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 Adjoint representation of G2 has one weight at each of its twelve roots and two at zero. Its six long roots form the A2 root system; together with the two zero weights they give the Adjoint representation of SU(3). The remaining six short roots form the weight systems of its defining representation and dual representation. Hence restriction to the long-root SU(3) gives $14=8\oplus 3\oplus \overline{3}$. This is a branching of a representation; the complement is invariant under the subgroup, not under the full G2 action.

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: