Alternating Lie bracket 2026-10-14
A Lie bracket is alternating when for every . This condition is imposed in every characteristic of a field. Bilinearity gives , hence antisymmetry of a Lie bracket. Requiring alternation directly keeps the definition correct in characteristic two.
Antisymmetry of a Lie bracket Created 2026-10-06 Updated 2026-10-14
The relation for a bilinear map proposed as a Lie bracket. An Alternating Lie bracket always satisfies it. Conversely, setting gives , so antisymmetry implies alternation over a field of characteristic different from two.
In characteristic two, the sign disappears and this relation just says . It does not force , even when the Jacobi identity holds. For example, on a two-dimensional vector space with basis , set and every other basis bracket to zero, then extend bilinearly. Every nested bracket vanishes, so the Jacobi identity holds, and the product is symmetric. Nevertheless it is not a Lie algebra, because .
Exterior algebra Created 2026-09-28 Updated 2026-10-14
The exterior algebra of a vector space combines scalars, vectors, and higher-dimensional oriented elements in one graded algebra. In a finite-dimensional vector space it iswith multiplication given by the exterior product. Degree zero is the scalar field, degree one is , and degree two is the space of bivectors. Multiplication adds degrees: combining two vectors produces a bivector, rather than another ordinary vector.[ref]
The essential rule is . Repeating the same direction cannot produce a nonzero oriented area. Bilinearity then gives : expand and remove the two zero self-products. The alternating rule remains part of the definition in characteristic two, where sign reversal alone would not force a self-product to vanish.
If with standard basis , every element of its exterior algebra has the formThere are four independent coefficients: one scalar, two vector components, and one area component. In , the respective degree dimensions are , giving eight components in total. More generally, the exterior power basis gives total dimension .
This language is useful when direction and orientation matter together. Determinants measure the action on top-degree exterior powers; differential forms use exterior powers of a dual space to describe quantities integrated along paths, surfaces, and higher-dimensional regions. The Grassmann algebra viewpoint also makes the sign changes in anticommuting generators systematic. A single multiplication rule connects geometry and algebra.
Exterior-power Lie algebra representation 2026-10-06
A Lie algebra representation on induces one on each exterior power by acting on every factor and summing. The tensor product of Lie algebra representations preserves the defining alternating relations, so this descends to the quotient in every characteristic of a field. In characteristic two define the exterior algebra by the relations , rather than by dividing a tensor antisymmetrizer by .
Field with four elements Created 2026-10-06 Updated 2026-10-14
Build this finite field by taking a quotient ring of a polynomial ring:The polynomial has in the prime field . A polynomial of polynomial degree two is an irreducible polynomial exactly when it has no polynomial root in the coefficient field. Thus the quotient by an irreducible polynomial is a field construction applies. Its elements have unique representatives , with : precisely .
The defining relation is . Since this finite field has characteristic two, every element equals its additive inverse, and the relation becomes . Addition acts separately on the two coefficients:All coefficient calculations use modular arithmetic modulo two. For example, and . Encoding as the pair of bits gives , , , and ; addition is bitwise exclusive or. These are coordinates in the basis , so the label does not make the element .
For multiplication, expand using the distributive property and replace every by :For example, , while . The following complete tables are computed from the coefficient rules. Colors identify results, rather than their numerical sizes. Every row of the addition table lists all four elements, and every nonzero row of the multiplication table does too: adding an element, or multiplying by a nonzero element, can be undone.
The nonzero multiplicative inverses are , , and . Consequently the equation has the unique solution . Repeated multiplication gives , , , and . They cycle through every element of the multiplicative group of a finite field.
Compare the ring , also with four elements. Its addition satisfies , and its multiplication satisfies . Thus is a zero divisor, with no multiplicative inverse, and this ring is not a field. Multiplying by collapses different inputs to the same output: both and give , while both and give . In the field with four elements, multiplying by instead rotates the three nonzero elements, preserving their distinctness. The figure makes visible why counting four elements alone does not specify their arithmetic.
Lie algebra Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-10-14
A Lie algebra over a field is a vector space with a bilinear map , called the Lie bracket, that is alternating and satisfies the Jacobi identity. Explicitly, for all ,This definition applies in every characteristic of a field, including characteristic two; the distinction between an Alternating Lie bracket and antisymmetry of a Lie bracket matters there. See Pavel Etingof, Lie Groups and Lie Algebras, Definition 8.4 and Remark 8.5.
The motivating question is how to describe very small symmetries. For a real Matrix Lie group , the Lie algebra of a matrix Lie group is its tangent space at the identity element. An element specifies the initial velocity of the one-parameter subgroup , using the matrix exponential. The Lie bracket records the first nonzero effect of changing the order of two small transformations. Even when first-order motions cancel, a second-order motion can remain: the small rotation commutator below leaves a rotation about a third axis.
This turns local symmetry questions into computations with linear maps. A basis and its structure constants of a Lie algebra determine every Lie bracket by bilinearity. For example, three matrices suffice for the sl2 matrix commutator example, while the familiar cross product describes the SO(3) Lie algebra. These descriptions help calculate rotations in three dimensions and build Lie algebra representations; the same bracket structure underlies angular momentum commutation relations. The striking feature is that a nonlinear family of motions has a local description by a vector space and one product. Global information still needs care: the Lie algebra alone does not distinguish the circle group from the additive real line.
Historically, the connection with differential equations is visible in Sophus Lie's Theorie der Transformationsgruppen, volume I (1888), prepared with Friedrich Engel. Chapter 6 interprets first-order differential operators as infinitesimal transformations, linking their action on functions to the transformations those functions admit. See Lie and Engel, Chapter 6, §27, in Joël Merker's English translation; the original volume is available at the [ref]
https://gdz.sub.uni-goettingen.de/id/PPN585383391. Göttingen digitization
. Newton identities in positive characteristic 2026-10-14
The polynomial identities remain true in positive characteristic of a field, but recovering elementary symmetric polynomials by division can fail. In the prime field of characteristic two, the root lists and have the same power sum zero for every positive exponent: and . Their monic polynomials differ, however: and . Thus even all positive power sums need not determine the polynomial when its degree meets the characteristic. The relation becomes and supplies no value for .
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2005 iii Paper 3 1 Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-14
Let be a partition of an integer . Its Young diagram consists of cells with , and its conjugate partition has parts . A numbered Young tableau fills these cells bijectively with . Its row and column stabilizers permute entries within each row and each column respectively. A tabloid remembers the sets in the ordered rows, forgetting their internal order. The Young subgroup is its stabilizer, so the Young permutation module isHere the group acts by permuting numbered entries and extending linearly. A submodule is an invariant linear subspace. Give the tabloid basis its orthonormal symmetric bilinear form, denoted . This form is nondegenerate and invariant under the group. Define the column antisymmetrizer and polytabloid byThus is the Specht module, generated by any one , because the group is transitive on numbered Young tableaux. The orthogonal complement consists of vectors pairing to zero with every polytabloid.
The key calculation isTo prove it, first take . If two entries of one column of occur in one row of , their transposition fixes ; pairing the terms indexed by and cancels . This also works in characteristic two, where the paired equal terms have sum zero. Otherwise each row of contains at most one entry from each column of . The first row has entries and there are columns, so it uses every column once. Removing those entries, the second row must use exactly the columns of remaining positive height, and induction does the same for all rows. Consequently there is a unique with . Uniqueness follows from . In that caseLinearity proves the identity.
Now let be a submodule. If is not contained in , choose and with . The displayed identity puts in , so its group translates put all of in . This proves the James submodule theorem without a semisimplicity assumption.
Put . If , every proper submodule of lies in , by the same theorem. Hence is its unique maximal submodule, and is irreducible. If , the quotient is zero. This conclusion remains true after every field extension : the integral tabloid construction becomes , and the radical of the restricted form is the kernel of its Gram matrix, so it commutes with extension of scalars. A nonzero Gram entry stays nonzero in . Applying the theorem over makes irreducible. Thus a nonzero quotient is absolutely irreducible.
The precise nonvanishing criterion isA regular partition has fewer than rows of each positive length. Here is the integral pairing argument behind this condition. Write for the number of rows of length . Expanding two polytabloids into tabloids, simultaneous permutations of equal-length rows partition of an integer all contributions to their pairing into free orbits of size ; the signs agree within each orbit because the same row permutation is applied in every relevant column on both sides. Therefore every pairing is divisible by . If some , the entire restricted form is zero modulo . Conversely, reverse the order of the entries in each row of a tableau to obtain . Counting the matching column permutations in the two expansions gives, up to the harmless overall sign,Indeed the equal rows of length can be matched independently in each of their positions; after these choices the decreasing row lengths force every other matching. For a regular partition this integer is nonzero modulo , so the form and its radical quotient are nonzero. In characteristic zero it is nonzero for every shape. This supplies the requested justification of the criterion.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2005 iii Paper 3 6 Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-14
The kernel intersection theorem for Specht modules uses maps that move entries between adjacent rows. For and , let replace the row lengths by , keeping every other length unchanged. This is allowed to be a composition rather than a decreasing partition of an integer, and a zero row can be omitted. For a tabloid with row sets , defineby summing over all -subsets : the new row is , the new row is , and all other rows are unchanged. These are module homomorphisms, since relabelling commutes with choosing subsets. The theorem isIt holds over every field. Column cancellation shows the inclusion of in each kernel; the full theorem identifies the common kernel with the Specht module.
For completeness, the semistandard homomorphism theorem concerns a partition of an integer , a composition , and fillings of shape with occurrences of . Such a filling gives : replace its labels by the numbered entries of an input tableau, and sum the output tabloids over distinct permutations of the labels within each input row. Label assigns an entry to output row . The use of distinct assignments avoids dividing by any factorial. Let be its restriction to . The restrictions indexed by Semistandard Young tableaux are linearly independent. They form a basis of when , or when is two-regular. In characteristic two for a two-singular shape they need not span; omitting this exception would make the statement incorrect.
We now prove the invariant vector criterion for a Specht module directly from the first theorem. The group acts transitively on the tabloid basis of , so any invariant vector has all coefficients equal. Thus , where is the sum of all its tabloids and is nonzero over every field. Fix , write , , and count preimages of one output tabloid. The retained entries are prescribed; among the entries of the enlarged row, exactly must have come from its old row. HenceThe common-kernel criterion becomesfor every adjacent pair, where .
Suppose , and let be least with . If , its lowest base- digits are all . For any , adding to creates a carry at the lowest nonzero digit of . At that position the digit of is smaller than the corresponding digit of . Lucas's theorem therefore gives . Conversely, if one of the first digits is not , take . Minimality of gives , while addition at that digit creates no carry. Lucas then yieldsThis proves the claimed equivalence, and thereforeThe invariant space, when present, is one-dimensional. At the last row put ; then and the condition is vacuous. This congruence formulation is for positive characteristic. In characteristic zero the positive binomial coefficients cannot vanish, so an invariant vector exists precisely for the one-row shape .
Finally suppose is regular. It has a unique simple head , by Question 1. The given sign-twisted duality of Specht modules impliesThus is sign exactly when the conjugate shape satisfies the invariant congruences.
Here is an explicit solution of those congruences under regularity. Write the positive column heights of as , so . Regularity says , including , because this difference counts rows of length . Starting with , the congruence for its preceding row forces . Since , the only possibility is . Repeating upwards forces every earlier height to be . Consequentlywhere a zero final part is omitted. Conversely this shape satisfies every invariant congruence, so its conjugate is the desired regular label of the modular sign representation:Zero parts are omitted. For this is , as it should be because sign is trivial. In characteristic zero the answer is .
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2008 iii Paper 23 5 Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-14
An affine algebraic group is a linearly reductive algebraic group if every finite-dimensional rational representation is completely reducible; equivalently the functor of invariants is exact. It is a geometrically reductive algebraic group if, whenever , there is a homogeneous invariant polynomial of positive degree with . Linear reductivity permits degree one; geometric reductivity allows higher degree.
Over the algebraically closed field, an algebraic torus is . Its coordinate ring is the Laurent polynomial ring. A rational action writes the coaction of a vector as a finite sum . The coaction identity and linear independence of Laurent monomials give and . ThusEach weight space has scalar action, so any vector-space complement within each weight space is invariant. This proves complete reducibility, and hence tori are linearly reductive in every characteristic. The argument uses characters themselves, not their Lie algebra differentials, which could coincide modulo .
We now prove geometric reductivity of by determinant separation for positive-characteristic SL2. Fix a rational -module and a nonzero fixed vector . For the diagonal torus, choose a weight-zero functional with , using the torus decomposition just proved. Define matrix coefficientsThese are regular functions on , and makes equivariant for left translations. Moreover because is torus-invariant. Thus maps into for the right torus action, and .
Write a matrix's two columns as and , with . Right torus multiplication scales these columns by and . Every right-torus-invariant regular function has a weight-zero polynomial lift, hence a sum of polynomials of bidegrees in . To see that a weight-zero lift exists, take any lift and retain its zero-weight component; the ideal is torus-stable and the quotient map preserves weights. Multiply each piece by to put the entire sum in bidegree without changing its restriction to .
Let be the space of degree- polynomials in one column. Restriction gives an injective equivariant map . Indeed if a bidegree- polynomial vanishes on determinant-one matrices, scale the first column of any invertible matrix to make its determinant one. Homogeneity then makes the polynomial vanish on every invertible matrix, a dense open subset, so it is zero. Denote the image by . These spaces increase because multiplication by realizes , and their union is . The finite-dimensional image therefore lies in one , and in any sufficiently larger filtration piece.
Choose with at least that bound, and set . The identity in characteristic givesThe invariant tensortherefore defines an invertible equivariant linear map : its matrix is anti-diagonal with all entries nonzero. Interpret any tensor as a map and send it to . Equivariance of makes this identification intertwine the diagonal tensor action with conjugation on endomorphisms. Crucially, restricts to the constant function on , and is sent to the identity endomorphism.
Under the resulting equivariant linear map , the vector is sent to . Since , the endomorphism determinant is a homogeneous polynomial of positive degree , invariant under conjugation. Pull it back to . The resulting polynomial satisfiesThis constructs the required invariant for every fixed nonzero vector and proves is geometrically reductive, including characteristic two. No averaging by a group order or division by is used; those operations would fail in the field's characteristic.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2009 iii Paper 13 3 Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-14
A Freiman 2-isomorphism between subsets of abelian groups is a bijection such thatBoth directions matter: an injective homomorphism on individual elements may still create new pair-sum relations. More generally a Freiman s-isomorphism preserves equalities of sums of elements in both directions. For a nonempty finite set, its doubling constant is . A Freiman 2-isomorphism preserves this constant, since is a well-defined bijection of the two sumsets.
First let have elements and doubling at most . The permitted Plünnecke-Ruzsa inequality gives . We will obtain the half-size prime cyclic Freiman model for every prime . Choose an auxiliary prime larger than the absolute value of every member of . Such a prime exists: for any integer bound , every prime divisor of exceeds .
Choose uniformly from the nonzero residues modulo . For each nonzero , the residue is uniform among the nonzero residues. PutThere are at most such residues, and therefore the probability that any of the nonzero differences is dilated into is at mostThe first cardinal estimate is an upper bound even if some listed residues coincide; the slightly looser probability bound is convenient. Thus there exists with no such bad difference.
For this , let represent . Split these representatives into the two intervals and . Take from the more populated interval, so . For any four elements of , put . Their common half-interval gives , andIf the original difference is zero, then is a multiple of of absolute value less than , so . If the original difference is nonzero, is nonzero, and it cannot be a multiple of : otherwise its residue belongs to , contrary to the choice of . Therefore preserves pair-sum relations in both directions. It is injective as well, by applying the relation test to with any fixed . HenceThis proves the stated polynomial bound, including the prescribed prime rather than just an unspecified cyclic modulus.
Now let . Finiteness of places it in some finite-dimensional coordinate space, so models exist. Choose a Freiman 2-isomorphism with minimal. The doubling constant of is at most .
If a nonzero did not belong to , projection onto would preserve all pair-sum relations in both directions: a new relation would have original difference , whereas in characteristic two every such difference lies in . Projection is also injective on , since by adding any element of twice. This would give a model in dimension , contradicting minimality. Consequently every nonzero vector belongs to ; zero belongs as well, by adding one element four times. Thus .
Using the Plünnecke-Ruzsa inequality once more givesThis is the minimal binary Freiman models have full fourfold sumset argument. It also covers a singleton, with .
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2009 iii Paper 2 4 Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-14
The special linear group over a finite field consists of the determinant-one invertible matrices over . Counting an ordered basis givesThe determinant map is onto , soA transvection has the form , where , the linear functional is nonzero and . It has determinant one, fixes the hyperplane pointwise, and its displacement has image the line . In particular for is an elementary transvection when .
Row addition is multiplication by such a matrix. Gaussian elimination reduces a determinant-one matrix to diagonal form using row additions and determinant-one pivot exchanges. The latter, and all remaining diagonal factors, are themselves products of transvections: within two coordinates,A diagonal matrix with product of entries one is a product of these two-coordinate diagonal matrices. Thus transvections generate . This generation statement actually holds for every and every finite field; the exclusions in the question are needed for the subsequent simplicity assertion.
Commuting with all elementary matrices forces the group center to consist of scalar matrices with , so its order is . The projective quotient acts faithfully on the one-dimensional subspaces. Its action is two-transitive: send an ordered pair of independent representative vectors to any other pair and adjust the determinant by rescaling a representative without changing its line. Therefore it is primitive.
The Iwasawa simplicity lemma says that in a faithful primitive action, if a point stabilizer has an abelian normal subgroup whose conjugates generate the group, every nontrivial normal subgroup contains the derived subgroup. In particular a nontrivial perfect group satisfying these conditions is simple. No proof of the lemma is required here.
For the point , the subgroupis abelian, is normal in the line stabilizer, and its conjugates contain all transvections. Its image in the projective quotient has the same properties. Perfectness follows explicitly from elementary commutators. If , choose a third index to obtainIf , choose with and set . ThenEvery upper transvection is a commutator, and conjugation gives the lower ones. The group and its projective quotient are perfect. Iwasawa's simplicity lemma now proves
The order of is . Its faithful projective-line action has degree five, so its image is an index-two subgroup of , necessarily . Thus .
For the order is . We construct a faithful degree-five action. In takeThey satisfy and . Their quaternion subgroup projects to a Sylow 2-subgroup . Its projective centralizer is : a lift of a centralizing element conjugates each of to itself or its negative. In the matrix basis , those four sign choices each leave a one-dimensional space, and determinant one leaves just its two quaternion representatives. The matrixhas order three and cyclically permutes the three nonidentity elements of . The normalizer quotient embeds in and has order dividing both and , so it has order exactly three. Hence and there are five Sylow 2-subgroups. Their conjugation action is nontrivial and transitive, and simplicity makes it faithful. Its image again has order in , proving
Finally,In characteristic two an involutory matrix has form with . Its Jordan blocks have size at most two. A projective involution in has a unique involutory lift to : its square is central, and squaring is an automorphism of the scalar center of order three, allowing a unique scalar adjustment. The nonidentity Jordan form in dimension three is only . This GL-class remains a single SL-class, since the centralizer contains of every determinant . Thus has one involution class.
In there are two forms, and , so there are two involution classes. More concretely, the first group's single class has elements, counting image line, kernel plane through it and nonzero map between the quotient and image. The rank-one class in dimension four over has elements; the rank-two class has . Isomorphisms preserve conjugacy classes, so
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2010 iii Paper 11 3 Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-14
The printed statement needs : for the empty set every linear subspace has cardinality at least one, so the requested bound is impossible. We prove the intended nonempty version of the Freiman-Ruzsa theorem over a finite field. Necessarily , because any one translate of inside has size .
We first prove all sumset estimates needed below. For finite nonempty and finite in an abelian group, choose one representation for each . The mapis injective: subtracting the outputs recovers , hence its chosen representation and then . This proves the Ruzsa triangle inequality
Choose nonempty minimizing , where is any set with . We prove the Petridis minimal-growth lemma for every finite . List , and let consist of those for which was not already in . The disjoint pieces partition .
Every was already covered in . The new part at step therefore has size at mostHere minimality of applies to every nonempty subset , and the empty case has size zero. Summing proves the lemma. Iteration gives . Apply the Ruzsa triangle inequality with , to obtainThis derives the required Plünnecke-Ruzsa inequality. In characteristic two, subtraction is addition, so for every positive integer .
Fix and translate to , which contains zero, has size , and has the same doubling constant. Choose . A uniformly random linear map kills each specified nonzero vector with probability . The union bound shows that some satisfiesBecause , all lower iterated sumsets lie in . In particular is injective on , since the difference of two elements belongs to . For , the density is at least . This proves injective linear modelling of a small sumset.
We next prove the Finite-field Bogolyubov lemma in this model. Write and use normalized real Fourier coefficients on a finite abelian group . LetBy Parseval identity, . Thus is a vector subspace of codimension at most .
For , Fourier inversion of the fourfold normalized convolution givesAll terms with are nonnegative, and the zero-frequency term is . The absolute contribution from the remaining frequencies is at mostHence the convolution is positive and . Also .
For each , choose its lift . It is unique because two lifts differ by an element of , which is zero. For , the discrepancybelongs to , so it vanishes. Also . Therefore is a linear map and its image is a vector subspace with . This establishes lifting a subspace through a Freiman model without assuming that arbitrary choices of preimages preserve addition.
Finally, is a union of -cosets. The number of these cosets is at mostChoose representatives from . Then , so adjoining these representatives and to gives a vector subspace containing . Over , adjoining each vector multiplies the size by at most two. Since , the Freiman-Ruzsa bound from Bogolyubov and linear modelling yieldsThis bound depends only on , as required, and every sumset estimate used in its derivation has been proved.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2015 iii Paper 2 4 Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-06
Define the exterior square over the arbitrary field by . Write the image of as . Then and ; the basis is with , in characteristic two as well. The exterior-power Lie algebra representation isThe tensor product of Lie algebra representations descends to this quotient: is a linear combination of square tensors, namely . On the wedge basis its coefficients follow directly from the original representing matrices. Expanding both actions shows .
The inclusions of and into their direct sum define the mapA combined basis shows that this sends a basis to the pure-, pure- and mixed wedge basis vectors, with no overlap and no omission. The defining action on each wedge proves equivariance. Hence the exterior square of a direct sum givesNo division by is involved, so the proof remains valid in characteristic two.
For the complex special linear Lie algebra , write for the irreducible highest-weight representation with Dynkin labels , and . First the sl3 decomposition of the symmetric-square dual tensor product isIndeed contraction is a surjective Lie algebra representation homomorphism onto . Its 15-dimensional kernel contains the highest-weight vector of weight . The Weyl dimension formula gives , and the Weyl complete reducibility theorem identifies the kernel and splits the map. With , the direct-sum identity reduces the requested calculation to , and .
For completeness, these decompositions can be checked entirely by formal characters. Let , , and . Then . The Weyl character formula takes the determinant formSubstitute into and collect the determinant characters. This gives the exterior square of the sl3 representation of highest weight (2,1) and the sl3 highest-weight tensor rule:The first line has dimensions ; the tensor product has dimension . Equivalently, enumerate weights with the sl3 interlacing character formula and subtract characters from the highest weight downwards. FinallyIts dimension is . The exterior square here is taken of the entire 18-dimensional tensor product; taking it only of would be a different representation.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2016 iii Paper 102 4 Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-06
Start with the tensor product of Lie algebra representations, whose action isWriting , the two tensor factors commute, so . This verifies the Lie algebra representation identity over every field.
The exterior square and symmetric square are the quotient vector spacesIn the exterior square, expanding shows that , including in characteristic two. Both defining relation spaces are invariant under the tensor product action: is an exterior relation, and the image of a symmetric relation is a sum of symmetric relations. Thus the quotient actions are well-defined and satisfyFor the printed basis , bases are with and with . Their dimensions are and respectively.
If is invertible in , as representations. Define the flip . It commutes with the Lie algebra action and satisfies . Thereforeare complementary invariant linear projections. The mapsidentify with and with . Their inverses are the corresponding quotient maps restricted to these subspaces. This proves the assertion for every field of odd characteristic, and also for characteristic zero.
Over every field, . The symmetric square of a direct sum isomorphism sends the first two summands into products within and within , and sends to the mixed product . If and are bases, the monomial basis of is the disjoint unionThus the map is bijective, with no division by needed. The Leibniz rule for the action preserves each of these three summands and agrees with its usual Lie algebra representation action, proving equivariance.
For , is trivial and has dimension . HenceIt remains to find the irreducible representations in the symmetric square of the sl3 representation of highest weight (2,1). We give the formal character calculation explicitly.
Let be the defining special linear Lie algebra representation. In Dynkin labels, its weights are , , and ; the dual representation has their negatives. The equivariant contractionis surjective. Its kernel has dimension . The tensor is a highest-weight vector of highest weight in that kernel. By the Weyl complete reducibility theorem, the kernel contains the irreducible representation , whose Weyl dimension formula gives dimension ; therefore the kernel equals . This yieldsMultiplying the six weights of by the three weights of and subtracting those of gives the following full weight multiplicity list:The multiplicities sum to .
For any finite-dimensional weight-space decomposition, a weight of multiplicity contributes to weight in its symmetric square. Distinct weights contribute to . Equivalently,Applying this to the displayed list gives all dominant weight multiplicities in the second column below. The remaining columns are the weight multiplicities of the candidate irreducible representations:For an explicit way to compute each irreducible column, set and use the Weyl character formula in the formA monomial has Dynkin labels . Equivalently, the quotient is enumerated by Semistandard Young tableaux of shape with entries , weakly increasing across rows and strictly increasing down columns; the exponents count the three entries.
The five irreducible columns sum to the column. These are all its dominant weights, and all five candidate characters have no other dominant weights. Every Weyl group orbit meets the dominant chamber, and weight multiplicities are constant on Weyl group orbits. Thus the table proves equality of the full formal characters, and the Weyl complete reducibility theorem givesThe Weyl dimension formula checks the result:Consequently the requested decomposition isIts total dimension is .
Semistandard homomorphism theorem 2026-10-14
A filling of shape and content defines a module homomorphism : given a numbered tableau, sum over distinct assignments obtained by permuting within its rows, and put each numbered entry into output row when its assigned label is . Restricting to gives . For Semistandard Young tableaux , these restrictions are linearly independent over every field. They form a basis of if the characteristic of a field is not two, or if is a two-regular partition of an integer. For two-singular shapes in characteristic two, they need not span. Column antisymmetrization and triangular leading tabloids establish independence; straightening the images of a cyclic polytabloid establishes spanning under the stated hypotheses.
Simple bivector 2026-10-14
A simple bivector can be expressed as one exterior product of two vectors. Changing the pair need not change its area element: for every scalar , by bilinearity and . This operation shears the represented parallelogram while preserving its oriented area.
Every bivector in a real vector space of dimension at most three is simple, but this fails in dimension four. For an ordered basis , considerThe two components describe independent coordinate planes. Their square iswhereas because the factors repeat. Thus this cannot be one simple bivector. Over the real numbers in dimension four, the converse also holds: a nonzero bivector with is simple. The nonzero factor two is important; that criterion cannot be applied unchanged in characteristic two.
sl2 matrix commutator example Created 2026-10-14 Updated 2026-10-20
Over a field , the trace-zero matrices form the special linear Lie algebra . The matrix trace of a commutator is zero, so this is a Lie subalgebra of the general linear Lie algebra. A basis isIn fact , uniquely. The individual products areSubtracting in the stated order givesFor characteristic different from two, this is the standard sl2 triple; see Etingof, Section 11.4. The products remain valid in characteristic two, but there is central and , so the familiar characteristic zero structure changes.
The following table gives all nine basis brackets. Each entry is ; the diagonal vanishes by alternation, and exchanging row and column reverses the sign.
Bilinearity now computes any commutator, for exampleThe three structure constants of a Lie algebra relations encode all of this multiplication. They also show why the sl2 triple is useful in Lie algebra representations: the actions of and move between eigenvalues of the action of in steps of two.
Symmetric square of a direct sum Created 2026-10-06 Updated 2026-10-14
Over every field, including characteristic two, there is a natural isomorphismThe middle summand maps to the mixed product . Monomial bases prove bijectivity, and the Leibniz rule makes the map equivariant for Lie algebra representations.
Symmetrization map in characteristic two 2026-10-25
Over a field of characteristic two, the linear map , , has kernel of a linear map the symmetric matrices, of dimension . Its image of a linear map is the linear subspace of symmetric matrices with zero diagonal, of dimension . Indeed, means , and every symmetric zero-diagonal matrix is the image of the matrix obtained by retaining just its entries above the diagonal. Thus the two dimensions still add to , as required by the rank-nullity theorem.

