Relativistic constitutive relations, differential forms, and the p-compound D. B. Nguyen® Yale Universit, School of Medicine, Department of Therapeutic Radiology, 333 Cedar Sireet, ‘New Haven, Connecticut 06510-8040 (Received 15 November 1991; accepted 23 May 1992) This article introduces the reader to the physical applications of the concept of the p-compound ofa linear transformation L. The computation of p-compounds requires nothing more than the computation of p-order determinants and, therefore, has a simple geometric interpretation. While L acts on vectors, the p-compound of L acts on geometric objects made up of p vectors: the two-compound acts on parallelograms, the three-compound acts on parallelopipeds, and so on. The physics is introduced by identifying the electromagnetic field quantities with parallelograms and parallelopipeds in space-time; the p-compound of the Lorentz transformation then yields their (algebraically complicated) relativistic transformations after one matrix multiplication. The relativistic electromagnetic properties of a medium are obtained by two matrix multiplications. In this way, one obtains the expression for the relativistic Biot Savart law, an explanation for the experimental results of Réntgen and Wilson, an explanation for the null result of Michelson and Morley, and the Cerenkov condition for a charged particle to radiate while moving through a dielectric medium. 1 INTRODUCTION In 1934 Cerenkov discovered that electrons moving faster than the speed of light in a medium produced visible radiation.' Unlike others who employed unsuccessful mi- croscopic models, Frank and Tamm used the macroscopic theory of electromagnetic waves successfully in, 1937 to explain the phenomenon of Cerenkov radiation’ as it is now called. Although the success was a significant event, it is usually treated as an advanced topic for the following reasons. If one considers the charged particle as moving with respect to the medium,? then one needs the Dirac delta function to represent the equivalent current density I(4y.2,t) of the moving charge. The problem is then made ‘mathematically more tractable by transforming the time- dependent Dirac delta function to the frequency domain, and the solution to the Maxwell's equations is obtained via a vector Green’s function,” say. On the other hand, if one considers the charged particle as being at rest in a moving ‘medium, then the macroscopic properties of the medium are very complicated when it moves at speed comparable to that of light.’ For example, Kong? reported that in 1888, W. C. Réntgen could magnetize a dielectric by moving it in an electric feld,° and HA. Wilson in 1908 could polarize a dielectric by moving it in a magnetic field.” Even simple dielectric materials, then, behave very differently when they are in motion. This paper follows the second approach, but will use 4ifferential p-forms and, more importantly, the concept of a p-compound® of a linear transformation £.. Basically, if a linear transformation L transforms vectors _(one- dimensional objects), then the p-compound of L, where p is an integer, transforms oriented p-timensional objects. ‘The computation of the p-compound of a linear transfor: mation L involves computing p-order determinants only. The relativistic transformation formulas for the electro- magnetic field are consequences of the geometric transfor- mation of two-dimensional parallelograms in a four- dimensional space-time, and those for the charge and ‘current density are consequences of the geometric trans- formation of three-dimensional parallelopipeds. These geo- metric transformation are effected by matrices called p- 1137 Am. J. Phys, 60 (12), December 1992 compounds (in these cases, p=2, 3), computed using determinants in a systematic manner from a given linear transformation (such as the Lorentz transformation). Ma~ trix multiplication using two-compounds also yields the relativistic expression for the constitutive relation of a me- dium, and this, in turn, provides the relativistic Biot Savart law, an explanation of the experimental results of Réntgen and Wilson, and of Michelson and Morley, and the velocity condition for Cerenkov radiation. Section IT is a self-contained tutorial on the basic mathematics leading up to the computation of p-compounds. Section III intro- duces the physics while Secs. IV and V show how the p-compounds and the relativistic expressions derived from them are used to explain well-known experimental results. The method is generalized to nonlinear mappings in Sec. vi. Il, THE GEOMETRY AND COMPUTATIONAL ASPECTS OF THE EXTERIOR PRODUCT, DIFFERENTIAL p-FORMS, AND p-COMPOUND The algebraic viewpoint regarding differential forms and the exterior product is well known.’ However, an under- standing of the basic geometric motivation (for example, of the anticommutation rule of the exterior product) provides a deeper and more satisfactory meaning; in the para- phrased words of someone I cannot recall, “Without alge- bra, geometry is dumb. Without geometry, algebra is blind.” In this section, I hope to provide a reasonable mix. A. The exterior product Consider a finite-dimensional vector space V of dimen- sion n with (ordered) basis vectors Lereayntab a From analytic geometry, any vector v of V can be ex- pressed as a linear combination of the above basis vectors. ‘The coefficient of e;is the (oriented) projection of v onto Not equally well known is the fact that a parallelogram ‘made up of two vectors v and w can also be written as a linear combination of (ordered) basis parallelograms. © 1992 American Association of Physics Teachers. 1137‘These basis parallelograms are made up of ordered pairs of the basis vectors in (1) and are denoted by fe;Aepl i, is just the parallelogram with the opposite orien- tation (one can equally well take this to be the algebraic definition of “orientation”) compared to e,/\¢, and hence will be denoted by —(e,/Ae)). The above two geometric properties will be taken as the defining properties of the exterior product, denoted by the “wedge,” uAu=0 8) and vAw, “) for any two vectors u and v. To facilitate its operation in conjunction with the geometric process of vector addition and scalar multiplication, the exterior product is defined to distribute over addition and commutes with scalar multi- plication. That is, uhv= WA (v+w)=(wAv)-+(uAw) (5) and UA (er) =e(uAv), © for any three vectors 1, v, and w, and for all scalar c. Thus, given any two vectors u and » as linear combina- tions of the basis vectors (1), one can employ the above four rules to expand and combine terms in u Av to express it as a linear combination of the basis parallelograms (2). For example, let u=2e,—ley+3es+2e4 and Je, + 2¢,-+00)— Sey. Thea, uA v= (2ey-+ 1ey+-3ey+204) A (ley +2¢,+0e)+5e4), which is expanded using rules (5), (3), (6), and (4) to yield WAv=Sey Aey—3e, Nes~ I2e, Neg—6er Nes lerheg —15esAey. Just as u=2e,— 1ep-+3e3-+2e, means that the oriented line segment u has a length of 2 units when projected onto the direction of e,, 1 unit onto the direction of (—e,), 3 units onto the direction of es, and 2 units onto the direction of ¢4 @ similar (but less familiar) interpretation of whv=Se, Ner—3e, Nes— 124, Ney—6e, Nestle Aeq —15e Neg is that the oriented parallelogram made up of the two vectors w and v has an area of 5 units when pro- jected onto the e,-ep plane, 3 units onto the es-e, plane, 12 ‘units onto the ey-e; plane, 6 units onto the es-é plane, 1 unit onto the ¢>-¢ plane, and 15 units onto the e,-es plane. 1138 Am. J. Phys, Vol. 60, No. 12, December 1992 Rather than using rules (3)~(6) as in the example above to compute the expansion of u Av in the basis (2), one can relate the rules to the properties of determinants" to pro- duce the following useful: Procedure to compute u Av: ” 1. Write the coefficients of u and v with respect to the basis (1) as 2 columns of an nX2 matrix. 2. Select the ith and jth rows to form a 2X2 matrix. The determinant of this 2x2 matrix is the coefficient of e,¢, in the expansion of w Av with respect to the basis (2). As an illustration of this procedure, let us consider the previous example of w and v. Using step 1 of the above procedure, one obtains the following matrix: Following step 2, one selects rows | and 2, say, to form the 2x2 matrix 21 (-: 2): Its determinant is 5, and this is the coefficient of e, Ae, in the expansion of u Av with respect to the basis (2). To find the coefficient of, say, e,/eg, one selects rows 2 and 4 10 obtain the matrix (2 3) ‘The coefficient of e; Ae is the determinant of this matrix, which is 1. These should be compared to those found pre- viously by a direct application of rules (3)-(6). The generalization to the exterior product of p vectors in 1a space of dimension » is a direct generalization of proce- dure (7) with the following basis of p-dimensional paral- lelopipeds (a generalization of parallelograms) fe, Neg Neila ,..dx,} be the basis of V* dual to Lepeznéahs and {dy d)y,..diq} be the basis of W7* dual t0 {Fiz--x/m}- Then, from elementary linear algebra,!! the given linear transformation L from V to W induces a repre- sented by a matrix which is L', where the superscript?” denotes the transpose. When ()"! exists, it provides a transformation from ¥* to W*; in that case, applying pro- cedure (12) to the vector spaces V* and W* with the transformation between them being (L')~', one finds that the differential p-forms are transformed by ML) a matrix that can be explicitly computed in a manner similar to the last example, D.B.Nguyen 1139When L is the Lorentz transformation, itis these matri- ces AP(L')~' that will provide the correct transformation for the electromagnetic field, its charge, and its current density via simple matrix multiplication. It is also these ‘matrices that provide the transformation of the macro- scopic properties of a medium when that medium is mov- ing at speed comparable to that of light. In that case, these matrices provide an explanation of the null results of the Michelson-Morley experiment, the experimental findings of Réntgen and Wilson cited in the Introduction, the de- termination of the Cerenkov velocities, and (last but not least) the relativistic Biot-Savart law. In summary, the general mathematical consideration above shows that the complicated expressions relating the behavior p-dimensional parallelograms, and linear func- tions acting on them, are direct, systematic consequences of a geometry that is distorted by a linear transformation L. In the next section, we will begin to introduce physics into the formalism, Ill, THE ELECTROMAGNETIC FIELD AND ITS RELATION TO SPACE-TIME PARALLELOGRAMS In the rest of this paper, we will specifically consider both vector spaces V and W to be four-dimensional space- times. The linear transformation L will be the Lorentz transformation. A. Overview Often viewed as a tensor in Lorentz covariant treat- ment,” the electromagnetic field is much more efficiently viewed as a differential two-form'? since it is an antisym- metric tensor.'* (Reference 9 gives the algebraic reason why this can be done; in this paper, this is simply as- sumed.) As described in the last section, an arbitrary par- allelogram in space-time V has six projected components onto the six coordinate planes. Thus the six components of the electromagnetic field (three electric, three magnetic) are the geometric projections of a parallelogram in *. In this geometric viewpoint, the Maxwell’s equations simply relate the way a parallelogram lies with respect to other parallelograms in its space-time vicinity. Let L be the Lorentz transformation on four- dimensional space-time V with the ordered basis coordi- nates {ct,xy,2}. As in the previous section, the dual space ¥* of V has basis {c dt,dx,dy,d2}, and the space A?V* of differential two-forms is six dimensional, with the follow- ing basis: {edt Adxsc dt \dyjc dt Adzsdx A dy.dx Ndzjdy Nd}. (13) ‘Similarly, the space A*V* is four dimensional with the following basis: {edtAdx dys dt Adx Adz dt Ady Adz,dx \ dy N dz}. «aay Its dimension is ($)=4, one for the charge density, and three for the three current-density components. In MKS units, the electromagnetic field, a8 a differential two-form, F=(l/e)(E,dx+E, dy+E, dz) Nedt +(BydyNdz+B,dz\dx+B,dxAdy). (15) 1140 Am. Phys, Vol. 60, No. 12, December 1992 Expanding this and using the basis (13), one can writeit as column vector -E, -£5 pa] —E =2| ce (16) —cBy By ‘The Lorentz transformation'® L is y 1B 0 Ol -B y 00 t=! 5 9 1 of an o 0 01 where, as usual, Bav/e and y= (1-6). ‘As described previously, the differential p-forms are trans- formed by A?(L')~'; this is computed in the following starting with (17) y Boo n1_[w 7 00 (Ly o 01 of (18) 0004 From this, one uses procedure (12) to compute its two- compound: 10 0000 oy 0 poo loo y 0 BO UL) -le AML"= 1) og 9 7 0. Of" as) lo 0 BO ¥ 0 0 0 0 0 01 This matrix will geometrically transform any differential ‘two-form on V to the corresponding differential two-form on W. In particular, it will transform the differential two- form F on V to F’ on W: oo 0) [_, wo ol |_- 0 w ol1|—E vy 0 ole] eB =, o 70 , a cB, oot D.B.Newen 140A simple matrix multiplication in the above equality im- mediately gives the usual relativistic transformation of the electromagnetic field components: BL =cB,, (20) With respect to the relativistic transformation of the charge-density p and current density (JyeJpJ), one can express both quantities in MKS units as’a differential three-form:"* J=(1/e)(Iydy Nde+-J, dz \dx-+J,dxNdy) Ne dt —pdxhdyhdz. Expanding this and using the basis (14), one can write it as a column vector Procedure (12) with p=3 applied to (18) gives. 100 0 0100 oor wf 0 0 BY This matrix will geometrically transform any differential three-form on V to the corresponding differential three- form on W. In particular, it will transform the differential three-form Jon V to J’ on ACL) z\ [too 1{-%] Jo 1 0 Kilo 0 x —%'} \o 0 A simple matrix multiplication i mediately gives the usual relativistic transformation of the electromagnetic charge and current density: ep’ =r(ep—BI,), Jz=r\J,—Bep), Sem (21) Ip ade. In summary, this section shows that the complicated rela- tivistic transformation formulas for the electromagnetic field, charge, and current density are mostly consequences of the complicated geometric transformation of p- dimensional parallelopipeds which themselves are conse- quences of a given transformation between two space- times. The physics implicit in Maxwell's Equations contributes to this geometric picture in only one way: that the three components of the electric field and the three components of the magnetic field together form the 6 two- dimensional shadows of a (two-dimensional) parallelo- ‘gram in the dual space of space-time, and that the charge and the three components of the current density together form the 4 three-dimensional shadows of a (three- dimensional) parallelopiped in the same space. 1141 Am.J. Phys, Vol. 60, No. 12, December 1992 IV. THE RELATIVISTIC TRANSFORM OF THE MACROSCOPIC PROPERTIES OF A LINEAR ELECTROMAGNETIC MEDIUM ‘An electromagnetic medium is described as linear when- ever the electric displacement D and the magnetic induc- tion B at a given point in the medium are linear functions of the electric field E and the magnetic intensity H at the same point. The macroscopic properties of this medium are then characterized by the coefficients of these linear func~ tions. In MKS units, the electric displacement D and the magnetic intensity A are united in the differential two- form’ G= (1/0) (Hi, dx-+-H, dy+H, dz) Ne dt —(D,dy\de+D, dz Ndx+D,dx dy). (22) Expanding this and using the basis (13), one can write it as a column vector ~H, 4, -H, -D, D, =<, Linearity of the medium means that there is a 6x6 matrix C relating the vectors F in (16) and G in (23) by the following so-called constitutive relation: G=CF. (23) (4) If the entries of C are functions of space coordinates, the ‘medium is said to be inhomogeneous. If they are functions Of time, the medium is time-varying. If they are functions of frequency, the medium is dispersive. If the D-field com- ponents in (24) are proportional to the E-field components alone, and B-field components are proportional to the H- field components alone, then the medium is isotropic. If the proportionality constants between the components of D and of E are not the same, then the medium is electrically anisotropic. Similarly, if the proportionality constants be- tween the components of B and of Hare not the same, then the medium is magnetically anisotropic. For a general ma- trix C not having these proportionality relationships, the medium is said to be bianisotropic. All of these are trans- formed relativisically the same way, to be described below. There are two transformation to be effected: the trans- formation of the matrix elements in C, and the transforma tion of the matrix relationship (24). First, the transformation of the matrix elements in C is, relatively straightforward and applies to inhomogeneous, time-varying, dispersive media. In these cases, the func tional dependence of the matrix element Cy =Cilxyaz.ctorkokyk,) on space-time coordinates, tre- quency, and the components of the wave vector are altered by substituting the relativistic expression of x’, »’, 2’, ct” for x, y, z, ct using the Lorentz transformation. The pa- rameters @, ky ky k, are replaced by their relativistic Dop- pler expressions. Second, one needs the transformation for the matrix re- lationship in (24). This is effected using (19) in the fol- lowing manner. In space-time W, the matrix relation (24) D.B.Newyen 1141G@=cr (25) for some 6X6 matrix C’ which describes the macroscopic properties there. As previously explained, if Z maps space- time V to space-time W, then the matrix (19) will map any differential two-form on ¥ to the corresponding two-form on W. In particular, the matrix (19) will map F to F” and G to G’. That is, FHA(L)"'F and G'=A(L)'G, (26) Substituting (24) into the right-hand member of (26), and then both of (26) into (25) yields ML)“ ICF=C'AUL')“'F, which, upon multiplying both sides by A*(L'), produces, CR=M (LIC AML 'F. This implies CHA LIC AL! Qn ‘Thus a simple multiplication of three 6x6 matrices above gives the relativistic transformation of the constitutive re- lation. The form of (27) is that of a similarity transforma- tion, as expected; thus, the relativistic transformation of ‘the constitutive matrix relation is a consequence of the ‘geometric change of basis (13) induced by (19). [That is, (27) is a consequence of geometry, not physics.) ‘As a computational example to illustrate (27), I will show below how one uses (27) to explain the null results of the famous Michelson and Morley experiment, the exper- imental findings of Réntgen and Wilson, the relativi expression for the Biot-Savart law, as well as find the con- dition for Cerenkov radiation. YV. SOME APPLICATIONS OF THE RELATIVISTIC CONSTITUTIVE RELATION For the purposes of this section, I will rewrite the basis (13) slightly so as to bring out certain features in the constitutive matrix C. This step is not necessary, however, and is not essential to the development. Thus, from the ‘basis (13), one reorders the terms to obtain the basis {dx Ne didy Ne disdz Ne di,dy \ dedz Adx,dx Ady}. (28) With respect to basis (28), the differential two-forms F in (15) and G in (22) can be written as the following two- column vectors: Efe Hse Eye He Efe Hye F=| "3, b >, 29) 8, —D, B, ~D, ‘The purpose of switching to the new basis (28) is so that the field components are nicely grouped in (29). With re- spect to (28), however, the matrix (19) becomes 1142 _Am.J. Phys, Vol. 60, No. 12, December 1992 10 000 0 Oo y 0 0 0 ~6 lo 0 7 0 Bw O 2)! ML=|, 9 9 10 0 (30) 0 0 Boy oO 0 -B 000 y¥ ‘A, The experiments of Réntgen and Wilson‘? ‘As described in the Introduction, these experiments demonstrate that a moving dielectric is polarized in a mag- netic field and magnetized in an electric field. This is a direct consequence of the geometric transformation (27) in the previous section. In its rest frame, let the dielectric be characterized by its electric permittivity ¢ and its magnetic permeability 1, de- fined by GB) In terms of the constitutive matrix C’ and the vectors F” and G’, these become @=cr, where 0 0 0 We o oO 0 0 0 0 te 0 0 0 0 0 0 Ie 0 0 0 0 06 a 0 -« 0 0 0 0 0 0 -~« 0 0 oO Using (27), one finds that the constitutive relation C in the laboratory frame, where the dielectric is moving in the positive x direction, is CHM(LOC AML! To anticipate use in a subsequent section, let us consider a dielectric moving in the negative x direction, and replace L in the above expression with its inverse to give CHaM(LYICANLY. From the expression for A?(L‘)~' in (30), one multiplies ut the above three matrices on the right-hand side to find ‘that D.B.Newen 1142o ° 0 Vue 0 ° PBlce—Vuc) 0 0 -=/B(ce—1/pe) 0 0 lace ° ° ° 0 7 (B/ue—ce) 0 0 0 0 FB /uc—ce) 0 ‘The constitutive matrix above shows that even an isotropic homogeneous dielectric begins to behave like a bianisotro- pic material when it is in motion. Let us break C up into blocks of (nonzero) 3x3 matrices so that a = (a a In terms of these nonzero 3X3 matrices Cy k=, 2, 3, 4, the relationship G=CF becomes H/e=CE/e+ CB and —D=CE/e+ CB. oa) ‘Réntgen’s experiment® corresponds to the top equation in (34): an electric field E alone (B=0) was sufficient to produce a nonzero magnetic field H; the moving dielectric appears to have been magnetized. Wilson's experiment? corresponds to the bottom equation in (34): a magnetic field B alone (E=0) was sufficient to produce a nonzero electric field D; the moving dielectric appears to have been polarized. B, The null results of Michelson and Morley This can be seen also from (33). When the “dielectric” is vacuum (the proverbial “ether”) having electric permit- tivity exe) and magnetic permeability =plp, with ¢ 1/ jfioéo, one finds that (33) reduces to (32); indepen- dent of the velocity ; the constitutive relation does not change with motion. In other words, the “ether” as a di- electric does not change its properties when it is moving. C, The relativistic Biot-Savart law ‘Consider a charged particle moving through a homoge- neous, isotropic dielectric. We employ a reference frame in which the charge is at rest at the origin. In that frame (the prime frame), the electric field K’ is easily computed from Coulomb's law, and the magnetic field B’ is zero. Thus 1 q z dre Ty PD™ | 0 | o ° Using the two-compound (30), one multiplies out the ma- trix relationship F=A?(L')F" to obtain 143 Am.J. Phys, Vol. 60, No. 12, December 192 o o 7 (/ue—B'ce) 0 0 PU /ue—BPce) ° ° (33) 0 ~7-B(ce—1/pe) YB(ce-1/uc) 0 —————————————————— vy raseaaeen| Eb mec (x+y 42") 0 = wy’ which, in terms of x,y,z, and ct, becomes [x—B ct\ ’ re rg 2 rec (Po—Bar ayer" | 0 —Bz By From the definition of F, and the fact that in the unprime frame, the medium is a homogenous, isotropic dielectric, Bou the last three components of F give ° = Bq a 1B Sreue [Pe Ben era 2T™ | Defining r to be the vector from the charge to a field point, and r to be its magnitude, one can express the above in a more sens form (at t=0): axe aT (P=De +P y™" In a medium where jie is approximately 1/c*, and at speed vge, Eq. (35) reduces to the Biot-Savart law, a relation- ship found empirically. H (35) D. The Cerenkov radiation condition Consider a charge g moving in the positive x direction with speed v. In the rest frame of the moving charge, the ‘medium is moving in the negative x direction, and its con- stitutive relation is, therefore, described by (33). The con- dition for Cerenkov radiation is tantamount to the condi- tion of wave propagation in this medium. This is well known'’ and requires only simple algebra starting with (33) to produce 1B] > Cmes/e as the (usual) condition for the Cerenkov radiation, where {be is the speed of light in the given medjum. It is interesting to note that this condition causes some ele- ments of (33) to change sign. Looking at the whole of (33), the only elements capable of changing sign are PU /ue—Bree) (36) D.B.Nguyen 1143and 7B /pe—ce). en Expression (36) will change from positive to negative when f exceeds a certain value 6, to be found by solving 7U/ue—Biee) This gives B, = 1/ec’. Letting Cpqg=1/ jue = the speed of light in the medium, one obtains B> |B,|=Cpeg/¢, the usual condition for the Cerenkov radiation. ‘Equation (37), on the other hand, will change sign when B exceeds the value B, 1Ba| =¢/cmea ‘a speed that is already faster than the speed of light in vacuum. Presumably, tachyons would exhibit Cerenkov ra- diation upon crossing that threshold. Finally, it is interest- ing to note that if we call 8, and By the two Cerenkov velocities, then, as can be seen from their expressions in term of ¢ and cea, the speed of light c in vacuum is just the geometric mean of the two Cerenkov velocities of any ho- mogeneous, isotropic medium. That is, the two Cerenkov velocities are equally spaced above and below the speed of light in vacuum on a logarithmic velocity scale. [Cerenkov radiation (electromagnetic or gravitational) for tachyons t,'**? however, has well-known theoretical dif- VI. GENERALIZATION TO NONLINEAR MAPPINGS This paper has been concerned exclusively with a linear transformation L and its compounds, where Z maps (inite-dimensional) vector space V to (finite-dimensional) vector space W. One possible generalization is the exten- sion to nonlinearity. This is easily done as follows. Let 1 be a nonlinear map between two manifolds R and ‘5S. Suppose that the point p in R is mapped to the point ‘N(p) in S. Let V be the tangent space of R at p, and let bbe the tangent space of $ at N(p). Then, NV induces a linear map between V and W, namely its differential at p. Let L bbe this differential, denoted by dN,, This linearizes the problem and all computational procedures in this paper are valid in the tangent space V and W. Since electromagnetic fields, charge, and current density are local quantities, the transformation formulas derived in this paper are valid at the point p, and this can be done at every point p. In particular, the two- and three-compounds of (4N.)~" will transform the electromagnetic field, charge, and current density at the point p. VII. CONCLUSION The p-compounds of a linear transformation L provide a systematic way of transforming p-dimensional volumes in a vector space where Z transform points (i,e., vectors). In particular, the two-compound of L transform (two- dimensional) parallelograms, the three-compound trans- form (three-dimensional) parallelopiped, and so on. These fare geometric transformations. When the electromagnetic field, charge, and current density are identified with vari- 1144 Am, Phys, Vol. 60, No. 12, December 1992 ous p-dimensional volumes, the above geometric transfor- mation produces the correct relativistic transformation if Z is taken to be the Lorentz transformation. The two- ‘compound of L are also used to find the constitutive rela- tion for moving media. All of these operations requires only simple matrix multiplications. The results of these ‘matrix multiplications are used to explain several well- known experimental results. To generalize these results to a nonlinear mapping N, ‘one considers L to be the linearized version of NV, namely its differential dN, at a point p, acting between two linear spaces, namely the domain and range of dV, ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ‘This material is based upon work supported in part by the North Atlantic Treaty Organization under a grant awarded in 1989 and in part by NIH Grant CA-09259. The author would like to thank University of Aalborg, Institute of Electronic Systems, in Denmark for providing a hospi- table environment and smorrebrod. The use of the p- compound as an organizing principle emerged from con- versations with Drs. Eo, E, and the late Dr. U. 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