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Mathematical Logic and AlgebraResearchAI-Generated

For which ordered fields does the group of worldview transformations collapse to a unique group, and can a complete algebraic classification be given for all ordered fields?

Related: Borisov's 1978 classification theorem over the reals, Artin-Schreier theory of real closed fields, Witt's theorem on quadratic forms

The paper by Borisov (1978) and its extensions show that over the real numbers, Einstein's special principle of relativity forces the worldview transformation group to be either the Lorentz group or the Galilean group. When one generalizes this setup to arbitrary ordered fields, the algebraic structure of these transformation groups may branch into many more possibilities, depending on subtle arithmetic properties of the underlying field such as whether every positive element is a sum of squares, or whether the field is Euclidean. The open problem is to produce a complete classification: for each ordered field, determine exactly which group or groups of worldview transformations are consistent with the relativistic axioms, and identify the precise algebraic conditions on the field that separate one case from another.

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