Physical colors, i.e. reflected or emitted lights entering the eyes from a visual environment, are converted into perceived colors sensed by humans by neurophysiological mechanisms. These processes involve both three types of photoreceptors, the LMS cones, and spectrally opponent and non-opponent interactions resulting from the activity rates of ganglion and lateral geniculate nucleus cells. Thus, color perception is a phenomenon inherently linked to an experimental environment (the visual scene) and an observing apparatus (the human visual system). This is clearly reminiscent of the conceptual foundation of both relativity and quantum mechanics, where the link is between a physical system and the measuring instruments. The relationship between color perception and relativity was explicitly examined for the first time by the physicist H. Yilmaz in 1962 from an experimental point of view. The main purpose of this contribution is to present a rigorous mathematical model that, by taking into account both trichromacy and color opponency, permits to explain on a purely theoretical basis the relativistic color perception phenomena argued by Yilmaz. Instead of relying directly on relativistic considerations, we base our theory on a quantum interpretation of color perception together with just one assumption, called trichromacy axiom, that summarizes well-established properties of trichromatic color vision within the framework of Jordan algebras. We show how this approach allows us to reconcile trichromacy with Hering’s opponency and also to derive the relativistic properties of perceived colors without any additional mathematical or experimental assumption. In doing so, we also introduce several novel and mathematically rigorous definitions of chromatic attributes and discuss their counterparts in classical colorimetry. Finally, we underline the important role played by the Hilbert metric in our framework and its compatibility with known experimental data.

物理颜色，即从视觉环境进入眼睛的反射或发射光，通过神经生理机制被转换为人类感知的感知颜色。这些过程涉及三种类型的光感受器，LMS 锥体，以及由神经节和外侧膝状体细胞的活动率引起的光谱对手和非对手相互作用。因此，颜色感知是一种与实验环境（视觉场景）和观察设备（人类视觉系统）内在相关的现象。这显然让人想起相对论和量子力学的概念基础，其中物理系统和测量仪器之间的联系。颜色感知和相对论之间的关系首次由物理学家 H. Yilmaz 于 1962 年从实验的角度来看。这一贡献的主要目的是提出一个严格的数学模型，通过考虑三色性和颜色对立性，允许在纯理论基础上解释 Yilmaz 争论的相对论色彩感知现象。我们没有直接依赖相对论的考虑，而是将我们的理论建立在对颜色感知的量子解释的基础上，以及一个称为三色公理的假设，该假设总结了乔丹代数框架内三色色觉的完善属性。我们展示了这种方法如何使我们能够在没有任何额外的数学或实验假设的情况下，将三色性与 Hering 的反对相协调，并推导出感知颜色的相对论特性。在这样做，我们还介绍了几种新颖且数学上严格的色度属性定义，并讨论了它们在经典色度学中的对应物。最后，我们强调了 Hilbert 度量在我们的框架中发挥的重要作用及其与已知实验数据的兼容性。