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Conformal symmetry


In mathematical physics, the conformal symmetry of spacetime is expressed by an extension of the Poincaré group. The extension includes special conformal transformations and dilations. In three spatial plus one time dimensions, conformal symmetry has 15 degrees of freedom: ten for the Poincaré group, four for special conformal transformations, and one for a dilation.

Harry Bateman and Ebenezer Cunningham were the first to study the conformal symmetry of Maxwell's equations. They called a generic expression of conformal symmetry a spherical wave transformation.

The conformal group has the following representation:

where are the Lorentz generators, generates translations, generates scaling transformations (also known as dilatations or dilations) and generates the special conformal transformations.


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