Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2007 iii Paper 4 4 Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-14
Give its Adjoint representation and use the tensor product of Lie algebra representations. Define the action map of a Lie algebra representationFor , the action on the source is . The defining representation identity then givesThus is a Lie algebra representation homomorphism.
If is nontrivial and simple, the action is not identically zero, so the image of is a nonzero submodule. Simplicity forces to be surjective. For a finite-dimensional and a semisimple Lie algebra, the Weyl complete reducibility theorem provides an invariant complement to in . The restriction is then an isomorphism onto , givingThis proves the requested summand assertion in the finite-dimensional setting.
If finite dimensionality is not implicit, the final assertion needs that hypothesis: the action summand can fail for an infinite-dimensional simple module. Here is an explicit counterexample. Take with , , , and the Verma module of highest weight :The lowering coefficient never vanishes for , so an invariant subspace, using the distinct -weights to isolate a basis vector and then raising, contains and hence all of . Thus is simple.
In , a vector of weight is . Applying gives , so its highest vectors are precisely the multiples of . But , and has weight zero, absent from . Every homomorphism therefore kills this vector and then kills . Any embedded copy of would send its highest vector to a nonzero multiple of , so it cannot admit a projection back to . This rules out a direct summand, not merely a splitting of the particular action map.