February 9, 2001
It is shown how the old Cartan's conjecture on the fundamental role of the geometry of simple (or pure) spinors, as bilinearly underlying euclidean geometry, may be extended also to quantum mechanics of fermions (in first quantization), however in compact momentum spaces, bilinearly constructed with spinors, with signatures unambiguously resulting from the construction, up to sixteen component Majorana-Weyl spinors associated with the real Clifford algebra $\Cl(1,9)$, where, because of the known periodicity theorem, the construction naturally ends. $\Cl(1,9)$ may be formulated in terms of the octonion division algebra, at the origin of SU(3) internal symmetry. In this approach the extra dimensions beyond 4 appear as interaction terms in the equations of motion of the fermion multiplet; more precisely the directions from 5$^{th}$ to 8$^{th}$ correspond to electric, weak and isospin interactions $(SU(2) \otimes U(1))$, while those from 8$^{th}$ to 10$^{th}$ to strong ones SU(3). There seems to be no need of extra dimension in configuration-space. Only four dimensional space-time is needed - for the equations of motion and for the local fields - and also naturally generated by four-momenta as Poincar\'e translations. This spinor approach could be compatible with string theories and even explain their origin, since also strings may be bilinearly obtained from simple (or pure) spinors through sums; that is integrals of null vectors.
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July 19, 2001
The Cartan's equations definig simple spinors (renamed pure by C. Chevalley) are interpreted as equations of motion in momentum spaces, in a constructive approach in which at each step the dimesions of spinor space are doubled while those momentum space increased by two. The construction is possible only in the frame of geometry of simple or pure spinors, which imposes contraint equations on spinors with more than four components, and the momentum spaces result compact, isomo...
November 6, 2003
The E. Cartan's equations defining "simple" spinors (renamed "pure" by C. Chevalley) are interpreted as equations of motions for fermion multiplets in momentum spaces which, in a constructive approach based bilinearly on those spinors, result compact and lorentzian, naturally ending up with a ten dimension space. The equations found are most of those traditionally adopted ad hoc by theoretical physics in order to represent the observed phenomenology of elementary particles....
July 24, 2002
The equations defining pure spinors are interpreted as equations of motion formulated on the lightcone of a ten-dimensional, lorentzian, momentum space. Most of the equations for fermion multiplets, usually adopted by particle physics, are then naturally obtained and their properties like internal symmetries, charges, families appear to be due to the correlation of the associated Clifford algebras, with the 3 complex division algebras: complex numbers at the origin of U(1) an...
June 1, 2005
We study briefly some properties of real Clifford algebras and identify them as matrix algebras. We then show that the representation space on which Clifford algebras act are spinors and we study in details matrix representations. The precise structure of these matrices gives rise to the type of spinors one is able to construct in a given space-time dimension: Majorana or Weyl. Properties of spinors are also studied. We finally show how Clifford algebras enable us to construc...
May 25, 2021
It is shown how the vector space $V_{8,8}$ arises from the Clifford algebra $Cl(1,3)$ of spacetime. The latter algebra describes fundamental objects such as strings and branes in terms of their $r$-volume degrees of freedom, $x^{\mu_1 \mu_2 ...\mu_r}$ $\equiv x^M$, $r=0,1,2,3$, that generalizethe concept of center of mass. Taking into account that there are sixteen $x^M$, $M=1,2,3,...,16$, and in general $16 \times 15/2 = 120$ rotations of the form $x'^M = {R^M}_N x^N$, we ca...
March 27, 2008
In the search of a mathematical basis for quantum mechanics, in order to render it self-consistent and rationally understandable, we find that the best approach is to adopt E. Cartan's way for discovering spinors; that is to start from 3-dimensional null vectors and then show how they may be represented by two dimensional spinors. We have now only to go along this path, however in the opposite direction; with these spinors (which are pure) construct bilinearly null vectors: a...
June 16, 2011
Expository notes on Clifford algebras and spinors with a detailed discussion of Majorana, Weyl, and Dirac spinors. The paper is meant as a review of background material, needed, in particular, in now fashionable theoretical speculations on neutrino masses. It has a more mathematical flavour than the over twenty-seven-year-old "Introduction to Majorana masses" by P.D. Mannheim and includes historical notes and biographical data on past participants in the story.
February 15, 2003
Quaternionic and octonionic realizations of Clifford algebras and spinors are classified and explicitly constructed in terms of recursive formulas. The most general free dynamics in arbitrary signature space-times for both quaternionic and octonionic spinors is presented. In the octonionic case we further provide a systematic list of results and tables expressing, e.g., the relations of the octonionic Clifford algebras with the $G_2$ cosets over the Lorentz algebras, the iden...
August 6, 2019
Real Clifford algebras for arbitrary number of space and time dimensions as well as their representations in terms of spinors are reviewed and discussed. The Clifford algebras are classified in terms of isomorphic matrix algebras of real, complex or quaternionic type. Spinors are defined as elements of minimal or quasi-minimal left ideals within the Clifford algebra and as representations of the pin and spin groups. Two types of Dirac adjoint spinors are introduced carefully....
September 19, 2005
This is a short review of the algebraic properties of Clifford algebras and spinors. Their use in the description of fundamental physics (elementary particles) is also summarized. Lecture given at the ICCA7 conference, Toulouse (23/05/2005)