Lorentz boost class with the (4D) transformation represented internally by a 4x4 orthosymplectic matrix.
A variable names bgamma appears in several places in this file.
See also BoostX, BoostY and BoostZ for classes representing specialized Lorentz boosts. Also, the 3-D rotation classes can be considered to be special Lorentz transformations which do not mix space and time components.
A few words of elaboration are needed to make its meaning clear. On page 69 of Misner, Thorne and Wheeler, (Exercise 2.7) the elements of the matrix for a general Lorentz boost are given as
\Lambda^{j'}_k = \Lambda^{k'}_j = (\gamma - 1) n^j n^k + \delta^{jk}
where the n^i are unit vectors in the direction of the three spatial axes. Using the definitions, n^i = \beta_i/\beta , then, for example,
\Lambda_{xy} = (\gamma - 1) n_x n_y = (\gamma - 1) \beta_x \beta_y/\beta^2
By definition,
\gamma^2 = 1/(1 - \beta^2)
so that
\gamma^2 \beta^2 = \gamma^2 - 1
or
\beta^2 = (\gamma^2 - 1)/\gamma^2
If we insert this into the expression for \Lambda_{xy} , we get
\Lambda_{xy} = (\gamma - 1) \gamma^2/(\gamma^2 - 1) \beta_x \beta_y
or, finally
\Lambda_{xy} = \gamma^2/(\gamma+1) \beta_x \beta_y
The expression \gamma^2/(\gamma+1) is what we call bgamma in the code below.
Definition at line 46 of file Boost.h.