The Four Aspects of Matter and Radiation

The idea is advocated here that there are four possible ‘aspects’ for matter to manifest in whatever reference frame because Special Relativity admits four variations to standard Lorentz transformations: two basic variations, bradyonic and pseudotachyonic transformations, applying to respectively subluminal and superluminal reference frames; and two others, derived from these ones by simply reversing time. Pseudotachyonic Relativity (PtR), proposed eight years ago, show that even though one cannot directly detect particles moving faster-than-light, one can detect their co-particles, their ‘images’ moving slower-than-light but with opposite energy, mass and charge; in the process, negative energies naturally arise in Special Relativity, which is quite relevant in field theory. One also concludes that time flows in two opposite senses in the Universe and this is why classic theories are essentially time-reversible. The news here come from the discussion of Dirac equation for the electron and how negative energy turns into positive; one discovers that this equation applies as well to negative mass and finally that its positive and negative solutions are related by ‘antibradyonic’ Lorentz transformation. Generally, in terms of Relativity, this explains why each particle has its own antiparticle. And not just that. In fact, Dirac equation agrees with the proposed Quadrivalent Special Relativity in the conclusion that each particle, in a wide sense, may appear (or manifest itself) in one of four aspects, four versions of a single root – its ‘archeparticle’ –, depending on its mass-energy signature: ‘straight’ particle; antiparticle (with negative-energy): PtR co-particle (also with negative-energy); and co-antiparticle. This conclusion also applies to massless particles, such as photons, with an equivalent alignment-energy signature.