Relavity, Groups, Particles. - Special Relativity and Relativistic Symmatry in Field and Particle Physics

This textbook bridges the gap between the two levels on which relativistic symmetry is usually presented - the level of introductory courses on mechanics and electrodynamics and that of its application in high-energy physics and quantum field theory. From an explanation of the postulates leading to the Lorentz transformation and of the main points special relativity bas to make in classical mechanics and electrodynamics, the reader is led to a more abstract point of view on relativistic symmetry and finally to the development of Wigner's classification of the unitary irreducible representations of the inhomogeneous Lorentz group.