The notation refers to the special orthogonal group of matrices that leave invariant a non-degenerate quadratic form of signature on a real vector space. Here's a more detailed breakdown:
Orthogonal Group: The orthogonal group, denoted as , consists of all real matrices such that
where is the transpose of and is a diagonal matrix with entries of +1 and entries of -1. These matrices preserve the quadratic form given by .
Special Orthogonal Group: The special orthogonal group is the subgroup of that consists of matrices with determinant +1. In other words, these are the "volume-preserving" orthogonal transformations.
For (or ), which is a common special case, the quadratic form is the standard dot product in , and the group consists of orthogonal matrixs with determinant +1.
According to Exercise 40 in @baez1994gauge page 188:
Let be a metric of signature on , where . Show that the Lie algebra of consists of all real matrices with for all . Show that the dimension of , and hence that of , is .
Determine an explicit basis of the Lorentz Lie algebra, .