Perturbations of unitary representations of the Galilei group: Mass operators with continuous spectra Original Research Article

We present a systematic procedure for constructing mass operators with continuous spectra for a system of particles in a manner consistent with Galilean relativity. These mass operators can be used to construct what may be called point-form Galilean dynamics. As in the relativistic case introduced by Dirac, the point-form dynamics for the Galilean case is characterized by both the Hamiltonian and momenta being altered by interactions. An interesting property of such perturbative terms to the Hamiltonian and momentum operators is that, while having well-defined transformation properties under the Galilei group, they also satisfy Maxwell’s equations. This result is an alternative to the well-known Feynman–Dyson derivation of Maxwell’s equations from non-relativistic quantum physics.