On Reflections and Rotations in Minkowski 3-Space of Physical Phenomena

Abstract

In this paper, we investigate the reflections in Minkowski three-space by three different approaches. Firstly, we define Lorentzian reflections with Lorentzian inner product. Then, we examine Lorentzian reflections in view of Lorentzian Householder matrices. Finally, we use pure split quaternions to derive Lorentzian reflections. For each case, we find the matrix representation of Lorentzian reflections and characterize the plane of reflection by using this matrix representation. Moreover, we prove that any Lorentzian orthogonal transformation can be represented by the composition of at most six reflections.