It is noted that the Poincare sphere for polarization optics contains the symmetries of the Lorentz group. The sphere is thus capable of describing the internal space-time symmetries dictated by Wigners little groups. For massive particles, the littl
e group is like the three-dimensional rotation group, while it is like the two-dimensional Euclidean group for massless particles. It is shown that the Poincare sphere, in addition, has a symmetry parameter corresponding to reducing the particle mass from a positive value to zero. The Poincare sphere thus the gives one unified picture of Wigners little groups for massive and massless particles.
One hundred years ago, in 1908, Hermann Minkowski completed his proof that Maxwells equations are covariant under Lorentz transformations. During this process, he introduced a four-dimensional space called the Minkowskian space. In 1949, P. A. M. Dir
ac showed the Minkowskian space can be handled with the light-cone coordinate system with squeeze transformations. While the squeeze is one of the fundamental mathematical operations in optical sciences, it could serve useful purposes in two-level systems. Some possibilities are considered in this report. It is shown possible to cross the light-cone boundary in optical and two-level systems while it is not possible in Einsteins theory of relativity.
The beam transfer matrix, often called the $ABCD$ matrix, is a two-by-two matrix with unit determinant, and with three independent parameters. It is noted that this matrix cannot always be diagonalized. It can however be brought by rotation to a matr
ix with equal diagonal elements. This equi-diagonal matrix can then be squeeze-transformed to a rotation, to a squeeze, or to one of the two shear matrices. It is noted that these one-parameter matrices constitute the basic elements of the Wigners little group for space-time symmetries of elementary particles. Thus every $ABCD$ matrix can be written as a similarity transformation of one of the Wigner matrices, while the transformation matrix is a rotation preceded by a squeeze. This mathematical property enables us to compute scattering processes in periodic systems. Laser cavities and multilayer optics are discussed in detail. For both cases, it is shown possible to write the one-cycle transfer matrix as a similarity transformation of one of the Wigner matrices. It is thus possible to calculate the $ABCD$ matrix for an arbitrary number of cycles.
