(1) Departamento de Fisica Teorica, Facultad de Ciencias, Universidad de Zaragoza, E-50 009 Zaragoza, Spain;(2) Center for Particle Physics, Department of Physics, The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, Texas, 78712
Abstract:
No Heading Spinors play a role in classical physics, since the fact that the rotation group is not simply connected has consequences for macroscopic bodies. Here we relate the orientations of a rigid body to two-dimensional complex spinors by combining O. Rodrigues parameterization of rotations with Cartans 2:1 identification of spinors with complex isotropic 3-vectors.