Translation Functors and the Shapovalov Determinant
Arun Ram
Department of Mathematics and Statistics
University of Melbourne
Parkville, VIC 3010 Australia
aram@unimelb.edu.au
Last updated: 10 February 2015
This is an excerpt from the PhD thesis Translation Functors and the Shapovalov Determinant by Emilie Wiesner, University of Wisconsin-Madison, 2005.
Quantum Groups
We now consider quantum groups associated to semisimple Lie algebras The quantum group
is a deformation of the universal enveloping algebra
of and it possesses many
properties that does. In particular, we can use the Shapovalov determinant to study translation functors for
The background information on quantum
groups presented in this chapter can be found in [CPr1994].
Let be an indeterminate. For integers
we define the following elements of
•
•
for
•
for
Let be a finite-dimensional complex semisimple Lie algebra, and let
be the associated Cartan matrix. Choose
minimal so that the matrix
is symmetric. To simplify notation, we will write and
There is some so that
For define
Suppose for
and a simple root. Equation 1.2 implies
The quantum group associated to
is the generated by the elements
and
with relations
The quantum group is a Hopf algebra with the following maps:
•
coproduct:
•
counit:
•
antipode:
(See ([CPr1994] 9.1.1) for a proof that these maps give a Hopf algebra structure.) We define the following
of
•
is the subalgebra generated by
•
is the subalgebra generated by
•
is the subalgebra generated by
([CPr1994] 9.1.3).
There is a natural pairing between and
The following maps make
use of this pairing. Define a
by
Define a
by
Observe that commutes with the coproduct map:
This property will be useful later when we consider tensor products of modules.
The Restricted Integral Form
Let
The restricted integral form
of is the
of generated by
The algebra inherits many
properties from including the Hopf algebra
structure and the triangular decomposition. The restricted integral form
is a Hopf algebra with the following maps
•
coproduct:
•
counit:
•
antipode:
([Lus1990-4] 6.6). The algebra
decomposes as
where
•
is generated by
•
is generated by
with
•
is generated by
A PBW Basis for
In the following construction (due to [Lus1990-4]), a braid-group action on
is used to define the element of
corresponding to each positive root. These elements are then assembled into a PBW basis for
([Lus1990-4] 3.1). For each
there is a unique
defined by
Fix a reduced expression for the longest element of the Weyl group,
This gives an ordering of the positive roots:
Define
to be
We similarly define Finally, define
where
([Lus1990-4], 6.7). The sets
are bases for
and
respectively.
These sets are also bases for and
respectively. Note that
commutes with the
and so we have
The Category
We begin by defining weights and weight spaces. A weight of
is an element
Since the set
generates and
is determined by its action on each of the
Define
and identify with the
We view as sitting inside
for
We will also be interested in certain "twistings" of the weights of Let
and Define
by
The dominance ordering on induces a partial ordering on the weights of
For
In this case we write
For this is the standard dominance ordering.
For a module the
space of is given by
The Category consists of
such that
•
is
•
there are
such that only if
for some
•
for all
A highest weight
of highest weight is a
with a vector such that
•
•
•
for all
The vector is a highest weight vector. For such a module the defining relations of
imply
Note that all highest weight modules are in Category
The Verma module of highest weight is the
where is the left ideal generated by and
We can also define
as the induced module
where is
as a vector space; and, as a
acts by
and acts by
Using the same arguments as in Lemma 2.1.3, we can show that
has a maximal proper submodule,
This implies that has a unique simple quotient
All of these objects can be similarly defined for
The set of weights for is
We denote the
module of weight
by
In other words,
where is the ideal generated by
From Theorem 4.2.2, we get the following.
Let
so that Suppose
Define
Then, the set
is a basis for
and
Embeddings of Verma Modules
Recall that for a weight of and
we can define a
by
Let
and If
then
The proof of this proposition follows the proof of the same result for the classical case given in [Dix1996].
Let and
If
Moreover, if generates
then is a highest weight vector of weight
where
Proof.
Note that
We must also check that
for all If
If we can use Equation 4.3 to show
Let
and with reduced expression
Set
Then,
Proof.
By definition,
Therefore, using the previous lemma, we need only check that
to show that
Note that
where
Then
(See [Dix1996] 11.1.8.) Because
Let and
Suppose is a simple root such that
Then,
This gives the following picture, where arrows indicate inclusion:
The picture indicates nothing about the relationship between
and
The proof will consider both possibilities:
and
Proof.
Let
and
If then we have
i.e. we have the following picture of embeddings.
Then the lemma follows.
Suppose Then
Let
be generators for and
respectively. Then,
generates
and generates
Therefore,
if
We first show that there is some such that
In other words, we want to show that
for some We have
for some
Since
is a combination of elements of the form
where
From the generating relations for we have
for Thus,
for some
Given the form of this implies
for some
We claim that this implies that
•
If then
•
If then
Since
In this case, we have the following picture:
We now proceed with the proof of Proposition 4.4.1.
Proof of Proposition 4.4.1.
Let and
If Therefore, assume
Let
and choose so that
Write
Fix a reduced expression
and set
Note that
Therefore
Since sends to
and permutes the other positive roots,
or
Therefore,
for some
Since and
we must have
On the other hand,
Let be minimal such that
and
Now,
and
This implies that
and so
We now have
with
Lemma 4.4.2 implies
From Lemma 4.4.3, we have
Since
we can use the last lemma to conclude
Repeating this process, we get
The picture below describes the various embeddings used in the proof:
Central characters
We now construct the central characters of
following ([CPr1994] 9.2.B). Denote the center of by
For we can write
where
and
with
Define
by
The map
is an algebra homomorphism.
Proof.
Let with
and let be a generator for the Verma module
Then,
For
Therefore,
for all with implies
The map is the quantum analogue of the Harish-Chandra homomorphism for semisimple Lie algebras (see [Dix1996], Section 7.4).
For
we define the central character
by
Let be a highest weight
of highest weight and let be a generator of
Then,
Since any is of the form
for some
Recall that the dot action of the Weyl group on is
([CPr1994], 9.1.8). Let
integral weights of Then
if and only if for some
The Shapovalov Determinant
Recall
is the given by
Using this map, we can define a Hermitian bilinear form
by
•
where is the generator of
•
for and
Let
with Suppose
We define
and
If
we define
Example. Suppose
Let and
with
Now consider
Equation 4.3 implies
Therefore,
Theorem 4.5.2 gives a formula for
for all
Recall that a weight is equivalent to a
We can view the determinant of
as living inside the Laurent polynomial ring
To prove Theorem 4.5.2, we will bound the degree of the polynomial and then find its irreducible factors. The degree
is given by
Also, define the following partial ordering on
Let with
The term with maximum degree in
is
Similarly, the term with minimal degree is
Proof.
Consider an entry entry in
where
Then, both
and
can be written as linear combinations of
where
for some choice of (not necessarily distinct) simple roots. Therefore, Equation 4.3 implies that the maximum possible degree term in (4.6) is
This means the term with maximum degree in is
The power of in (4.8) is
We rewrite this as
To understand the first equality, note that each partition in the second sum gets counted times. To understand the
second equality, note that each partition of maps uniquely to a
partition with
We determine the minimum degree with an analogous argument.
([DKa1992]). Let
with
Then,
If we restrict the choice of weights to
this formula becomes
A Partial Proof.
Note that
can be written as
We now show that
Suppose that is such that
and let
Then,
and so from Proposition 4.4.1,
Therefore,
This implies that
i.e.
where
has a zero at
As in the proof of Theorem 3.4.3, this means there is
such that
•
for some
with for at least one
•
for all
Now, the set
is linearly independent in and can be extended
to a linearly independent set which spans
Let be the matrix taking
to
Define
We have
•
•
divides
Therefore,
divides
Finally,
which implies that
divides
It only remains to check the coefficient of the highest degree term in
We omit this part of the proof, but the original argument can be found in [DKa1992], 1.9.
An Alternative Determinant Formula
Recall that DeConcini and Kac [DKa1992] use the
defined by
Instead, we will use the
given by
This defines a new contravariant form. In this section, we will write
for the contravariant form induced by and
for the contravariant form induced by Define
Let with
Then,
where
and is given as follows. Write
Then
Proof.
Let be the matrix which takes
to
Then,
Therefore, we need only find To do this, note that since the
set
spans there is a
subset which is a basis for the space. Therefore, we can write a standard basis element
as a linear combination of elements of
where
Then,
where the sum is over
such that
and
and where
(Since
is independent of the order of the simple roots
On the other hand,
where
is the taking to
Therefore,
where is the matrix taking the basis to the standard basis
of Then,
Since is a matrix taking one basis to another,
Therefore,
where
Translation Functors
For define the block
by
Let Then
where
has composition factors only for
Proof.
Note that the module
decomposes as a direct sum according to central characters. Theorem 4.4.6 implies that this decomposition corresponds to the decomposition by blocks stated in the
proposition.
We again consider the translation
When possible, we will state our results in the more general setting of the restricted integral form.
For define
and let
be a basis for
For the sets
and
are bases for
Moreover, the transition matrix between the two bases has determinant one.
Proof.
The set is clearly a basis for
Since
there is a matrix taking to
Let
Since
is a Hopf algebra,
where
and the sum is over
such that
and
Therefore,
for some
Therefore, we can order vectors in such a way that the matrix taking
to
is upper-triangular with ones on the diagonal. Then, is invertible with determinant one.
By possibly reordering the bases, we may assume Therefore,
has entries in Since
is upper-triangular with ones on the diagonal,
will also have entries in This proves that is an
for
Let and
Define
and
where
and
are such that
and
Let For
is given by
Proof.
Note that
is orthogonal (with respect to the contravariant form) to
for As in the proof of Lemma 2.6.3,
Using the basis for
we see that
has a filtration by Verma modules
where the Verma modules
is generated by the image of
The following form of the determinant formula better reflects the filtration of
by Verma modules.
Let and
Then,
where
and is defined inductively by
for
Proof.
Note that is always an integer and
From Lemma 4.6.3,
is given by
for
Proof.
The arguments from the proof of Proposition 2.6.4 can be applied here.
Let and let
Suppose is such that there is no with
and
Then for each block we can define projection maps
given by
where
and
are dual bases for
Proof.
Since there is no with
and
Lemma 4.6.3 then implies the contravariant form is nondegenerate on
We know from Lemma 4.6.5 that distinct blocks are orthogonal. This means that the contravariant form is nondegenerate on
Let
be a basis for
Since the contravariant form is nondegenerate on this space, there is a basis
of
such that
We define a map
by
Note that
whenever Therefore,
Also, for
Note: We can inductively construct a basis for each block of
using a basis for
Elements of this basis will be combinations of the basis for
Therefore, we have a basis for each block of
such that a nonzero multiple of this basis is contained in
Fix and
Suppose is such that there
is no with
or
Then the submodule of
generated by
is isomorphic to
For a suitable choice of generating highest weight vectors
this sum is orthogonal with respect to the contravariant form on and
Proof.
Since there is no with
the projection maps from the previous lemma are well-defined.
We have assumed there is no such that
Therefore, there is only one weight in
between and
namely This implies
is a highest weight vector. Choose vectors
such that
•
the transition matrix from
to has determinant 1;
•
if
Therefore, we only need to determine
We do this inductively. Assume
for with
Note that
is given by
Since distinct blocks are orthogonal, we have
is
This implies
Notes and References
This is an excerpt from the PhD thesis Translation Functors and the Shapovalov Determinant by Emilie Wiesner, University of Wisconsin-Madison, 2005.