Given an isolated system of either free or interacting particles and the associated realization of the ten conserved Poincaré generators its total conserved time-like 4-momentum defines its inertial rest-frame as the 3+1 splitting whose space-like 3-spaces (named Wigner 3-spaces) are orthogonal to it and whose inertial observer is the Fokker–Pryce 4-center of inertia. There is a discussion of the problem of the relativistic center of mass based on the fact that the 4-center functions “only” of the Poincaré generators of the isolated system are the following three non-local quantities: the non-canonical covariant Fokker–Pryce 4-center of inertia, the canonical non-covariant Newton–Wigner 4-center of mass and the non-canonical non-covariant Mőller 4-center of energy. At the Hamiltonian level one is able to express the canonical world-lines of the particles and their momenta in terms of the Jacobi variables of the external Newton–Wigner center of mass (a non-local non-covariant non-measurable quantity) and of Wigner-covariant relative 3-coordinates and 3-momenta inside the Wigner 3-spaces. This solves the problem of the elimination of relative times in relativistic bound states and to formulate a consistent Wigner-covariant relativistic quantum mechanics of point particles. The non-relativistic limit gives the Hamilton–Jacobi description of the system after the separation of Newtonian center of mass. Finally there is the definition of the non-inertial rest-frames whose 3-spaces are orthogonal to the total 4-momentum of the isolated system at spatial infinity.
The author has earlier defined the quantum two-time localization problem as the minimizing of a particle's position spread about specified points at two distinct times. In the present article optimum localization is found for relativistic massive free particles. For short time intervals, spreading necessarily occurs at the speed of light while for long times the previously found diffusion-like behaviour is recovered. In defining relativistic localization, use is made of the work of Newton and Wigner (1949); in particular, their restriction to the positive energy hyperboloid is found to be necessary to recover the nonrelativistic limit of wavepacket spreading.