The Carroll group was originally introduced by Lévy-Leblond [1] by considering the contraction of the Poincaré group as c → 0. In this paper an alternative definition, based on the geometric properties of a non-Minkowskian, non-Galilean but nevertheless boost-invariant, space-time structure is proposed. A "duality" with the Galilean limit c → ∞ is established. Our theory is illustrated by Carrollian electromagnetism.

International audienceWe give an account of the gravitational memory effect in the presence of the exact plane wave solution of Einstein’s vacuum equations. This allows an elementary but exact description of the soft gravitons and how their presence may be detected by observing the motion of freely falling particles. The theorem of Bondi and Pirani on caustics (for which we present a new proof) implies that the asymptotic relative velocity is constant but not zero, in contradiction with the permanent displacement claimed by Zel’dovich and Polnarev. A non-vanishing asymptotic relative velocity might be used to detect gravitational waves through the “velocity memory effect”, considered by Braginsky, Thorne, Grishchuk, and Polnarev

Impulsive gravitational plane waves, which have a δ-function singularity on a hypersurface, can be obtained by squeezing smooth plane gravitational waves with Gaussian profile. They exhibit (as do their smooth counterparts) the Velocity Memory Effect: after the wave has passed, particles initially at rest move apart with non vanishing constant transverse velocity. A new effect is that, unlike to the smooth case, (i) the velocities of particles originally at rest jump, (ii) the spacetime trajectories become discontinuous along the (lightlike) propagation direction of the wave.

One intriguing issue in the nucleon spin decomposition problem is the existence of two types of decompositions, which are representably characterized by two different orbital angular momenta (OAMs) of quarks. The one is the mechanical OAM, while the other is the so-called gauge-invariant canonical (g.i.c.) OAM, the concept of which was introduced by Chen et al. An especially delicate quantity is the g.i.c. OAM, which must be distinguished from the ordinary (gauge-variant) canonical OAM. We find that, owing to its analytically solvable nature, the famous Landau problem offers an ideal tool to understand the difference and the physical meaning of the above three OAMs, i.e. the standard canonical OAM, g.i.c. OAM, and the mechanical OAM. We analyze these three OAMs in two different formulations of the Landau problem, first in the standard (gauge-fixed) formulation and second in the gauge-invariant (but path-dependent) formulation of DeWitt. Especially interesting is the latter formalism. It is shown that the choice of path has an intimate connection with the choice of gauge, but they are not necessarily equivalent. Then, we answer the question about what is the consequence of a particular choice of path in DeWitt's formalism. This analysis also clarifies the implication of the gauge symmetry hidden in the concept of g.i.c. OAM. Finally, we show that the finding above offers a clear understanding about the uniqueness or non-uniqueness problem of the nucleon spin decomposition, which arises from the arbitrariness in the definition of the so-called physical component of the gauge field.

The problem of the position and spin in relativistic quantum mechanics is analyzed in detail. It is definitively shown that the position and spin operators in the Foldy-Wouthuysen representation (but not in the Dirac one) are quantum-mechanical counterparts of the classical position and spin variables. The probabilistic interpretation is valid only for Foldy-Wouthuysen wave functions. The relativistic spin operators are discussed. The spin-orbit interaction does not exist for a free particle if the conventional operators of the orbital angular momentum and the rest-frame spin are used.Alternative definitions of the orbital angular momentum and the spin are based on noncommutative geometry, do not satisfy standard commutation relations, and can allow the spin-orbit interaction. * zoulp@impcas.ac.cn †

International audienceChiral fermions can be embedded into Souriau's massless spinning particle model by "enslaving" the spin, viewed as a gauge constraint. The latter is not invariant under Lorentz boosts; spin enslavement can be restored, however, by a Wigner-Souriau (WS) translation, analogous to a compensating gauge transformation. The combined transformation is precisely the recently uncovered twisted boost, which we now extend to finite transformations. WS-translations are identified with the stability group of a motion acting on the right on the Poincare group, whereas the natural Poincare action corresponds to action on the left

Hill's equations, which first arose in the study of the Earth-Moon-Sun system, admit the twoparameter centrally extended Newton-Hooke symmetry without rotations. This symmetry allows us to extend Kohn's theorem about the center-of-mass decomposition. Particular light is shed on the problem using Duval's "Bargmann" framework. The separation of the center-of-mass motion into that of a guiding center and relative motion is derived by a generalized chiral decomposition. PACS numbers: 11.30.-j, 02.40.Yy, 02.20.Sv, 96.12.De, Phys. Rev. D85 (2012) 045031

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