Lorentz spinor double cover ($SL(2,\mathbb{C})⟶S{O}^{+}(1,3)$)

Identify Minkowski vectors with Hermitian matrices $X=x^{0}I+x^a{\sigma }_a$. The action $X\mapsto SX{S}^{†}$ preserves $\det X=(x^0{)}^2-|\mathbf{x}{|}^2$. It gives a surjective homomorphism from $SL(2,\mathbb{C})$ to the Proper orthochronous Lorentz group with kernel $\{I,-I\}$. Polar decomposition retracts the covering group onto SU(2), making it simply connected. This cover permits half-integer spin group representations that do not descend to the Lorentz group itself.

A real four-vector corresponds to a two-by-two Hermitian matrix with determinant equal to its Minkowski squared norm. The action $X\mapsto NX{N}^{†}$ for $N\in SL(2,\mathbb{C})$ preserves that determinant and the future cone. Expanding with $\frac{1}{2}\mathrm{Tr}({\bar{\sigma }}^{\mu }{\sigma }_{\nu })={\delta }^{\mu }{}_{\nu }$ yields ${\Lambda }^{\mu }{}_{\nu }(N)=\frac{1}{2}\mathrm{Tr}({\bar{\sigma }}^{\mu }N{\sigma }_{\nu }{N}^{†})$. The map has kernel $\{\pm I\}$ and image $S{O}^{+}(1,3)$.