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Geometric Algebra Notation Guide

This document provides definitions and notation for various symbols and concepts used in geometric algebra, including: - Notation for geometric products, contractions, joins, meets, and other operations between multivectors. - Notation for vectors, bivectors, trivectors, and other geometric objects. - Notation for common geometric concepts like projections, reflections, rotations, and derivatives. - Notation for manifolds, boundaries, geometric algebras of various dimensional spaces, and other mathematical structures. - A precedence convention for interpreting expressions involving multiple geometric algebra operations.

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John Starrett
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128 views3 pages

Geometric Algebra Notation Guide

This document provides definitions and notation for various symbols and concepts used in geometric algebra, including: - Notation for geometric products, contractions, joins, meets, and other operations between multivectors. - Notation for vectors, bivectors, trivectors, and other geometric objects. - Notation for common geometric concepts like projections, reflections, rotations, and derivatives. - Notation for manifolds, boundaries, geometric algebras of various dimensional spaces, and other mathematical structures. - A precedence convention for interpreting expressions involving multiple geometric algebra operations.

Uploaded by

John Starrett
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd

8 CONTENTS

Symbols and notation


.
= Equality up to a scalar factor.

∪ Join.

∩ Meet.

AB Geometric product of A and B.

A ∧ B Outer product of A and B.

AcB Left contraction of B by A.

AbB Right contraction of A by B.

a · b Scalar valued dot product between vectors a and b.

a × b Vector valued cross product between vectors a and b.

i Unit trivector.

i Unit bivector.

ua Unit vector in the direction of vector a.

Γp (a) Vector a is transported along the line passing through the point p and
containing the tail of the vector a, until the tail of the vector a coincides
with the point p.

{u1 , u2 , u3 } Orthonormal vector triplet (in physical space).

0 Null vector, which is orthogonal to any vector in physical space.

0̄ Another null vector, which is orthogonal to any vector in physical space.


k
P̂A (X) Projection of X to A.

P̂A⊥ (X) Rejection of X from A.


←
pi→
pj Line segment with the end points pi and pj .

pi pj Line through the points pi and pj .


CONTENTS 9

−
p−→
i pj Point bound vector, whose tail is at pi and tip at pj .

p Representation of the point p in conformal model.

σ(u) Reflection along the vector u.

R(B) Rotor exp(B)/2.

Tc Spinor, which adds c to any vector under two-sided transformation (i.e. per-
forms translation in affine and conformal models)

Dc Spinor for rigid (or screw) displacement. In affine and conformal model.

Dq;α Spinor for dilation by α about an arbitrary point q. In conformal model


only.

da F Directional derivative of F to the direction of a.

∇x Vector derivative operator, which operates on the vector x.

∇kx Tangential part of the vector derivative operator.

∇⊥
x Normal part of the vector derivative operator.

∇X Multivector derivative operator, which operates on the multivector X.

L Angular momentum operator (a bivector).

M Manifold.

∂M Boundary of the manifold M.

G(p, q) Geometric algebra of a p + q-dimensional space spanned with p basis


vectors with positive square and q basis vectors with negative square.

G+ (p, q) The even subalgebra of G(p, q).

H The algebra of quaternions, i.e., the even subalgebra algebra G+ (3, 0).

Gk̄ (p, q) The subspace of the geometric algebra G(p, q) spanned by the k-blades.

E(N ) N -dimensional Euclidean space G(N, 0,).


10 CONTENTS

M(N ) N -dimensional Minkowski space G(N − 2, 2).

SO(N ) Special orthogonal group parameterized by N parameters.

SU(N ) Special unitary group parameterized by N parameters.

Precedence convention
We follow the precedence convention, where in the case of ambiguity outer prod-
ucts are performed first, then contractions and inner products, and geometric
products are performed last. As an example,

ABcCbD ∧ E ≡ A {Bc [Cb(D ∧ E)]}

Note, that the left and right contraction (and the dot product) have the same
preference.

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