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Analytic and root-system Weyl groups agree
Statement
Assume the Axiom of Choice. Let be a compact connected Lie group with maximal torus . Then the faithful action of on the semisimple part of identifies it with the Weyl group generated by the root reflections: for every root the associated compact root supplies a cocharacter with , and conjugation by its standard normalizer element acts on by the reflection ; the resulting reflections generate .
Here is identified with the multiplicative unit circle by . Root differentials are imaginary on and real on . Reflections act on both spaces by complex-linear extension and act trivially on the central summand.
Moreover, if is conjugation of the complexified semisimple algebra with respect to its compact real form, the root vectors in each root triple may be normalized so that and .
Facts & Assumptions
Given: Assume the Axiom of Choice, a compact connected Lie group with maximal torus , Lie algebra , and root system .
The Axiom of Choice is The Axiom of Choice; it enters through the metric/structure theory of [L1] and [L4] and through the integration theorem [L3].
The roots of , with their differentials, form a reduced crystallographic root system on the dual of , vanish on the central directions, and have the finite adjoint weight-space decomposition in Roots of a compact connected Lie group. The reflection exists for every root, and is generated by these reflections (Compact roots form a reduced crystallographic root system, Weyl group).
For every root of a finite-dimensional complex semisimple Lie algebra there are and with , , , where is the coroot with (The root sl_2 triple).
Assuming countable choice, for a connected simply connected real Lie group , a real Lie group and a Lie-algebra homomorphism there is a unique Lie-group homomorphism with (Lie's second fundamental theorem).
is connected for every torus , , and is finite; every element of lies in a maximal torus and any two maximal tori are conjugate; every torus lies in a maximal torus (The compact Weyl group is finite, Every element lies in a maximal torus, Conjugacy of maximal tori, Compact connected abelian subgroups lie in maximal tori).
The root Weyl group acts simply transitively on the chambers, equivalently on the positive systems of (Simple transitivity on Weyl chambers, Positive systems and simple roots).
The Weyl vector satisfies for the simple roots (The Weyl vector in fundamental coordinates, The Weyl vector). Positive roots have nonnegative integral simple-root coordinates (Simple roots form a signed integral basis).
Root spaces in a complex semisimple Lie algebra are one-dimensional (Root spaces of a complex semisimple Lie algebra are one-dimensional). For the complexification in [L1], the map is a conjugate-linear bracket-preserving involution with fixed algebra , directly from the complex-bilinear extension of the real bracket and uniqueness of real and imaginary parts.
is a real Lie group with algebra the traceless skew-Hermitian matrices, and is simply connected (Unitary and special unitary Lie groups, is simply connected for every ).
Exponentials are natural under Lie homomorphisms and ; closed subgroups are embedded Lie subgroups, and exponentials are local diffeomorphisms at zero (Exponential map is natural for Lie-group homomorphisms, The differential of Ad is ad, Cartan closed subgroup theorem, The exponential map is a local diffeomorphism at zero).
A compact Lie group has an -invariant positive-definite inner product on its Lie algebra. Complete reducibility of the adjoint module gives the reductive splitting with semisimple derived algebra, and a semisimple Lie algebra is centerless (Compact Lie groups admit bi-invariant metrics, Equivalent characterizations of reductive Lie algebras, Semisimple Lie algebras are centerless and perfect).
In a finite-dimensional complex semisimple Lie algebra, the Cartan subalgebras are exactly the maximal toral subalgebras (Cartan subalgebras are exactly maximal toral subalgebras). For in a real Lie algebra, (Adjoint exponential identity).
Proof
Put , and . The invariant inner product in [L10] makes the orthogonal complement of every ideal an ideal, so finite-dimensional induction makes the adjoint module completely reducible; [L10] therefore gives with semisimple. We next identify the exact Lie-algebra root interface rather than assuming it from [L1]. If centralizes , then [L11] gives for every ; naturality and an exponential identity neighborhood show that centralizes , so [L4] puts it in and differentiation gives . Thus , whence and . The operators for are commuting skew-adjoint operators, so their complexifications are simultaneously diagonalizable. If centralizes , then centralize and also , hence all of ; the centralizer equality puts in . Therefore is maximal toral, hence Cartan by [L11]. Finally the adjoint -weight decomposition in [L1], after differentiation, has zero space and nonzero weights trivial on ; restricting it to gives exactly the root-space decomposition relative to this Cartan algebra. Thus every root used below is a Lie-algebra root to which [L2] and [L7] apply. The invariant inner product makes every , , skew-adjoint; in an orthonormal real basis, Equality forces , hence because is centerless by [L10]. Thus is negative definite on and its complex-bilinear extension is positive definite on . For a root use [L2] to choose . Conjugation sends its root space to the opposite one because the root is imaginary on , and sends to . By [L7], for a nonzero scalar. Invariance of gives . Writing with , we have . Therefore is real and negative. Replacing by with gives , and involutivity gives . Thus , and belong to and satisfy , , . They are the images of the standard traceless skew-Hermitian basis of .
The map identifies the unit sphere in homeomorphically with : orthonormality of the columns and determinant one force the displayed second column, and the inverse reads the first column. Thus is connected and simply connected by [L8]. A connected Lie group is generated by any exponential neighborhood of the identity: the generated subgroup is open and all its cosets are open, so connectedness forces it to be the whole group.
By [L3] the inclusion integrates to a Lie-group homomorphism . Define by . Since and corresponds to , the image of is , so is a cocharacter of .
On the root space the element acts by the scalar , so acts on by , and acts on by ; therefore for all , that is, .
The standard matrix equals , where . It conjugates to its negative. If satisfies , the root relations give , so and [L9] gives . Hence fixes pointwise and negates . Since , these subspaces give all of , and the action is the coroot reflection. Naturality and generation by exponential neighborhoods (step 1.2) give . Every element of connected fixes under the adjoint action: this holds on exponentials since kills the center, and hence on their generated group. Thus the faithful action in [L4] stays faithful on , and the realized reflections give .
Conversely let with class . Conjugation sends a root vector of weight to one of weight , so it permutes the roots. It preserves because it conjugates adjoint matrices and trace is invariant under conjugation. Therefore it takes positive systems to positive systems. By [L5] there is with ; by step 3.2 the element is realised by some , so satisfies .
Because permutes the positive roots, it fixes their half-sum . Let be the -dual of ; invariance of gives . Set . For each simple root, [L6] gives . Every positive root is a nonzero nonnegative combination of simple roots, so for positive , and the pairing is nonzero for every root. In particular .
Let . Continuity of multiplication and inversion makes this a closed subgroup; it is abelian, compact and connected as the closure of a connected subgroup, hence a torus by [L9]. Naturality implies that centralizes its dense one-parameter subgroup, and therefore . The closed subgroup has Lie algebra consisting of the vectors fixed by every : necessity follows by differentiating conjugation, and sufficiency by naturality of the exponential and its local charts. The root decomposition in [L1] and show that this fixed algebra is exactly . By [L4] the centralizer is connected. It contains , and the exponential charts of these two groups with the same Lie algebra show is open in it; connectedness gives . Thus . If the root set is empty, [L1] gives , and ; the same open-subgroup argument gives and both Weyl groups are trivial.
Hence , so ; combined with step 3.2, the analytic Weyl group equals the root-system Weyl group , and the cocharacters of step 2.1 supply the claimed reflections with pairing . The Axiom of Choice entered only through the cited metric, structure and integration theory.
Depends on
- The compact Weyl group is finite
- Compact roots form a reduced crystallographic root system
- Compact Lie groups admit bi-invariant metrics
- Equivalent characterizations of reductive Lie algebras
- Semisimple Lie algebras are centerless and perfect
- Cartan subalgebras are exactly maximal toral subalgebras
- The root sl_2 triple
- Lie's second fundamental theorem
- Simple transitivity on Weyl chambers
- The Weyl vector in fundamental coordinates
- Every element lies in a maximal torus
- Conjugacy of maximal tori
- Compact connected abelian subgroups lie in maximal tori
- The Axiom of Choice
- Weyl group
- Roots of a compact connected Lie group
- Positive systems and simple roots
- The Weyl vector
- Root spaces of a complex semisimple Lie algebra are one-dimensional
- Unitary and special unitary Lie groups
- $S^n$ is simply connected for every $n\ge2$
- Exponential map is natural for Lie-group homomorphisms
- Adjoint exponential identity
- The differential of Ad is ad
- Cartan closed subgroup theorem
- The exponential map is a local diffeomorphism at zero
- Simple roots form a signed integral basis
Used by
- Root datum of a compact connected Lie group Definition
- A maximal torus and Weyl group of SO(3) Example
- Maximal tori and Weyl groups of U(n) and SU(n) Example
- Weyl denominator and anti-invariant orbit sums Lemma
- Root and weight lattice sandwich Proposition
- Compact connected Lie groups are classified by root data Theorem
- Semisimple compact groups up to isogeny Theorem
- Vogan diagram for a fixed Cartan involution is well defined up to equivalence Theorem
Dependency tree · two levels
143 results within two dependency steps of this one, each drawn at its shortest distance from it. An arrow runs from a result to what uses it, so the chart reads left to right and ends at this result, which carries a heavier outline. Every node is a link to that result. Click elsewhere on the chart to enlarge it.
Sources
- Anthony W. Knapp, Lie Groups Beyond an Introduction, 2nd ed. (standard reference, not scraped)
- Brian Conrad and Aaron Landesman, Compact Lie Groups (standard reference, not scraped)