Lorentz boost ($t^{\prime }=\gamma (t-vx),x^{\prime }=\gamma (x-vt)$)

A Lorentz boost relates inertial frames moving at a constant relative velocity without an additional spatial rotation. In units with light speed one, the displayed transformation preserves $t^2-x^2$, with Lorentz factor $\gamma =(1-v^2{)}^{-1/2}$. Applying it to a static classical field-theory soliton produces a uniformly moving solution in a Lorentz-invariant theory.

Two noncollinear Lorentz boosts produce a Lorentz transformation with both a boost and a rotation. In the SL(2,C) lift, the product of two positive Hermitian boost matrices generally ceases to be Hermitian. Its polar decomposition of an invertible complex matrix separates a positive Hermitian boost factor and a unitary rotation factor. The rotation depends on both boosts and their order, and is called the Wigner rotation.

For boost matrices $A=cI+s\mathbf{n}\cdot \mathbf{\sigma }$ and $A^{\prime }=c^{\prime }I+s^{\prime }{\mathbf{n}}^{\prime }\cdot \mathbf{\sigma }$, the Pauli matrix multiplication law gives the displayed anti-Hermitian part. If both rapidities are nonzero and the axes are noncollinear, it cannot vanish, while either lift of a pure boost is Hermitian. Thus an additional Wigner rotation is necessary. A zero boost is a degenerate exception.

Rapidity is a dimensionless parameter for a signed collinear velocity $u$ with $|u|<c$, defined using the inverse hyperbolic functions byHere $c$ is the speed of light, and $\tanh$ is the hyperbolic tangent. Zero velocity has zero rapidity; negative velocity has negative rapidity. Every finite real rapidity gives $|u|<c$, while $u\to \pm c$ requires $\theta \to \pm \infty$. Thus a light ray has no finite rapidity in this parametrization. The header's formula uses natural units $c=1$: its $v$ is the numerical velocity $u/c$.

For the inertial frames in the velocity-addition formula, $S^{\prime }$ moves at signed velocity $V$ along the $x$-axis of $S$. Set $\varphi =\mathrm{artanh}(V/c)$. Re-expressing the same particle in the moving inertial frame givesThe subtraction is a passive change of reference frame; the inverse adds the particle's rapidity in $S^{\prime }$ to the frame's rapidity relative to $S$. For example, $V=0.6c$ and $u^{\prime }=0.6c$ give $\varphi ={\theta }^{\prime }=\ln 2$, so $\theta =\ln 4$ and $u=c\tanh (\ln 4)=15c/17$, exactly as in the velocity-addition formula.

For a massive particle of rest mass $m>0$ moving in one spatial dimension, its energy and signed momentum areThe hyperbolic cosine is the particle's Lorentz factor, and the hyperbolic sine is $\gamma u/c$. The hyperbolic Pythagorean identity immediately gives the relativistic energy-momentum relation $E^2-c^2{p}^2=m^2{c}^4$. In the older $c=1$ notation, writing the rest mass as $M$ recovers $v=\tanh \theta$, $E=M\cosh \theta$, and $p=M\sinh \theta$. These expressions use natural units in which the factors of $c$ are numerically one; the preceding formulas restore those factors explicitly. ^[ref].

The useful simplification follows from the hyperbolic-function identity $\tanh (a+b)=(\tanh a+\tanh b)/(1+\tanh a\tanh b)$: the nonlinear velocity-addition formula becomes ordinary addition of rapidities. See iterated collinear boosts with equal rapidity for a plotted example. A common collinear Lorentz boost shifts every rapidity by the same constant, so a rapidity difference is invariant. This makes rapidity useful for relativistic factorized scattering in one spatial dimension, where two-body S-matrices depend on the difference of the incoming rapidities, with particle species fixed.

Starting from rest, compose $n$ positive collinear Lorentz boosts, each with the same finite rapidity $\alpha >0$. Each step has relative velocity $w=c\tanh \alpha$, measured in the preceding rest inertial frame. The relativistic velocity-addition formula givesThese are equal increments of rapidity, not equal increments of velocity measured in the original inertial frame. They can describe a chain of relatively moving inertial frames or successive idealized changes of a massive particle's motion; no particular acceleration schedule is assumed. ^[ref].

For a relative velocity $w=c/2$ at each step,The first four velocities are $u_0=0$, $u_1=c/2$, $u_2=4c/5$, and $u_3=13c/14$. At step eight, $u_8/c=3280/3281\approx 0.99969521$. The rapidities grow by the same amount at each step, while the successive velocity increments become smaller.

A short derivation applies the hyperbolic-function identity for $\tanh (a+b)$ to the recurrence, giving ${\theta }_{n+1}={\theta }_n+\alpha$. Substituting $\tanh x=(e^{2x}-1)/(e^{2x}+1)$ and $e^{2\alpha }=3$ gives the displayed closed expression. In particular,for every finite nonnegative integer $n$. The limit is $u_n\to c$ as $n\to \infty$, but no finite sequence reaches the speed of light. This illustrates the beauty of rapidity: unbounded additive parameters coexist with bounded physical velocities. Replacing every step by a negative rapidity gives the corresponding approach to $-c$.