In 1978, Yu. F. Borisov presented an axiom system using a few basic assumptions and four explicit axioms, the fourth being a formulation of the relativity principle, and he demonstrated that this axiom system had (up to choice of units) only two models: a relativistic one in which worldview transformations are Poincaré transformations and a classical one in which they are Galilean. In this paper, we reformulate Borisov’s original four axioms within an intuitively simple, but strictly formal, first-order logic framework, and convert his basic background assumptions into explicit axioms. Instead of assuming that the structure of physical quantities is the field of real numbers, we assume only that they form an ordered field. This allows us to investigate how Borisov’s theorem depends on the structure of quantities.

We demonstrate (as our main contribution) how to construct Euclidean, Galilean, and Poincaré models of Borisov’s axiom system over every non-Archimedean field. We also demonstrate the existence of an infinite descending chain of models and transformation groups in each of these three cases, something that is not possible over Archimedean fields.

As an application, we note that there is a model of Borisov’s axioms that satisfies the relativity principle, and in which the worldview transformations are Euclidean isometries. Over the field of reals it is easy to eliminate this model using natural axioms concerning time’s arrow and the absence of instantaneous motion. In the case of non-Archimedean fields, however, the Euclidean isometries appear intrinsically as worldview transformations in models of Borisov’s axioms, and neither the assumption of time’s arrow, nor the rejection of instantaneous motion, can eliminate them.

We consider Minkowski spacetime, the set of all point-events of spacetime under the relation of causal accessibility. That is, x can access y if an electromagnetic or (slower than light) mechanical signal could be sent from x to y. We use Prior’s tense language of F and P representing causal accessibility and its converse relation. We consider two versions, one where the accessibility relation is reflexive and one where it is irreflexive. In either case it has been an open problem, for decades, whether the logic is decidable or axiomatisable. We make a small step forward by proving, in each case, that the set of valid formulas over two-dimensional Minkowski spacetime is decidable and that the complexity of each problem is PSPACE-complete.

A consequence is that the temporal logic of intervals with real endpoints under either the containment relation or the strict containment relation is PSPACE-complete, the same is true if the interval accessibility relation is “each endpoint is not earlier”, or its irreflexive restriction.

We provide a temporal formula that distinguishes between three-dimensional and two-dimensional Minkowski spacetime and another temporal formula that distinguishes the two-dimensional case where the underlying field is the real numbers from the case where instead we use the rational numbers.

Alfred Schild has established conditions that Lorentz transformationsmap world-vectors $(ct,x,y,z)$ with integer coordinates onto vectors of the same kind. These transformations are called integral Lorentz transformations.

This paper contains supplements to our earlier work with a new focus on group theory. To relate the results to the familiar matrix group nomenclature, we associate Lorentz transformations with matrices in $\text{SL}(2,\mathbb{C})$. We consider the lattice of subgroups of the group originated in Schild's paper and obtain generating sets for the full group and its subgroups.

We present three natural but distinct formalisations of Einstein’s special principle of relativity, and demonstrate the relationships between them. In particular, we prove that they are logically distinct, but that they can be made equivalent by introducing a small number of additional, intuitively acceptable axioms.

Alfred Schild established conditions where Lorentz transformations map world-vectors $\left( ct,\,x,\,y,\,z \right)$ with integer coordinates onto vectors of the same kind. The problem was dealt with in the context of tensor and spinor calculus. Due to Schild’s number-theoretic arguments, the subject is also interesting when isolated from its physical background.

Schild’s paper is not easy to understand. Therefore, we first present a streamlined version of his proof which is based on the use of null vectors. Then we present a purely algebraic proof that is somewhat shorter. Both proofs rely on the properties of Gaussian integers