Solution
ID: past-exam-of-the-mathematics-course-of-the-university-of-cambridge/2006/iii/paper-1/4/b/solution
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2006 iii Paper 1 4 b Solution by
Codex 0 Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-14
If , and , invariance of the Killing form givesUnless , some makes its coefficient nonzero, so the two root spaces are orthogonal. Similarly for every root: choose with and use that is abelian.
Now take nonzero . Nondegeneracy on supplies some element pairing nontrivially with . Its root-space decomposition shows that only its component can contribute. Thus the pairing between opposite root spaces is nonzero, and indeed nondegenerate. ThereforeHere nonzero means the bilinear pairing is not identically zero, not that every pair of vectors has a nonzero value.
If is orthogonal to all of , it is also orthogonal to every root space, by the preceding orthogonality. It is therefore orthogonal to all of , forcing . Hence is nondegenerate.
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