Bn Dynkin diagram and affine extension Created 2026-10-05 Updated 2026-10-14
For , the Bn root system has simple roots for and . Its Dynkin diagram is a chain with a double terminal bond pointing toward short . The highest root is . In the Extended Dynkin diagram, attaches by a single bond to for . For , both long nodes attach by double bonds to short node . Rank one is the rank-one root system; its affine diagram has two equal-length nodes joined by a double bond without a short-root arrow.
Identify the Cartan subalgebra with its coordinate vector using the invariant inner product. A root reflection is
For every root of the Bn root system, the explicit formulas are
All unlisted coordinates stay fixed, and opposite roots define the same reflection. These reflections give all coordinate permutations and independent sign changes. Therefore the Weyl group is
Its action on is the group of signed permutation matrices.
Put and . A Cartan subalgebra is
The defining matrix condition says . Using the matrix units, the nonzero root spaces have the following generators:
Commuting each generator with gives its stated weight. Together with , these matrices span the Special orthogonal Lie algebra; there are independent generators. Thus its decomposition as a Cartan subalgebra module is
This is the Bn root system. The upper-triangular generators select the positive roots
Its simple roots and highest root, for , are
To see the simplicity assertion, , while and . The coefficient pattern for dominates those of every positive root.
Normalize the inner product so the are orthonormal. The simple coroots are for and . Solving gives the fundamental weights
In the half-sum of positive roots, the coordinate occurs with total coefficient . Hence the Weyl vector is
The Dynkin diagram is a chain , with single bonds up to and a double last bond pointing towards the short root . In the Extended Dynkin diagram, add . For , and its inner product with every other simple root is zero, so it attaches to by a single bond. For , both long nodes attach by double bonds to short node . These rules give the Bn Dynkin diagram and affine extension drawn below.
For rank one, , , , and . The finite diagram is one node; its affine extension has two equal-length nodes joined by a double bond, without a short-root arrow.
Figure 1.
Finite and extended B-type Dynkin diagrams with short-root arrows and low-rank exceptions
. Details.
Identify the diagonal Cartan subalgebra with coordinates . The root reflection is in the standard Euclidean identification. For the Bn root system, this gives
All unlisted coordinates stay fixed, and . These transformations are coordinate permutations and independent sign changes. They generate exactly the signed symmetric group, so
Here permutes the factors in the semidirect product.
The PDF's is the anti-diagonal identity matrix. Write and . Its diagonal Cartan subalgebra consists of
The defining matrix identity says . The root spaces have the following root vectors, together with their opposites:
The negative short root has vector . Hence the root-space decomposition is , each root space is one-dimensional, and the Bn root system is
There are roots and zero-weight dimensions, giving as a check. Upper triangular matrices give
For , the highest root is . The fundamental weights and Weyl vector are
These weights pair to with the simple coroots; summing the positive roots gives the displayed .
The Dynkin diagram is the chain , with single edges except a double edge between and , whose arrow points to the short root . In the Extended Dynkin diagram, attaches by a single edge to when . For , both long nodes have a double edge to the short node . The Bn Dynkin diagram and affine extension below distinguishes these small-rank cases.
Figure 1.
Ordinary and affine Dynkin diagrams of type B
. Details.
For , the system is : , , . Its ordinary diagram is one node; its affine diagram has two equal-length nodes with the usual affine double bond.