Tachyons and Representations of SO(2,3)

Abstract

We describe an embedding of the Poincare Lie algebra into an extension of the Lie field of SO(2,3) (the anti-de Sitter group). We also describe higher dimensional analogs of this embedding, which connect SO(p,q) groups to their associated motion groups (higher dimensional Poincare groups). Further some results on q generalizations of these results are given. We apply our results to certain unitary, continuous series representations of SO(2,3) associated with functions on SO(2,3)/SO(1,3). From the embedding theorem we obtain representations of the Poincare Lie algebra which are associated with unitary, tachyonic representations of the Poincare group, provided these representations are integrable to group representations.