Testing the Alignment Tendency of Some Polarized Radio Sources

Measuring the alignment of polarized radio sources requires comparing vectors at different locations on the sky, i.e. on a sphere. A test of alignment is derived herein. While both large scale and coordinate independent, the test avoids the mathematical subtleties involved when comparing vectors at different locations on a curved surface. Applied to 5442 sources drawn from a published catalog, the analysis finds a level of alignment that would be matched by only 7% to 14% of data sets with the same sources but with random polarization directions. The locations of the sources involved and the directions that the vectors favor and the regions avoided are described as well.Comment: 28 pages, 9 figure

Spacetime is for SU(2)

The generators of rotations, boosts and translations are built up based on the commutation and anticommutation relations of the fundamental two dimensional representation of SU(2). Rotations in spacetime derive from the commutation relations of SU(2). Boosts derive from the anticommutation relations of SU(2).Comment: 12 page