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Differentiation and integration of highest weights
Statement
Assume the Axiom of Choice. Let be a compact connected Lie group, a maximal torus with a fixed positive system, and . All representations below are finite-dimensional complex representations, continuous in the group case. Differentiating a compact-group highest weight gives the same highest weight for the complexified derived Lie algebra: if is an irreducible finite-dimensional representation of with highest weight , then the associated -module has highest weight the restriction of the differential of to the derived Cartan algebra. Conversely, in general a module for alone contains no action of the connected centre and therefore does not by itself determine a representation of . After choosing a representation of commuting with the integrated -action, the resulting representation of descends to exactly when the finite central covering kernel acts trivially, equivalently when its weights on the preimage of descend to characters in .
Facts & Assumptions
Given: AC, the data in the Statement, and a fixed positive system.
The Axiom of Choice The Axiom of Choice covers the choice assumptions of the following interfaces, including countable choice.
Irreducible finite-dimensional continuous complex representations of have highest weights in the dominant part of (Highest weights for compact connected groups).
A torus character differentiates to a complex-linear functional on its complexified Lie algebra, with formula , and is determined by its differential (Characters are the integral weights).
A Lie-algebra homomorphism from the Lie algebra of a connected simply connected real Lie group to that of a real Lie group integrates uniquely to a smooth group homomorphism (Lie's second fundamental theorem).
Continuous Lie-group homomorphisms are smooth, exponentials are natural, and the exponential map is a local diffeomorphism at zero (Continuous homomorphisms between Lie groups are smooth, Exponential map is natural for Lie-group homomorphisms, The exponential map is a local diffeomorphism at zero).
Multiplication gives a finite central covering , where is compact and simply connected with Lie algebra (Compact connected Lie groups are classified by root data).
A finite-dimensional continuous complex representation of a compact Lie group admits an invariant positive-definite Hermitian inner product (Finite-dimensional compact-group representations are unitarizable).
Closed subgroups of Lie groups are embedded Lie subgroups, and a maximal torus in a compact connected Lie group is its own centralizer (Cartan closed subgroup theorem, The compact Weyl group is finite).
Proof
By [L4], is smooth and . An exponential neighborhood generates a connected group: the generated subgroup is open and its other cosets are open, so it is also closed and must be the whole group. Therefore a complex subspace invariant under the differential is group invariant, since the matrix exponential preserves it; the converse follows by differentiating. A commuting endomorphism of a nonzero irreducible complex representation is scalar: choose an eigenvalue, whose nonzero eigenspace is invariant and hence is the entire space. In particular acts by scalars. Differentiating the covering in [L5] gives , with the first summand central. A subspace invariant under is consequently invariant under all of and under . Thus restriction to is irreducible.
Let be a highest vector of , of character from [L1]. Differentiating for gives for , and complex-linear extension gives the same identity on . Positive root operators annihilate : such an operator takes a -weight vector of character to one of character , by conjugating the differentiated action with , and a nonzero such weight would lie strictly above the highest weight. The derived Cartan weight is therefore the restriction of this complex-linear to .
Conversely let be a finite-dimensional complex -module. Restrict its action to the real algebra and apply [L3] with source and target regarded as a real Lie group. This integrates the action uniquely to . Choose a continuous representation commuting with . Then is a representation of . The derived-algebra data contain no prescribed action of the central factor; when that factor is trivial there is of course no extra choice. For every action and the resulting descent are the unique zero-dimensional ones.
Write . To justify the torus language, let be the identity component of the closed Lie subgroup . The covering charts imply contains an identity neighborhood of , hence equals connected . For , their commutator lies in finite ; continuity on connected makes it identity. Thus is a compact connected abelian subgroup, hence a torus. It is maximal: a torus containing it maps to a torus containing , so maps into and lies in . By [L7] central lies in . Since , every element of differs from an element of by one in . Consequently is a torus and .
By [L6] the restriction is unitary. A finite-dimensional commuting family of unitary operators has a common orthonormal eigenbasis: if some operator is not scalar, its mutually orthogonal eigenspaces are preserved by every other operator, and induction on dimension diagonalizes the restrictions; if all are scalar any orthonormal basis suffices. The resulting diagonal entries are continuous characters . Since , it acts trivially on exactly when every occurring character is trivial on . Such a character factors uniquely through , and the factor is continuous because the compact-to-Hausdorff surjection is a quotient map. Thus this is precisely the condition that all weights lie in . Conversely a pulled-back character is trivial on . For the zero module the character family is empty and both conditions hold.
The product representation descends exactly when for every , equivalently when . In that case define ; this is well defined and is a homomorphism. Local inverse sheets of the covering show it is continuous and smooth. Necessity follows by pulling back any representation of . Step 2.1 proves the equivalent character-lattice condition. In the forward direction, the irreducibility established in step 1.1 means the nonzero highest vector of step 1.2 generates the whole derived-algebra module, not merely a submodule. If , irreducibility forces dimension one, its derived highest weight is zero, and the independent datum is exactly a torus character. These arguments prove the Statement including the central-action qualification.
Depends on
- Highest weights for compact connected groups
- Characters are the integral weights
- The Axiom of Choice
- Lie's second fundamental theorem
- Continuous homomorphisms between Lie groups are smooth
- Exponential map is natural for Lie-group homomorphisms
- The exponential map is a local diffeomorphism at zero
- Compact connected Lie groups are classified by root data
- Finite-dimensional compact-group representations are unitarizable
- Cartan closed subgroup theorem
- The compact Weyl group is finite
Used by
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Sources
- Anthony W. Knapp, Lie Groups Beyond an Introduction, 2nd ed. (standard reference, not scraped)