On the impact of Poincar??e??s concept of spacetime symmetries for the formulation of electrodynamics, relativity, and beyond

摘要

Jules Henri Poincar??e, being a mathematician, physicist, and philosopher, fundamentally contributed to an understanding of the symmetries of space and time that eventually led from the completion of electrodynamics to the formulation of special relativity. In this paper, some of Henri Poincar??e??s main contributions to this subject are collected and reviewed. It is also pointed out that Poincar??e??s concept of spacetime symmetries still plays a fundamental role in modern developments of elementary particle physics and gravity theories.