Last update: 30 July 2013
Let be a Lie algebra over a field and an associative algebra over We say that is a homomorphism if:
(1) | is linear. |
(2) | for all |
A universal enveloping algebra of a Lie algebra is a couple such that:
(1) | is an associative algebra with 1. |
(2) | is a homomorphism of into |
(3) | If is any other such couple then there exists a unique homomorphism such that and |
For the existence and uniqueness of see, e.g., Jacobson, Lie Algebras.
Birkhoff-Witt Theorem: Let be a Lie algebra over a field and its universal enveloping algebra. Then:
(a) | is injective. |
(b) | If is identified with its image in and if is a linear basis for the monomials form a basis for (where the are nonnegative integers). |
The proof here too can be found in Jacobson.
Theorem 2: Assume the basis elements of are as in Theorem 1 and are arranged in some order. For each choice of numbers form the product, in of all and according to the given order. The resulting collection is a basis for the generated by all
Remark: The collection is a for by the Birkhoff-Witt Theorem.
The proof of Theorem 2 will depend on a sequence of lemmas.
Lemma 4: Every polynomial over in variables which takes on integral values at all integral values of the variables is an integral combination of the polynomials where and degree of the polynomial in (and conversely, of course).
Proof. | |
Let be such a polynomial. We may write each being a polynomial in We replace by and take the difference. If we do this times we get Assuming the lemma true for polynomials in variables (it clearly holds for polynomials in no variables), hence for we may subtract the term from and complete the proof by induction on |
Lemma 5: If is a root and we write for then
Proof. | |
The case together with induction on yield This equation and induction on yield the lemma, |
Corollary: Each is in
Proof. | |
Set in Lemma 5, write the right side as then use induction on and Lemma 4. |
Lemma 6: Let be the of the basis of Then under the adjoint representation, extended to every preserves and the same holds for any number of factors.
Proof. | |
Making act on the basis of we get if (see the definition of in Theorem 1), and 0 in all other cases, which proves is preserved. The second part follows by induction on the number of factors and: |
Lemma 7: Let and be and and additive subgroups thereof. If and are preserved by every then so is (in
Proof. | |
Since acts on as it follows from the binomial expansion that acts as whence the lemma. |
Lemma 8: Let be a set of roots such that (a) and (b) (e.g. the set of positive roots), arranged in some order. Then is a basis for the generated by all
Proof. | |
By the Birkhoff-Witt Theorem applied to the Lie algebra for which is a basis we see that every is a complex combination of the given elements. We must show all corn efficients are integers. Write terms of at most the same total degree. We make act on copies) and look for the component of in Any term of other than the first leads to a zero component since there are either not enough factors (at least one is needed for each or barely enough but with the wrong distribution (since is a nonzero element of only if while the first leads to a non-zero component only if the and the are matched up, in all possible permutations. It follows that the component sought is Now each is a primitive element of (to see this imbed in a simple system of roots and then use Lemma 1). Since preserves by Lemma 6 it follows that whence Lemma 8. |
Any formal product of elements of of the form or will be called a monomial and the total degree in the its degree.
Lemma 9: If and then is an integral combination of and monomials of lower degree.
Proof. | |
This holds if obviously and if by Lemma 5. Assume By Lemma 8 applied to the set of roots of the form arranged in the order we see that is an integral combination of terms of the form The map leads to a grading of the algebra with values in the additive group generated by The left side of the preceding equation has degree Hence so does each term on the right, whence are restricted by the condition hence also by Clearly the ordinary degree of the above term, can be as large as only if and by the last condition, and then and by the first, which proves Lemma 9. |
Lemma 10: If and are roots and is any polynomial, then
Proof. | |
By linearity this need only be proved when is a power of and then it easily follows by induction on the two exponents starting with the equation |
Observe that each is an integer.
Now we can prove Theorem 2. By the corollary to Lemma 5 each is in hence so is each of the proposed basis elements. We must show that each element of is an integral combination of the latter elements, and for this it suffices to show that each monomial is. Any monomial may, by induction on the degree, Lemma 9, and Lemma 10, be expressed as an integral combination of monomials such that for each the terms all come together and in the order of the roots prescribed by Theorem 2, then also such that each is represented at most once, because The terms may now be brought to the front (see Lemma 10), the resulting polynomial expressed as an integral combination of by Lemma 4, each term shifted to the position prescribed by Theorem 2, and Lemma 4 used for each separately, to yield finally an integral combination of basis elements, as required.
Let be a semisimple Lie algebra having Cartan subalgebra Let be a representation space for We call a vector a weight vector if there is a linear function on such that for all If such a exists, we call the corresponding a weight of the representation.
Lemma 11: If is a weight vector belonging to the weight then for a root we have is a weight vector belonging to the weight if
Proof. | |
If then |
Theorem 3: If is a semisimple Lie algebra having Cartan subalgebra then
(a) | Every finite dimensional irreducible contains a nonzero vector such that is a weight vector belonging to some weight and |
(b) | It then follows that if is the subspace of consisting of weight vectors belonging to then Moreover, every weight has the form where the are positive roots. Also, a weight). |
(c) | The weight and the line containing are uniquely determined. |
(d) | for |
(e) | Given any linear function satisfying (d), then there is a unique finite dimensional in which is realized as in (a). |
Proof. | |
(a) There exists at least one weight on since acts as an Abelian set of endomorphisms. We introduce a partial order on the weights by if a positive root). Since the weights are finite in number, we have a maximal weight Let be a nonzero weight vector belonging to Since is not a weight for we have by Lemma 11 that (b) and (c) Now let Let be the Lie subalgebra of generated by with Let and be the universal enveloping algebras of and respectively. By the Birkhoff-Witt theorem, has a basis has a basis has a basis and the universal enveloping algebra of has a basis where Hence, Now is invariant under Also, since is irreducible, and Hence and (b) and (c) follow. (d) is in the 3-dimensional subalgebra generated by Hence, by the theory of representations of this subalgebra, (See Jacobson, Lie Algebras, pp. 83-85.) (e) See Séminaire "Sophus LIE," Exposé 17. |
Corollary: If is a weight and a root, then
Proof. | |
This follows from (b) and (d) of Theorem 3 and for |
Remark: are called the highest weight, a highest weight vector, respectively.
By Theorem 2, we know that the generated by has a
Now if and denote the generated by and respectively, then
Lemma 12: If and is a highest weight vector, then the component of in is for some
Proof. | |
We know that and Hence the component is nonzero only if Now acts as an integer on by Theorem 3 (d), so |
Lemma 13: Let be a point of and a finite subset of not containing Then there is a polynomial in variables such that:
(a) | |
(b) | |
(c) |
Proof. | |
Let with Set We see that and takes the value zero at all other points of within a box with edges and center For sufficiently large, this box contains |
If is a vector space over and is a finitely generated (free Abelian) subgroup of which has a which is a for we say is a lattice in
We can now state the following corollaries to Theorem 2.
Corollary 1:
(a) | Every finite dimensional contains a lattice invariant under all i.e., is invariant under |
(b) | Every such lattice is the direct sum of its weight components; in fact, every such additive group is. |
Proof. | |
(a) By the theorem of complete reducibility of representations of semisimple Lie algebras over a field of characteristic 0 (See Jacobson, Lie Algebras, p. 79), we may assume that is irreducible. Using Theorem 3, we find and set is finitely generated over since only finitely many monomials in fail to annihilate Since and since spans over we see that spans over Before completing the proof of (a), we will first show that if with and then there exist such that To see this, let be such that the component of in is nonzero. Then implies where is the component of in We have by Lemma 12 and by choice of Finally, suppose a basis for is not a basis for Let be minimal such that there exist linearly independent over but linearly dependent over Suppose Then there exist such that We see that Since are linearly independent over we have a contradiction to the choice of Hence, is a lattice in (b) Let be any subgroup of the additive group of invariant under If is a weight, set For a fixed let Let be as in Lemma 13 with If then and acts on like the projection of onto Thus, if the projection of to is in and is the direct sum of its weight components. |
Corollary 2: Let be faithfully represented on a finite dimensional vector space Let be a lattice in invariant under Let be the part of which preserves Then is a lattice, and where for all weights of the given In particular, independent of (But, of course, is not independent of the representation.)
Proof. | |
We recall that associated with the representation on there is a representation on the dual space of called the contragredient representation given by where and where denotes the value of the linear function at If is the dual lattice in of i.e., then clearly preserves if and only if preserves We know that is isomorphic with and that the tensor product of the two representations corresponds to the representation of in (See Jacobson, Lie Algebras, p. 22). Now is a lattice in since the tensor product of two lattices is a lattice. Also, is a lattice in since and because all and are in Since preserves and preserves by Lemma 7, and hence preserves the lattice in under the adjoint representation. By Corollary 1 (b), |
Now implies If spans over for then Hence Thus, which implies and Hence,
Example: Let be the 3 dimensional Lie algebra generated by and with and Let and let be the lattice in spanned by and Then since the only weights of the adjoint representation are 0 with Now is isomorphic with on a 2 dimensional vector space Here corresponds to and the weights are with Hence and
We are now in a position to transfer our attention to an arbitrary field We have already defined the lattices and Considering these lattices as and considering as a we can form the tensor products, and We then have:
Corollary 3:
(a) | (direct sum) and |
(b) | (direct sum), each and |
Proof. | |
This follows from Corollaries 1 and 2. |
This is a typed excerpt of Lectures on Chevalley groups by Robert Steinberg, Yale University, 1967. Notes prepared by John Faulkner and Robert Wilson. This work was partially supported by Contract ARO-D-336-8230-31-43033.