Born-Infeld theory associated with its maximal field strength are encoded in a geometry on the tangent bundle of spacetime manifolds. The resulting extension of general relativity respecting a finite upper bound on accelerations is put to use in the discussion of particle dynamics, first quantization, and the derivation of a correction to the Thomas precession.