The use of Group Theory and geometry

in Physic some examples 1

H.S.Mani

Chennai Mathematical Institute

2nd-3rd August 2019

• Introduction

• Measurement of Earth’s radius

• The use of geometry by Kepler to deter-

mine the earth’s orbit

• The method of parallax

• Some application’s of Geometry by Newton

( in his Principia )

• Distance to Hyades Cluster

• Distance to SN1987 A

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Introduction

The use of both Euclidean and Non-Euclidean

Geometry have played a very important role in
Physics. In particular, it has been used in as-
tronomy and cosmology. The measurement of
distances to various astronomical objects has
played in building a model of our universe. The
Big Bang Model giving a satisfactory expla-
nation of several observations over the past
70 years has happened only because painstak-
ing use of simple geometry over thousands of
years.

We discuss some of these elementary applica-

tions in this talk. Later, in the last talk we
will discuss the application of Non-Euclidean
Geometry.

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Radius of the earth

L1 L
B
RAYS FROM
THE SUN
C A

There is no shadow of a vertical stick at A

when the sun is directly overhead. At the same
at B the shadow of a vertical stick makes BL
an angle 6 LL1B = 6 BCA = θ. Measuring
the angle and knowing the distance AB on the
earth’s surface gives the radius of the earth.
(R = arc lengthAB
θ )

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bfKepler’s determination Of the earth’s orbit

Mar’s returns to the same position with respect

to the sun in about 779 days. This can be
determined from observing the motion of Mars
with respect to the sun.

Also known is that earth goes around the sun

is 365 days.

Using this we can determine the time taken by

mars to around the sun to be 687 days.

Thus Mars will return to the same position

with respect to the sun in 687 days.

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Kepler’s determination of the earth’s orbit

to distant stars 2

to distant stars 3

E1 to distant stars 1
S M
E2 to distant stars 1

Motion clock wise

At time t = 0 , say the Earth Sun and Mars

are in one line (ESM ).

Exactly after 687 days Mars will come back to

the same position.

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Kepler’s determination of the Earth’s orbit

The Earth on the other hand would have com-

pleted one revolution and some more and will
be at E1. We know from observation the angle
6 SEM and since 6 ESE1 is known , 6 EM S is
known. Fix the length of Mars in some units
and draw two lines M E and SE to meet at E.
Thus Earth position is known for a fixed SM.

From such repeated observations the Earth’s

orbit is determined.

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Kepler’s determination of the Mar’s orbit

Once the Earth’s orbit is determined, one can

determine the Mar’s orbit using the same idea.
Using these results, Kepler determined the or-
bit to be an ellipse with Sun at one of it foci.
Also he derived his second law that the planet
sweeps equal area as it orbits around the Sun
in equal times.

Fortunately the eccentricity for Mars is large

and Tycho Brahe’s data were accurate enough
for the analysis.

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 to distant stars 2
M2

S
E2
E3

Motion clock wise

Knowing 6 E2SE3 and 6 SE3M2 and the Earth’s

orbit fixes the position of Mars.
Newton’s use of geometry

Today we prove Kepler’s second law that a

body under the action of a central force using
vector algebra and the differential equation
2~
~ m r = Kr̂
F
d
dt2
talking the cross product with ~
r we have
d2~r
m~r× 2 = 0
dt
The left hand side is
r × d~
d(~ r)
dt
m
dt
as the term
d~
r d~ r
× =0
dt dt
Implying
d~r
r×
~ = K
dt
where K is a constant. The left hand side is
twice the area swept per unit time.
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Newton’s use of geometry

However Newton used geometry to obtain the

same result

D
C

V ~ = CD
AB ~ = ~v δt
S
~ = BV
DC ~
A
∆(SAB) = ∆(SDB)

In ∆(SCB) and ∆(SDB) have the same area as

SB is common and CD is parallel to SB. Thus
∆(SCB) = ∆(SAB) proving that the areas
swept in time time δt are equal.
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Newton’s use of geometry

Newton solved several problems in Mechanics

using geometry even though he was one of the
first to invent differential calculus.

These are enunciated in his famous book Prin-

cipia

S.Chandrasekhar in his book ” Newton’s Prin-

cipia for the Common Reader” describes New-
ton as scientist unsurpassed and unsurpass-
able.

His book is immensely readable and the above

argument is taken from his book.

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Distance to Hyades stars

Hyades is an open cluster of approximately 100

stars in Taurus. When the motion of all the
stars as seen from Earth is such that they seem
to converge to a point. This will happen when
they all have the same velocity. To understand
this consider two stars A and B at ~ rA and ~rB
respectively , both having the same velocity ~v .
After a large elapse of time T their positions
would be given by

~
rA + ~v T
and
~
rB + ~v T
respectively. As T → ∞, they both point to
~ T and so will appear to
the same direction V
converge to the point (vxT, vy T ).

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Distance to Hyades stars

We know the direction of the velocity of the

stars in the cluster. By using Doppler shift
one knows it’s radial speed. Further the stars
have proper motion, due to it’s velocity , it
moves relative to distant stars , though these
are very small have been measured over the
years. The average proper motion for the stars
in the Hyades cluster is .12 arc second a year
and it’s radial velocity is 40 km/s.

If φ is angle from the centre of the cluster

to the converging point and VR is it’s radial
velocity VR tanφ is the transverse velocity and
if θ̇ is it’s proper angular velocity expressed in
terms radians per second then the distance to
the cluster is
VR tanφ
˙
theta

Using the data of over the years the distance

has been determined to be 46.34 ± .27 pc (151
light years) just beyond the reach of parallax .
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Distance to SN 1987A

SN 1987 is the name of a supernova which was

observed on 23rd February 1987, A denoting
that it was the first one discovered in 1987. It
appeared in the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC)
which is one of the nearest galaxy to our Milky
way Galaxy. This was the first supernova visi-
ble to the naked eye after 400 years

A supernova is an explosion of a star - emit-

ting enormous amount of energy in the form
of light, particles like neutrinos and kinetic en-
ergy of the material making up the star. The
material travels onto space with very large ve-
locities say 107m/s or about 3 percent of the
speed of light.

The material expands as a spherical shell which

remains visible for thousands of years, after
which it becomes part of the interstellar medium
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and fades away. Supernovae are very bright,
among the brightest objects in the Universe.
There are only a few supernovae occurring over
a century per galaxy.
Distance to SN 1987A

Distance to supernova gives a good estimate

of the distance of galaxy LMC , as all stars
in LMC is approximately at the same distance
from the Earth.

SN 1987A has circumstellar ring around it. (

there are in fact three rings, we will consider
the innermost ring. ) The ring is too far from
the star to have been caused by thee matter
from the explosion. Probably it was created
earlier by the material from a dying star nearby.
It is not clear how the ring was formed.

The material of the ring began to glow rapidly

when a flash of ultraviolet light from SN 1987A
reached it. The ultraviolet radiation excites
the atoms in the ring and they get de-excited
by emitting radiation in all directions.
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Distance to SN 1987A

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Distance to SN 1987A
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Distance to SN 1987A

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Distance to SN 1987A

Now the radius of the ring is given by

c(t0 + tmax)
R =
2

Assume the ring is circular and it’s width is

given by a Gaussian

The intrinsic emission of each ion decays ex-

ponentially with time.

The free parameters are radius and the inclina-

tion of the ring, the specific emissivity at time
t=0 and the decay time of each line.

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Distance to SN 1987 A

The value of R calculated is R = (6.23 ±.08)×

1017cm.

The angular radius of the ring as measured

by the Hubble Space Telescope(HST) varies
from .858 arc sec. to .808 arc sec. Using 1 arc
sec. = 4.848 × 10−6rad

the distance to SN 1987 A and to LMC

6.23 × 1017cm 23 cm.
= = 1.49 × 10
.858 × 4.848 × 10−6
= 51.7 ± 1.3Kilo par sec.

where 1Kilo par sec. = 3.26 light years and

1light year = 9.46 × 1017cm.

A very important contribution to the distance

scale in cosmology
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THANK YOU

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