Z. Phys.
C - Particles and Fields 48, 159-165 (1990)
Tensor representation of the quantum group SLq(2, C)
and quantum Minkowski space
U. Carow-Watamura, M. Schlieker, M. Scholl, S. Watamura*
Institut for Theoretische Physik**, Universit~it Karlsruhe, Kaiserstrasse 12, D-7500 Karlsruhe, Federal Republic of Germany
Received 9 April 1990
Abstract. We investigate the structure of the tensor
product representation of the quantum group SLq(2, C)
by using the 2-dimensional quantum plane as a building
block. Two types of 4-dimensional spaces are constructed
applying the methods used in twistor theory. We show
that the 4-dimensional real representation of SLq(2, C)
generates a consistent non-commutative algebra, and
thus it provides a quantum deformation of Minkowski
space. The transformation of this 4-dimensional space
gives the quantum Lorentz group SOq(3, 1).
I Introduction
The structure of the quantum group has been first
revealed by the investigations of integrable systems [ 1-9].
However, since it is a pure mathematical structure and
not a special character of the integrable systems, it is
interesting to try to find some application to other fields
in physics.
When we consider the quantum group as a de-
formation of the ordinary group (q-deformation), and the
quantum plane as a q-deformation of its representation
space, the new application which is suggested by this
point of view is a q-deformation of a known physical
system. As has been already pointed out [10], especially
when we think of the quantum theory as a deformation
of classical physics by introducing the Planck constant,
we can ask whether we have another deformation of the
classical physics or a further deformation of the quantum
physics by incorporating the structure of quantum group.
Following this idea, we investigate in this paper a possible
candidate for a q-deformation of Minkowski space.
For this purpose, we examine the tensor representa-
tions of the quantum group SLq(2, C). There are several
ways to do this (see e.g. [9]). Here, we adopt the concept
* On leave of absence from Department of Physics, College of
General Education, Tohoku University, Kawauchi, Sendai 980,
Japan
** bitnet: BE05@DKAUNI2
Zeitschrfft
forPhysikC P a r t i c ~
and F-Nds
9 Springer-Verlag 1990
of the quantum plane (q-plane) [8] which is a purely
geometrical point of view and fits to our problem. Since
the q-plane gives a simple representation space of the
quantum group (see e.g. [11-14]), as we shall see, it also
gives a simple picture of the tensor representations
and a way to construct them.
Using the two dimensional q-planes, we construct the
higher dimensional q-hyperplanes or q-spaces. We show
the construction of the 4-dimensional q-spaces corres-
ponding to the quantum groups SOq(4, C), SOq(2,2) and
SOq(4). They are a consequence of relations between the
quantum groups which are analogous to the following
relations for the classical groups:
SL(2, C) • SL(2, C) ~ SO(4, C), (I. 1)
SL(2, R) x SL(2, R) ~ S0(2, 2), (I.2)
SU(2) x SU(2) ~ SO(4). (I.3)
Our approach to formulate the q-deformed Minkowski
space is to construct real representations of SLq(2, C). For
the classical group we know that, due to the relation:
SL(2, C) ~ S0(3, 1), (I.4)
we obtain Minkowski space. We show that in the
q-deformed case, we also obtain a q-deformed non-
commutative, 4-dimensional space, which coincides with
the Minkowski space in the classical limit, i.e., q---, 1.
The paper is organized as follows: In Sect. II, we
briefly review the geometrical approach to quantum
groups in order to present our notations. Then, we give
the two different ways of constructing the 4-dimensional
quantum space. In Sect. III, we consider the real
representation of SLq(2,C). The non-commutative
relation of the q-deformed Minkowski space is presented
and its characteristic structure is examined. Section IV
is devoted to discussions.
II q-Spinors and tensor products
As is shown by Manin, the quantum group can be
introduced by considering a space, the coordinates of
which do not commute and generate the ring A~I~ [8].
160

The simplest case considered in this section is the
quantum plane (q-plane) A~ I~with generators (x, y). Their
commutation relation is given by
(x, y)~A~l~ x y = qyx,
where q is a complex number. In the following, we call
this two dimensional object (x, y) a q-spinor and denote
it with upper index as z p. The general transformation of
the q-spinor can be represented by a 2 x 2 matrix M
which are transformed by the same matrix M e S L q ( 2 , C)
and each component satisfies the q-spinor relation (II.1).
Since the matrix elements of M do not commute with
(11.1) each other, these spinors must also have nontrivial
commutation relations. When we require the form
invariance of these commutation relations (i.e., the same
relations hold for zf and for z'fl) and the consistency with
their q-spinor relations (II.1), we obtain [15]
ZIZ2 = k/~qz2zl, (11.9)

\y/ C)
y' C d
where the matrix elements of M commute with the
y i.e., explicitly
o ~ = 1,6o,, ,,,',p' (II.10)
Z1Z2 .... a ' p ' ~ 2 ~1
components of the q-spinor. Requiring that the co-
ordinate transformations of our q-spinor preserve the where k is a constant. /~q is identified with a known
commutation relation (II.1), we find the matrix elements solution of the Yang-Baxter equation and is given by
of M are also non-commutative objects, and these
transformations do not generate a usual group but the Rq =_ .~oOvaeo~| eo a = q ~ co~ | epp + ~ co" | e,f
p p~e#
quantum group [8].
For convenience we introduce the following q-spinor
+(q_q-1) ~ epP| (II.11)
metric e [11]: p<a
0 q-1/2~
~v, = _ ql/2 0 ,]' (II.3) where p, o = 1,2 and e S is the basis of the matrix [5].
Note that we can naturally replace the /~q in (11.9) by
then the relation (II.1) is represented by /~-1. In components (I1.9) reads:
~v~zOz" = O. (II.4) XIX 2 = kqx2xl,
The above mentioned requirement for the coordinate X l y 2 = k [ y z x 1 + (q - q-X)x2Yl] ,
transformation means that (II.4) also holds for z 'p, and ylx 2 = kx2yl,
thus the metric eoa has to be form invariant up to a factor YlY2 = kqYzYl. (II. 12)
under the transformation (II.2): The form invariance of the relation (II.9) again yields the
e o,,M Op,M " ~, = D q~v, ~, (11.5) commutation relation of the matrix elements of M:
where Dq is a scalar. As is shown in [11], the form R12M1Mz = MzMxR12, (II.13)
invariance of ep~ under the transformation M and its
where the suffix refers to the corresponding q-spinor. The
transposed matrix tM [8] fixes the commutation relations
R-matrix is defined as R = PRq with P = }-" e S | e f (see
of the matrix elements as:
for example [2]). Finally, when we consider more than
ab=qba, ac=qca, bc--cb, bd=qdb, cd=qdc, two q-spinors transforming by the same matrix M, the
ad - da = (q - q - 1)bc. (11.6) condition of associativity under the exchange of the
q-spinors yields a consistency condition for the algebra
and the factor Dqis of the q-spinors. The outcome is the Yang-Baxter
D q = ad - qbc = da - q - l bc. (II.7) equation

Dq turns out to commmute with all matrix elements, i.e., R12R23R13 = R13R23R12 . (11.14)
it is central and coincides with the so-called q- In the following we examine the properties of the
determinant of the matrix M. We take Dq= 1 and thus, tensor product of two different q-spinors. Such a product
our object is the q-deformed SL(2, C) the SLq(2, C). We gives various 4-dimensional q-spaces.
obtain the inverse matrix from the condition of form For this aim, take a second q-spinor :~ which is
invariance (I1.5): transformed by I~I~SLq(2, C):*
:~'
M- 1 = 9 (II.8) 3o=(;)~yp=(~,)=jf/IOj"=(~ ~)(;) (II.15)
- qc
The relation of the quantum group and the and
Yang-Baxter equation can be seen in this approach, (2, ;)EAq21~ 2~-- q;~ = 0. (II.16)
when we consider two different q-spinors z~' = (xi,yi)*
Then one can obtain a set of "coordinates" for the
* We use Greek letters for the spinor suffix. Roman letters are
used to distinguish different spinors. When we write the equations
in components we use x i for the first component of the spinor z~' * The symbol tilde does not mean any conjugation. It simply
and Yl for the second component distinguishes the two SLq(2, C)

4-dimensional space by defining the following products
A = 2x,
B = ~x,
C = :~y,
O --- ~y.
Since the q-spinors z and ~ are independent objects,
there are various possibilities to specify their commutation
relation, depending on what type of relation one requires
for the two SLq(2, C) quantum groups.
1) Commuting case
The simplest choice is to take the quantities with tilde
commuting with the ones without the tilde
[z, ~ = 0.
After some simple calculation we find that the
products A, B, C and D defined as 01.17) satisfy the same
commutation relations as the matrix elements a, b, c and
d of (II.6), respectively, with
AD - qBC = 0.
Consequently the above products of two spinors
satisfy the relation of the 4-dimensional q-space defined
by the SOq(4, C) (see Appendix). However, this naive
construction of the tensor representation leads to
null-representations, since Dq corresponds to the length
of the 4-vector and as we see from (II.19), it vanishes.
The fact that we obtain the null-space can be compared
with the well-known result in twistor theory [16]:
When constructing a 4 dimensional space out of two
spinors without inner product one can only get
null-spaces. To obtain a nonnull-space we have to
introduce a pair of spinors and their hermitian conjugate
pair. This correspondence becomes more obvious when
we consider real representations in the next section.
In order to get non-null q-spaces, we now consider
two q-spinors z~ and zz, which transform with the same
matrix M, and a second set ~1 and ~2, which transforms
with M. Furthermore, we need a (E-number, i.e., a central
element, in our algebra of q-spaces. This can be achieved
by requiring the invariant products
xlY 2 --
'ql]2"~
qyax2 = ~ ~P~'a
opa~l-2 - - ~]
-- .~,
X 2 Y~l -- qYz:~l =q 1 / 2 % ~ z~zpz~ a1 = 2 ,,
to be central (2 and 2' are complex numbers). In twistor
theory this corresponds to the existence of a non-zero
inner product between two spinors [16].
As explained above, the q-spinors transforming by
the same matrix must satisfy nontrivial commutation
relations, and therefore we impose the relation given in
(11.9) for each pair of z~' and 2~', respectively. The above
requirement for invariant products to be central fixes the
overall constants of the relation in (II.9), k to unity, and
thus, we choose the relation between the spinors as
z l z 2 = Rqzzz 1,
Z.27.1 = R q ~ l T . 2.
161
Here, we again consider the case where zi and s
commute. It is easy to show that the following quantities
provide a closed algebra and satisfy the commutation
relations of SOq(4, C) q-space:
A = Y~lx2 + ~2Xl,
(II. 17)
B = ~axz + .~2X1,
C = YlY2 + ffzYl,
D = YlY2 + Y2Yl. (II.24)
As we required, the difference to the former case (II.17)
is the nonzero length of the new representation space, i.e.,
AD - qBC = 22'. (11.25)
In this way, the tensor products of two spinors yield
the commutation relations of the q-space corresponding
to SOq(4, C). We can also prove that the transformation
of this 4-dimensional q-space generated by the original
(1I. 18)
SLq(2, C) transformation coincides with the SOq(4, C)
transformations. For this end, we show how the SOq(4, C)
/~-matrix appears from our construction.
The transformation of the tensor product is
~,z ~ =~~'pz '~ = T(p~)(v~)yz~ = M P v M ~ Y z ~ (II.26)
(II.19)
where the matrix elements of M commute with the ones
of Air.Therefore, the corresponding R matrix is given by
R(p~)(~v)( p ' a ' ) ( A ' v ' ) -_- ~pa x/~ (11.27)
~" p'2' a'v'
and for the transformation matrix T, using the (II.13),
we obtain the relation:
RI2T1T 2 = T2TxR12. (II.28)
On the other hand as we will see in the Appendix,
the direct product of the SLq(2, C)/~-matrix R, as given
in (II.27) coincides with the R-matrix of SOq(4, C).
Furthermore, since the matrix M satisfies the relation for
(II.5) we obtain the following orthogonality relation ofT:
'TCT = C. (II.29)
C is given by
C(p~)(~) = ep~e ~. (11.30)
The above construction can be understood as follows:
When we assume that the two types of q-spinors are
(II.20) commuting as in (II.18), the SLq(2, C) and the SLq(2, C)
(11.21) become independent and we simply realize the quantum
group relation analogous to the classical one in (L1).
2) Non-commuting case
As already mentioned, we may as well introduce non-
trivial commutation relations between the two types of
spinors z p and s instead of (11.18).
For simplicity, we first restrict ourselves again to the
system with only two q-spinors. One consistent nontrivial
commutation relation is the following:
(11.22) z~ = k'R2z. (II.31)
(11.23) where k' is a constant. Computing with this condition
162

the commutation relations of the products in (II.17), we
again obtain seven equations which may be considered
as 6 commutation relations and one vanishing "length",
since there is no central element. However, on this level
of consideration we do not know which of these con-
ditions corresponds to the "length" of the new q-space,
and we cannot separate the system into 6 + 1.
Therefore in order to construct nonnull representation
spaces, we again consider pairs of q-spinors, z~' and 2I' as
in the previous case, and proceed similarly by requiring
that the invariant products in (II.20) and (II.21) should
be central.
Then, as previously, all commutation relations are
determined up to one parameter k'. The resulting
relations are (II.22), (II.23) and
III Real representation and quantum Minkowski space
In order to construct real representations of SLq(2, C), it
is necessary to examine the condition under which a
restriction of the above representation to a real one is
possible. Generally, the real representation can be given
by specifying the reality conditions. In our approach, the
operation of hermitian conjugation for q-spinors will play
this role. Therefore, in the following we investigate how
the hermitian conjugation of q-spinors give rise to the
conjugation of the tensor product representations con-
structed in Sect. 2.
We denote the hermitian conjugate of q-spinors and
matrix elements with bar. They satisfy the relation:

Z1Z 2 = k RqzzZ 1 (II.32) 20 = (g37)~ 2'~ = (g')7') = s = (~37)

z221 = k RqZlZ 2 (I1.33) and

ZlZ 1 =-
1
~qRq21Z 1 (I1.34) y)eA1/q,, e*~ (;) 2f~-- f~ff = 0 , (Ili.2)

1
Z2Z 2 = k~qRq2222. (II.35) where we have introduced a tensor Ewith upper suffix as
(0q112)
Using these commutation relations and working with the e~ = t12 ' (III.3)
quantities defined in (II.24), we obtain again a closed -q 0
algebra for the components of the 4 dimensional "vector". ep~ep~ = fi~, (III.4)
Since the explicit construction of these commutation
relations becomes interesting when taking the hermitian and * denotes the complex conjugate.
conjugate into account, we postpone the discussion to Since the spinor metrics e"" and co, relate the
the next section. transformation matrix M and its inverse, they also relate
To accomplish our considerations in this section, we the generators of different algebras. In our algebra with
show in the following the consistency of the above tensor hermitian conjugation, there are two generators of the
representation, the properties of the transformation of a l g e b r a s : z P E A 21~ and ~o~A21~ With the spinor metric
4-dimensional q-space and the relating Yang-Baxter we naturally fir]d two other algebras:
equation. A2fO~.op ,o = (z~evo)M-lp a (III.5)
1/q ~ ~pa : z ~ Z ~'p~
First of all, when we introduce the non-trivial
commutation relation between the two types of spinors AZ2OBg*paff
q ~7
=~g*o~r~,
" g
= M r - lP~(e*'vSv). (111.6)
z~ and 2~, the relation between the two quantum groups
And thus, in terms of the spinors, the reality condition
SLq(2, C) and SLq(2, C) is fxed. The latter can be dedu- can be imposed by identifying these algebras.
ced by the form invariance of these commutators, and
we obtain a relation between the matrices M and M,
which is I) Commuting case
Mop,MI",,,RP"~'a,,,~ R ,~,p,M ,~,,M o"" (I1.36)
First we consider the case where z and 2 are commuting.
As in the commuting case, the transformation pro- Depending on the reality conditions we find the following
perty of the tensor representation is two representations:
z P z a => z ' P z 'a = T(Pa)(vx)2Vz)" = ~ l P v M a ~ . 2 ~ z ;~. (II. 37) i) For q real, we can identify A 21o and A 21o r The
identification which is consistent with the plane relation
The difference from the previous case is that the is given by,
components of M and M do not Commute with each
other. However, using the relation between the matrices, Zp = ~,Paz1, a and 2~ = e~ ~. (III.7)
we obtain an equation analogous to (II.28), with the
For the matrix, this identification means
R-matrix given by
M*=M-1 and A4*=M 1, (111.8)
R(an)(~ n") og'n' co"~r' l' n" l"~r""
i.e. we are dealing now with two independent SUq(2).
(11.38) With this condition, the quantities in (II.20) and (II.21)
We can easily show that this new R satisfies the Yang- are central and invariant. Consequently the corresponding
Baxter equation by using the Yang-Baxter equation for 4-component "vector" X = (A,B, C,D) given by (II.24),
the SLq(2, C) R matrix. replacing z 2 and 22 by the relation (III.7), satisfies the
 163

SOq(4) relation [2]: We can easily verify that this identification preserves
X* = tXC, (111.9) the substructure:
SLq(2, C) ~ SUq(2). (III. l 7)
where C is the matrix given in (II.30). Analogously to the
classical case (I.2) the above construction shows the i.e., we can consistently restrict our system to SUq(2).
existence of the following relation: SUq(2)• SUq(2)~ With (III.8), (III.16) simply reduces to (II.13).
SOq(4). In the previous section we saw that it is necessary to
ii) For the case that q is a pure phase, i.e., q = e ~~ A210
q have central terms in the algebra of q-spinors in order
and A1/q..can
21o be identified. Consequently, we incorporate to obtain solutions which are not null-spaces. Thus, we
conjuganon in the following way in our system again consider two pairs of q-spinors, Zl, z2 and their
hermitian connjugate z 1, z 2, and require the existence of
zP = t-Z I , p and 3~ = t:~1,p" (III.10)
the central term. In this case the identification of the
Then, the transformation matrix is spinors is
M* = tM and A4* = 'M, (III.11) 3f : gPa Zi,a , (III.18)

i.e., we restrict our matrices to SLq(2,R). The corres-
ponding 4-component "vector" X given by (11.24)
replacing z 2 and 32 by the relation (III.10), satisfies the
SOq(2, 2) relation [2]
X* : tX. (111.12)
where i = 1,2. All relations for zl and ~i in the non-
commuting case of section 2 are compatible with the
hermitian conjugation defined above.
The central terms in (II.20) and (II.21) are now given
by taking 2' as a complex conjugate of 2:

The above construction shows the relation SLq(2, R) • X l Y 2 -- q y l x 2 = 2, (111.19)

SLq(2, R) ~ SOq(2, 2).
y2.~l - - q.~23~1 : ,'~*. (111.20)

2 ) N o n - c o m m u t i n g case Then the commutation relations of all q-spinors are

01.22) and
Up to now we always assumed that the two quantum
Zl(g~2 ) = k ' Rq(gZ2)Z1,
^ - (11121)
groups SLq(2, C) and SLq(2, C) are independent. Therefore,
the above construction yields the real restriction of each l A
SLq(2, C), separately. z~(~O : k,q g~(~l)Zl, (111.22)
In order to construct the real representation of SLq(2)
one has~ to identify the two quantum groups SLq(2, C) 1 ^
z2(~2) = k'q gq(~h)z2, (Ili.23)
and SLq(2, C) as hermitian conjugate to each other.
Explicitly we can realize this by identifying the q-spinors
:~j with :~j occurring in the second case of Sect. II. and their hermitian conjugates.
As in the commuting case we again have two Using these commutation relations and the relation
possibilities: For real q, we identify 3~A 21~ and ~o~=A21O
= q, , of the q-spinor, we can show that the following quantities
and for the case of lq[ = 1, we identify ~ A q21~and t~A21.~ form a closed algebra:
J,/q 9
It turns out that in the case of Iq ] = 1, we do not get A : )clY2 + )r
non-nuU space relations.
Therefore, in the following, we restrict ourselves to B = .~lX2 ~- .~2x1,
the case where q is real. C ~ .~lX2 q- )c2x1,
For simplicity, let us again consider the two spinor D : .~lY2 + )72Yl, (111.24)
case. As we discussed above the identification has the
with the commutation relations:
form
D C = CD,
~P = eP'~,. (III. 13)
DA = q2AD,
Consequently we obtain for the matrices
D B = q - ZBD,
3~t-~ = Mr. (1II.14) CA - A C = (1 - qZ)AD,
Substituting these identifications into (II.31) and B C -- C B : (1 -- qE)DB,
(II.36), we obtain the commutation relation between the A B - B A = ( q - 2 _ 1)CD + (q2 _ I)D 2. (III.25)
q-spinor and its adjoint [17, 18]:
From the central terms we obtain
z(~) = k ' Rq(ez)z,
~ - (III. 15)
BA - CD - (1 - q2)D2 = 1 2 2 " . (III.26)
where the constant k' is now real and (e2F= eP'~,. k'q
The commutation relation between the components
of M and M* is Under the transformation generated by the original
SLq(2, C), the structure of the above algebra is preserved.
MOo,M, - x~, ~o',' ,,v,, = RP" ,o,M* - x"' ,,M~ ,,. (III. 16) Furthermore, since (e,~)Pz" are transformed as 3Pz~, the
164

results in the Sect. 2 for the transformation matrix (11.37) where C is given by
and R in (II.38) still hold after the identification of (IlL 13)
and (1II.14).
Therefore, we can consider the above defined 4- 0
dimensional q-space as q-deformed real representation (III.32)
0 0 0 '
of SLq(2, C), i.e., the quantum Minkowski space, and the 0 0 -1
corresponding quantum group of transformation matrices
as a quantum Lorentz group SOq(3, 1). and

q6b Q (qE6a +db)

IqlQ da Q(6a - d b )

(ha - d c ) d22(da - q26c - bb + qZdd) Q(db-q2?d) D(q2cta--q4cc + bb-q2dd)

(III.33)
1
gtd ~(q2gtC + bd)

(gtb + ~d) ~l( q 2 gta + q 2 6c + bb +dd)

From the construction given above, we expect the with Q = ~/1 + q2.
"rotation group", SOq(3) to appear as substructure, i.e., The reality condition in this basis is
SOq(3, 1) ~ SOq(3). (III.27) Xbl = 'XC, (111.34)
In order to see the SOq(3) structure, we perform a for the 4-vector where ~/ = diag (1,1,1,-1). For the
redefinition as: matrix A we obtain
C+D A t = qA- it/. (111.35)
T-
q q When we restrict ourselves to the substructure SUq(2)
X = q- l12A, and substitute the SUq(2) relation M t = M - 1 into (III.33),
the matrix A decomposes into a 3 x 3 and a 1 • 1 matrix.
Y =qllZB,
The 3 • 3 matrix M 3 gives the representation of the
q - l C - qD SOq(3) matrix in terms of SUq(2) matrix elements:
Z - (111.28)
x/q + q -~
aa - Qba - bb]
These quantities also generate a closed algebra with the M 3= -Qca (da+qbc) Qdb . (111.36)
following relations
t, - dd )
T X -- X T = O,
From (111.31), we see that this matrix M 3 satisfies the
T Y -- Y T = O, equations:
TZ - Z T = O,
~M3C3M3 = Ca, (III.37)
ZX -- q 2 X Z ~ (1 - q E ) X T ,
YZ - q2Zy = (1 -- q2)Ty, where Ca is given by
X Y -- Y X = (q - q- 1 ) ( Z 2 -- ZT), (111.29)
The central term is given by 1 0 , (III.38)
0 0
qXY+Z 2+q-IYX - T 2 - q + q-t 22*. (111.30)
k'q which corresponds to the metric of S0q2(3) (see Appendix).
In this basis T is central with respect to the other
three variables and thus we may put it 0. Then, the
IV Discussion and conclusion
remaining quantities X, Y and Z form the three dimen-
sional q-space corresponding to the SOq~(3), i.e., SOq(3)
In this paper we constructed the q-deformed Minkowski
with the parameter q replaced by q2.
space. Our strategy was to proceed analogously to the
Defining the "vector": X = (Y, Z, X, T), we can prove
classical case, where Minkowski space is a real repre-
(using commutation relations (III.16)) that the corres-
ponding transformation matrix of SOq(3, 1), A satisfies sentation of SL(2, C). With this property as a guiding
the orthogonality relation principle, we constructed the real representation of the
quantum group SLq(2, C). Furthermore, since we do not
~ACA = C (111.31) know a priori the non-commutative relations of the

q u a n t u m M i n k o w s k i plane, we used a m e t h o d a n a l o g o u s
to the case of twistor theory. F r o m this c o n s t r u c t i o n we
also o b t a i n e d a n a t u r a l definition of a central term which
c o r r e s p o n d s to the invariant length of the vector for the
limit q = 1.
The resulting n o n - c o m m u t a t i v e relations (III.29) a n d
(III.30) c o n t a i n the SOq(3) as a substructure a n d when
we restrict them to the subspace T = 0, we get the k n o w n
3-dimensional q-space. F u r t h e r m o r e , in the limit q--* 1
this space recduces to classical M i n k o w s k i space. As we
saw, the t r a n s f o r m a t i o n m a t r i x A satisfies some k i n d of
o r t h o g o n a l i t y relation, a n d thus, m a y yield a c a n d i d a t e
for the q-deformed L o r e n t z g r o u p SOq(3, 1).
This real 4 - d i m e n s i o n a l q-space was c o n s t r u c t e d by
requiring reality conditions for the complex representation
given as the second case in Sect. II. Therefore, before
i m p o s i n g the reality condition, we have a complex version
of SOq(3, 1), which is different from SOq(4, C). The a b o v e
structure can be presented in a c o m p a c t w a y in terms of
q-deformed Pauli matrices. This will be r e p o r t e d in a
f o r t h c o m i n g paper. A n o t h e r interesting p r o b l e m is to
i n t r o d u c e the differential calculus on this space a n d to
find q-deformed wave equations. This is now under
investigation.
Acknowledgements. The authors would like to thank Professor J.
Wess for discussions, especially for drawing the authors' attention
to this problem, and for the careful reading of the manuscript.
During writing this paper one of the authors (S.W.) heard in a talk
by Professor B. Zumino that the same commutation relation as in
(III.t5) and (IIl.16) was derived independently in the context of
differential calculus [17,19], and would like to thank him for
discussions. One of the authors (S.W.) acknowledges the Alexander
von Humboldt Foundation and the Leibniz Program by each of
which this work was partly supported. He (S.W.) would like to
thank Professor J. Wess for his kind hospitality.
Appendix
F o r convenience we collect here the formulas of SOq(3)
and SOq(4). W e use t h e / ~ m a t r i x given by [2] for SO(n)
a n d the c o r r e s p o n d i n g m a t r i x elements as:
Rq ~ RiJkleik (~ el, (A.1)
where the indices run from 1 to n.
1) S 0 ( 3 )
F o r the q-space relation, we follow the definition given
by F a d d e e v et al. [2]. The q-space relation of the
3-dimensional "vector" r e p r e s e n t a t i o n of SOq(3) is given
by
X1X 2 = qX2X l, X2X 3 = qX3X 2,
xl x 3 _ x3x I = (q- 1/2 _ qt/2)x2x2" (A.2)
There exists the central element L3 which is specified by
the metric C3:
L3 :- C3,ij XiXj : q- l/2xtx3 + X2X 2 + q l / 2 x 3 x 1. (A.3)
165
2) S 0 ( 4 )
The q-space relation of the 4 - d i m e n s i o n a l r e p r e s e n t a t i o n
of the SOq(4) is given by
x1x 2 = qx2x I, X I x 3 : qx3x 1, x2x '* --_ qx4x 2,
x3x4=qx4x3, xZx3=x3x2, x * x t - - x l x 4 = ( q - - q 1)x2x3,
(a.4)
a n d therefore the c o m m u t a t i o n relations are the s a m e as
the ones o b e y e d by the m a t r i x elements of SLq(2, C) if
one identifies (a, b, c, d) with (xl, x2, - x3, x,). T h e central
element L 4 of the 4 - d i m e n s i o n a l q-space is given by the
metric C4:
L 4 -- C4,ijxix j = q- lxlx'* + X2X 3 ~- X3X 2 + q x 4 x 1. (A.5)
By using the a b o v e identification the central term is
p r o p o r t i o n a l to the q - d e t e r m i n a n t of the m a t r i x M
L4 = (q + q- 1)Dq. (a.6)
F u r t h e r m o r e , if we i n t r o d u c e the tensor X u (k, l = 1, 2)
as:
then, in this basis, t h e / ~ - m a t r i x of the SOq(4), 11 is given by
R(ij)~kZ)(i'j')(k'l') = q 1R~ki'k'Rflj'l',
.... (A.8)
where the/~i;i,y in the r.h.s, is t h e / ~ - m a t r i x of the SLq(2, C).
Note added in proof. After we submitted this paper, we received
the paper by P. Podl~s and S.L. Woronowicz, Mittag-Leffler
Institute Report No. 20, 1988/1989, where the quantum Lorentz
group is also discussed.
References
l. M. Jimbo: Int. J. Mod. Phys. A4 (1989) 3759, and references
therein
2. L.D. Faddeev, N.Yu. Reshetikhin, L.A. Takhtajan: Alg. Ana.
1 (1987) 178
3. V.G. Drinfeld: Quantum Groups, Proceedings of the
International Congress of Mathematicians, 1986, Vol. 1,798
4. M. Jimbo: Lett. Math. Phys. 10 (1986) 63
5. M. Jimbo: Commun. Math. Phys. 102 (1986) 537
6. S.L. Woronowicz: RIMS Kokyuroku 23 (1987) 117
7. S.L. Woronowicz: Commun. Math. Phys. l l l (1987) 613
8. Yu.I. Martin: Quantum groups and non-commutative geometry.
Les publications du Centre de Recherches Math6matiques,
Universitb de Montr6al, 1988
9. N. Yu. Reshetikhin: LOMI preprint E-4-87 and E-17-87 (1987)
10. J. Wess: Private communication
1l. S.P. Vokos, B. Zumino, J. Wess: LAPP-TH-253/89 (1989)
12. S.P. Vokos, B. Zumino, J. Wess: UCB-PTH-89/25
13. E. Corrigan, D.B. Fairlie, P. Fletcher, R. Sasaki: J. Math. Phys.
31 (1990) 776
14. J. Schwenk, W.B. Schmidke, S.P. Vokos: Z. Phys. C Particles
and Fields, 46 (1990) 643
t5. M. Schlieker, M. Scboll: Spinor calculus for quantum groups,
preprint KA-THEP-26-1989 (1989)
16. R. Penrose, W. Rindler: Spinors and spacetime, Vols. 1,2.
Cambridge: Cambridge Univ. Press 1984
17. J. Wess, B. Zumino: forthcoming paper
18. W. Pusz, S.L. Woronowicz: Rep. Math. Phys. 27 (1989) 231
19. B. Zumino: Talk given in "Recent Advances in Field Theories,"
Annecy meeting in honour of R. Stora, March 1990; J. Wess,
B. Zumino: CERN-TH-5697/90