Lens optics as an optical computer for group contractions

Abstract

It is shown that the one-lens system in para-axial optics can serve as an optical computer for contraction of Wigner's little groups and an analogue computer which transforms analytically computations on a spherical surface to those on a hyperbolic surface. It is shown possible to construct a set of Lorentz transformations which leads to a two-by-two matrix whose expression is the same as those in the para-axial lens optics. It is shown that the lens focal condition corresponds to the contraction of the O(3)-like little group for a massive particle to the E(2)-like little group for a massless particle, and also to the contraction of the O(2,1)-like little group for a space-like particle to the same E(2)-like little group. The lens-focusing transformations presented in this paper allow us to continue analytically the spherical O(3) world to the hyperbolic O(2,1) world, and vice versa.