Kings College London

University Of London
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MSci Examination CMMS01/CM424Z Lie groups and Lie algebras Summer 2006 Time Allowed: Two Hours
This paper consists of two sections, Section A and Section B. Section A contributes about half the total marks for the paper. Answer all questions in Section A. All questions in Section B carry equal marks, but if more than two are attempted, then only the best two will count.

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2006 c Kings College London

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Section A CMMS01/CM424Z

SECTION A

A 1.

(14 points) (i) State the denition of the Killing form of a nite-dimensional Lie algebra. (ii) Let g be a nite-dimensional Lie algebra and let g be its Killing form. Show that g ([x, y ], z ) = g (x, [y, z ]) for all x, y, z g . (You may use the representation property of the adjoint action without proof.) (iii) Show that if g is abelian, then g (x, y ) = 0 for all x, y g .

A 2.

(20 points) (i) State the denition of the properties simple and semi-simple of a Lie algebra. (ii) Show that if g is simple, then [g, g ] = g where [g, g ] = span [x, y ] | x, y g . Hint: Show that [g, g ] is an ideal. (iii) Recall the denition of the adjoint action adx (y ) = [x, y ]. Show that for a simple Lie algebra g , there is no nonzero x g such that adx : g g is identically zero.

A 3.

(16 points) Let g be a nite-dimensional semi-simple complex Lie algebra and let h be a Cartan subalgebra. (i) Give the formula for the Weyl reection s with respect to a root of g . (ii) Show that s () = , and that (, ) = 0 (for some h ) implies s () = . (iii) Show that det(s ) = 1. Hint: Find a basis of h consisting of and vectors uk such that (, uk ) = 0.

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Section B CMMS01/CM424Z

SECTION B

B 4.

(i) Let n 1. Describe the complex Lie algebras gl(n, C) and sl(n, C) as subsets of Mat(n, C). Give the dimensions of gl(n, C) and sl(n, C) (over C). (ii) Give the Lie bracket of gl(n, C) and sl(n, C) and show that for two matrices x, y sl(n, C) also [x, y ] sl(n, C). (iii) Show that sl(n, C) is an ideal of gl(n, C). (iv) Denote by C the one-dimensional abelian complex Lie algebra (i.e. C is equipped with the Lie bracket [, ] = 0 for all , C). Show that sl(n, C) C = gl(n, C) as complex Lie algebras. Hint: Consider the linear map (M ) = M + 1 from sl(n, C) C to gl(n, C) (here 1 is the nn unit matrix).

B 5.

(i) State the denition of a matrix Lie group. (ii) Show that the set of matrices U (n) = {M Mat(n, C) | M M = 1}, where 1 is the nn-unit matrix, is a matrix Lie group (and in particular that it is a group). (iii) State the denition of the Lie algebra of a matrix Lie group. (iv) Find the Lie algebra u(n) of U (n) and prove your answer. (You may assume the various properties of the matrix exponential.) (v) Verify that for x, y u(n) also [x, y ] u(n).

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Section B CMMS01/CM424Z

B 6.

Let g be a nite-dimensional complex semi-simple Lie algebra of rank 2. Suppose g has the following root diagram:

i.e. the angle between neighbouring roots is 45 and their length-ratio is

2.

(i) What is the dimension of g ? Give a short explanation of your answer. (ii) Describe briey the procedure to nd a choice of positive roots and a set of simple roots. Apply this procedure to the root diagram above. (Copy the root diagram to your answer sheet and put labels accordingly.) (iii) State how the Cartan matrix Aij is dened in terms of simple roots (i) . Compute the Cartan matrix resulting form the simple roots found in part (ii). (iv) Draw the Dynkin diagram of g .

B 7.

The Virasoro algebra is the innite-dimensional complex Lie algebra V with basis {C } {Lm | m Z} and Lie bracket on the basis elements given by [C, C ] = [C, Lm ] = [Lm , C ] = 0 , [Lm , Ln ] = (mn) Lm+n +
1 (m3 m) C 12 m+n,0

(i) Show that the above Lie bracket is indeed skew-symmetric. Verify the Jacobi identity for the three elements L1 , L2 , L3 (i.e. check [L1 , [L2 , L3 ]] + = 0). (ii) Let b : V V C be an invariant, symmetric, bilinear form (i.e. b is bilinear and b(x, y ) = b(y, x) as well as b([x, y ], z ) = b(x, [y, z ]) for all x, y, z V .) Show that b is degenerate (i.e. there exists an x V such that b(x, y ) = 0 for all y V ). Hint: One may proceed as follows: Use [Lm , L0 ] = mLm to see that b(Lm , C ) = 0 for all m = 0. 1 Use [Lm , Lm ] = 2mL0 + 12 (m3 m)C in b( , C ) to conclude that b(C, C ) = 0 and b(L0 , C ) = 0. Final Page