Relation To The Möbius Group
The restricted Lorentz group SO+(1, 3) is isomorphic to the Möbius group, which is, in turn, isomorphic to the projective special linear group PSL(2,C). It will be convenient to work at first with SL(2,C). This group consists of all two by two complex matrices with determinant one
We can write two by two Hermitian matrices in the form
This trick has the pleasant feature that
Therefore, we have identified the space of Hermitian matrices (which is four dimensional, as a real vector space) with Minkowski spacetime in such a way that the determinant of a Hermitian matrix is the squared length of the corresponding vector in Minkowski spacetime. But now SL(2,C) acts on the space of Hermitian matrices via
where is the Hermitian transpose of, and this action preserves the determinant. Therefore, SL(2,C) acts on Minkowski spacetime by (linear) isometries. We have now constructed a homomorphism of Lie groups from SL(2,C) onto SO+(1,3), which we will call the spinor map. The kernel of the spinor map is the two element subgroup ±I. Therefore, the quotient group PSL(2,C) is isomorphic to SO+(1,3).
Read more about this topic: Lorentz Group
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