Specific PDEs for Preserved Quantities in Geometry. II. Affine Transformations and Subgroups (1809.02087v2)

Abstract: We extend finding geometrically-significant preserved quantities by solving specific PDEs to the affine transformations and subgroups. This can be viewed not only as a purely geometrical problem but also as a subcase of finding physical observables, and furthermore as part of the comparative study of Background Independence level-by-level in mathematical structure. While cross and scalar-triple products (combined with differences and ratios) suffice to formulate these preserved quantities in 2- and 3-$d$ respectively, the arbitrary-dimensional generalization evokes the theory of forms. The affine preserved quantities are ratios of $d$-volume forms of differences, $d$-volume forms being the `top forms' supported by dimension $d$, and referring moreover to $d$-volumes of relationally-defined subsystems.