Discrete symmetries of Dirac's theory in the de Sitter manifold

TL;DR

This paper investigates the discrete symmetries of the Dirac field in de Sitter space, revealing a group structure similar to special relativity and analyzing their local and global properties in different frames.

Contribution

It characterizes the discrete symmetry group of Dirac's theory in de Sitter space, distinguishing proper and improper isometries and their physical significance.

Findings

The discrete symmetry group in the expanding universe has order 16.

Proper isometries preserve the physical portion of de Sitter space.

All isometries, including improper ones, are studied in conformal frames.

Abstract

The discrete symmetries of the Dirac field on the de Sitter manifold are studied taking into account that this has two portions that can play the role of physical space-times, namely the expanding and a collapsing universes. The proper discrete isometries which preserve the portion have a physical meaning in contrast to the improper ones which change the portion remaining thus of a mere mathematical interest. The discrete symmetries generated by the proper isometries and charge conjugation are studied in physical frames on the expanding portion shoving that all the discrete transformations reversing the cosmic time are local depending on a local boost matrix. Thus the discrete group of Dirac's theory in the de Sitter expanding universe is obtained showing that this is of the order 16 having a multiplication table similar to that of Dirac's theory in special relativity. Moreover, all the discrete de Sitter isometries, including the improper ones, are studied in conformal frames for obtaining a global image about the de Sitter isometries in spite of the fact that these cannot be gathered in a larger discrete group with physical meaning.