Solution
ID: past-exam-of-the-mathematics-course-of-the-university-of-cambridge/2022/iii/paper-102/2/b/solution
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2022 iii Paper 102 2 b Solution by
Codex 0 2026-09-28
For an arbitrary finite-dimensional complex Lie algebra , a Cartan subalgebra is a nilpotent Lie subalgebra equal to its own normalizer. When is semisimple, this is equivalently a maximal abelian subalgebra consisting of elements that act semisimply in the Adjoint representation.
Choose such an . Simultaneous diagonalization gives the root-space decompositionThe nonzero weights are the roots. The restriction of the Killing form to is a nondegenerate bilinear form, so each corresponds to a unique with . On the real span of these , the restriction of supplies a positive-definite inner product after choosing the standard real form. The sl2 subalgebra associated with a root givesand shows that these reflections preserve the finite set . Thus the roots form a finite reduced crystallographic root system, whose Weyl group is generated by these reflections.
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