G2 root system ($G_2$)

The $G_2$ root system has six short and six long roots. For a short simple root ${\alpha }_1$ and a long simple root ${\alpha }_2$, its positive roots are

These are the root data associated with G2.

If two simple roots have angle $5\pi /6$, normalize them to unit vectors $u,v$ with $(u,v)=-\sqrt{3}/2$. For any other unit simple root $w$, set $r=(u,w)\le 0$, $s=(v,w)\le 0$. Its three-root Gram matrix has determinant $1/4-r^2-s^2-\sqrt{3}rs$. Any nonzero $r$ or $s$ has absolute value at least $1/2$, contradicting positive definiteness. Thus all other simple roots are orthogonal to $u,v$. An irreducible root system containing this triple bond must be the rank-two G2 root system.

For a short root $\alpha$ in the G2 root system, restriction of the Adjoint representation to the sl2 subalgebra associated with a root givesHere $V(n)$ is the irreducible sl2 Lie algebra representation of highest weight $n$ and dimension $n+1$. Every nonzero root vector $x\in {\mathfrak{g}}_{\alpha }$ has $\dim Z_{\mathfrak{g}}(x)=6$: the raising operator has a one-dimensional kernel in each of these six irreducible summands.

For short and long simple roots $\alpha ,\beta$ of $G_2$, the long roots form an $A_2$ root system with simple roots ${\delta }_1=\beta$ and ${\delta }_2=3\alpha +\beta$. If ${\omega }_1,{\omega }_2$ are the corresponding $A_2$ fundamental weights, then $\alpha ={\omega }_2-{\omega }_1$ and ${\alpha }^{\vee }={\delta }_2^{\vee }-{\delta }_1^{\vee }$.

The seven-dimensional fundamental $G_2$ representation has weights zero and the six short roots. Under its long-root $A_2$ subalgebra, these are the weights of the defining three-dimensional representation, its dual, and the trivial representation: