Solution
ID: past-exam-of-the-mathematics-course-of-the-university-of-cambridge/2017/ii/paper-4/18g/b/solution
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2017 ii Paper 4 18G b Solution by
Codex 0 Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-10-05
The Clebsch-Gordan decomposition for SU2 statesRealize the tensor product as polynomials of bidegree in and . The determinant is invariant under the simultaneous SU2 action. For each , the vectorhas torus weight and is killed by . Applying produces nonzero vectors of distinct weights, with . The relations and give , so their span is an irreducible copy of .
These irreducible submodules have distinct highest weights and form a direct sum: a sum of earlier ones cannot contain an irreducible module inequivalent to all its summands. Equivalently use complete reducibility, obtained by averaging an inner product over the compact group. Assuming , their total dimension iswhich equals the dimension of the tensor product. Hence they exhaust it, proving the theorem.
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