Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2009 iii Paper 6 4 i Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-14
Let be a complex semisimple Lie algebra, choose a Cartan subalgebra and positive root system , and put . For a dominant integral weight , let be the finite-dimensional highest-weight representation with highest weight . The Weyl dimension formula isHere is the coroot, the pairing is between a weight and a coroot, and is the Weyl vector. The inner product can be any Weyl group invariant normalization on each simple factor: its scaling cancels from the ratios. The dominance condition means that is a nonnegative integer for each simple root.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2010 iii Paper 1 3 Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-14
Use the traceless diagonal Cartan subalgebra of the special linear Lie algebra . Write , so . The standard coordinate vectors are weight vectors of weights , and the tensor product of Lie algebra representations has basisThe weight of this basis vector is . There are two possibilities:The first has basis , with the wedge ordered if necessary. In the second, the tensor's first factor can be any one of the three indicated coordinate vectors. No two different listed coefficient patterns restrict to the same functional on the traceless diagonal Cartan subalgebra: their difference would have to be a multiple of , but its coefficient sum is zero. All unlisted weight spaces are zero. As a check,For , the distinct-index weight is zero and has multiplicity three.
To determine the irreducible summands, take the upper triangular raising operators. The vector is killed by every such operator and has highest weight . The exterior product mapis a Lie algebra representation homomorphism. It has an equivariant right inverseIndeed . The vector is a highest-weight vector of weight .
The Weyl complete reducibility theorem and highest-weight representation theory show that generates an irreducible summand in . To check that it exhausts this kernel, use the Weyl dimension formula with the partition :This equals . The exterior-power Lie algebra representation is irreducible, with highest weight for , and is the one-dimensional trivial representation for . Therefore the tensor product of the standard representation with its exterior square givesEach summand occurs once; their dimensions are and .
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2013 iii Paper 1 5 Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-14
Choose a positive system of a root system and the corresponding triangular decomposition of a Lie algebra . A primitive element of a Lie algebra representation of weight is a nonzero vector with for every and . Thus it is a highest-weight vector; the choice of positive roots is part of this definition. A highest-weight representation is generated by such a vector.
Let be the corresponding Borel subalgebra. Define its one-dimensional Lie algebra representation by the scalar on and zero on . This respects the Lie bracket, since . The induced Verma moduleis nonzero: the Poincaré-Birkhoff-Witt theorem identifies its underlying vector space with , and is a primitive element of weight . Its weight spaces are finite dimensional, its top weight space is the line , and all other weights are with and at least one positive coefficient.
A proper submodule cannot contain , because generates . More strongly it has no component of weight : any finite sum of distinct weight vectors can be projected onto its individual components by a polynomial in a generic element of . Therefore the sum of all proper submodules still misses the top weight line and is proper. It contains every proper submodule, so the irreducible quotient of a Verma moduleis irreducible and retains the nonzero primitive element . This constructs the requested representation for every . It is not asserted to be finite dimensional for arbitrary .
For the sl2 Lie algebra, use , and , with , , . The classification of finite-dimensional sl2 representations gives one irreducible for every integer . In a basis its action iswhere . These formulas satisfy the three Lie brackets. Any nonzero invariant subspace contains a weight vector by polynomial projection using ; repeated application of gives , and applications of then give the entire basis. Thus is irreducible.
Conversely, in any finite-dimensional irreducible module, start with an eigenvector of and apply until reaching a nonzero vector with . This process terminates because increases the eigenvalue by two and only finitely many eigenvalues occur. Write . The sl2 highest-weight lowering formula givesLet and , which again follows from the finite set of weights. Applying to the latter identity yields , so . The resulting distinct weight vectors span an invariant subspace, hence the entire irreducible module. Therefore and its primitive weight is , with ; its weights are .
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 302 3 Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-14
Let be the coroots. With a chosen set of simple roots, the root lattice and weight lattice areThe fundamental weights are defined by , and form an integral basis of . We use the Cartan matrix convention .
For the A2 root system, inversion of its Cartan matrix yields the A2 fundamental weights and weight lattice:Equivalently and . The root lattice has index three in the weight lattice, since the change-of-basis matrix has determinant three. For a planar realization takeThe weight lattice is triangular. In fundamental weight coordinates , a point is in the root lattice exactly when is divisible by three. The following sketch marks both bases and the sublattice:
The integers called Dynkin indices here are the Dynkin labels of the highest weight:For finite-dimensional Irreducible Lie algebra representations, they are nonnegative integers. All weight coordinates below are these Dynkin label coordinates, not simple-root coordinates.
A weight-string enumeration algorithm gives the set of weights without their weight multiplicities. Begin with and process known weights by increasing height below . For each simple root and known weight , find the largest with a weight; all such higher weights have already been processed. The weight string theorem says that the string has endpoints , , withand includes every intermediate step. Append and repeat until no new weights appear. This terminates in finite dimension and supplies all weights; every nonhighest weight can be reached by simple-root lowering. A string can contain contributions from several sl2 summands, so the resulting set does not by itself determine weight multiplicities.
For the explicit calculation we use the following general facts: finite-dimensional representations of a complex semisimple Lie algebra are completely reducible by the Weyl complete reducibility theorem; the symmetric powers of the defining sln representation are irreducible of highest weight ; and weights in a tensor product of Lie algebra representations add with multiplicities multiplied. We also use the highest-weight representation classification: each finite-dimensional irreducible has a unique dominant integral highest weight, and a nonzero vector killed by all simple-root raising operators supplies an irreducible summand with that highest weight in a completely reducible module. For , the Weyl dimension formula specializes toFor , the defining fundamental representation has weights . Thus the A2 representation of highest weight (2,0) is , with the six distinct weightsEach has multiplicity one: these are the weights of the six quadratic monomials.
For the tensor square of the A2 representation of highest weight (2,0), add every ordered pair of elements of . To list the complete answer compactly, define four disjoint weight sets:The tensor product has multiplicity one at each point of , two at each point of , three at each point of , and four at each point of . These fifteen distinct weights account for states.
We next identify the irreducible summands rather than just their dimensions. Split the tensor square of the six-dimensional space into its symmetric power and exterior power, of dimensions and . The square of a highest-weight vector in the symmetric part has highest weight , giving of dimension .
Let be vectors of weights and . In the exterior part has weight and is killed by both simple-root raising operators: raising along gives a multiple of , whose wedge with itself is zero, and the other raising actions vanish. Thus it is a highest-weight vector. The Weyl dimension formula gives , so the entire exterior part is this irreducible summand.
The remaining symmetric part has dimension six. To identify it, the fifteen weights of are exactlyeach once. Subtract them from the unordered-pair weights of . The residual weights are , each once, with highest weight . They are the negatives of , so this six-dimensional summand is . ConsequentlyThe corresponding dimensions are ; complete reducibility and the exhibited highest weights ensure that no summands are missing.
The full weight multiplicities in the A2 tensor square of highest weight (2,0) are summarized below. An entry is the multiplicity of each individual weight in that row's set:Thus has all fifteen weights once, has the six weights once, and has its nine boundary weights once and its three interior weights twice. Only the three interior weights of are degenerate among the irreducible components.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2017 iii Paper 302 3 Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-14
The triple bond in the original Dynkin diagram gives the Cartan integerswhere is the long root and the short root. Their product is , and the inner product of distinct simple roots is nonpositive. The ratio of the two integers gives the squared-length ratio. ThereforeIt is convenient to normalize , and . Scaling the inner product does not affect the root system or the fundamental-weight relations.
For nonproportional roots , the root-string theorem states that the root string is consecutive:The endpoints are maximal, and reflection in reverses the string. The Cartan integer determines , not in general the total by itself. This result follows by restricting the Adjoint representation to the sl2 subalgebra associated with a root. If the roots are distinct simple roots, cannot be a root: its simple-root coefficients have opposite signs. Thus andHere length means number of roots; the number of intervals between them is one less. Distinctness matters. If , a reduced root system gives the set , with a missing zero between them, so the consecutive-string theorem and the displayed simple-root formula do not apply.
In the G2 root system, the initial strings areFor , . Since is not a root in a reduced root system, and : this generates . The remaining strings explain why the construction stops. The -strings through and are the same two-element string; the one through is a singleton since subtracting gives , and its Cartan integer is zero; the one through is the string . The -strings through , , and are the initial four-element string. Finally, is orthogonal to ; its -string is a singleton because is not a root. Apply the same reasoning to negatives. Using the permitted completeness of this procedure givesThe short positive roots are , of squared length two; the other three are long, of squared length six. Each root space is one-dimensional and the Cartan subalgebra has dimension two, soHere the dimension refers to the Lie algebra, with one Cartan generator per rank, not just the number of roots.
Write a prospective weight as . The pairings with simple coroots areThe fundamental weights are dual to those coroots. Solving the two linear systems gives, in the long-root-first numbering of this paper,The representation with Dynkin labels has highest weight , a short root. Numbering the short root first, as some references do, would call this the representation instead; the representation itself is unchanged.
The weight set of a finite-dimensional irreducible highest-weight representation is invariant under the Weyl group and lies in the convex hull of the orbit of its highest weight. All weights also differ from the highest weight by an element of the root lattice. The orbit of comprises the six short roots, so all six are weights. The lowering operators give the chainIn particular zero occurs: at weight , its pairing with is two, so the lowering operator is nonzero by the finite-dimensional sl2 Lie algebra representation theory. The -string through it is the usual three-weight string ; higher weight would lie outside the highest-weight convex hull.
There can be no further weights. Every point of that convex hull has squared norm at most , while a root-lattice point hasThe integer solutions of the bound are precisely zero and the six short roots: gives ; gives ; and gives . ThusThe final dimension uses the stipulated nondegeneracy of the weights. It also agrees with the Weyl dimension formula without that stipulation. The zero weight is not in the Weyl orbit of the nonzero weights, so this is not a minuscule representation.
In the diagram above, a coordinate label means . The left panel contains all twelve roots of a root system; the right panel contains the six short-root weights and the zero weight. The long-root-first convention is the same as in the calculations.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2018 iii Paper 102 4 a Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-05
For a dominant integral weight , let be the finite-dimensional irreducible highest-weight representation with highest weight . Set , the half-sum of positive roots. With the coroot of , the Weyl dimension formula isHere is the positive system of a root system specified by the chosen root basis. The fundamental weights are the basis dual to the simple coroots: . Thus with nonnegative integers . The denominators are positive; equivalently one can use in each factor, since the coroot normalization cancels.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2018 iii Paper 102 5 a Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-05
The formal character of a weight module is , where are formal basis symbols in the group algebra of the weight lattice, satisfying . For a finite-dimensional irreducible highest-weight representation, the highest weight has weight multiplicity one. Another standard result is that weight multiplicities are invariant under the Weyl group: .
A minuscule representation has all its weights in a single Weyl group orbit. Since the highest weight is present, that orbit is , and the invariance just stated shows every point of it is present with multiplicity one. Consequently the formal character of a minuscule representation isThe sum is over distinct weights, rather than over all elements of : summing over would count each weight times.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2018 iii Paper 102 5 c Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-05
We first prove the useful lemma that dominant root-lattice highest weights have zero weight. Write for the root lattice, and let a dominant integral weight be the highest weight of a finite-dimensional irreducible representation.
First, is a nonnegative integral combination of simple roots. Indeed, write , separating its positive and negative coefficients in the root basis. The two parts have disjoint supports, and distinct simple roots have nonpositive inner product, so . If , thenOn the other hand, dominance gives for each simple root, hence . This contradiction proves .
Now suppose a nonzero weight has all . The identityshows that some satisfies and . We use the standard sl2 Lie algebra fact that its lowering operator is injective on any positive eigenspace in a finite-dimensional representation. This follows from the classification of finite-dimensional sl2 representations: in each irreducible , the only weight killed by the lowering operator is the lowest weight .
Consequently a nonzero vector of weight lowers to a nonzero vector of weight . Its simple-root coefficients remain nonnegative and their sum decreases by one. Starting at , repeated lowering must therefore reach the zero weight. Notice that intermediate weights need not remain dominant; positivity of the chosen coroot pairing is enough at each step.
For a minuscule representation, every weight belongs to , so the zero weight just obtained lies in this orbit. Every Weyl group element is invertible, and forces . This proves that minuscule weights in the root lattice are zero. Under the assumption , every possible highest weight lies in , henceHere is the one-dimensional trivial Lie algebra representation, by the classification of finite-dimensional irreducible highest-weight representations.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2024 iii Paper 102 1 a i Solution Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-09-25
Write for the standard generators of the sl2 Lie algebra. For the representation , use the normalizationThis is the quadratic Casimir element, and by assumption it commutes with every .
Schur lemma says that an endomorphism of a finite-dimensional irreducible complex representation which commutes with the representation is a scalar. Hence when is irreducible.
Let be a highest-weight vector of highest weight , so and . Since ,ThereforeIt follows from scalarity thatThis is the Casimir eigenvalue for sl2 in the chosen normalization.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2024 iii Paper 302 4 e Solution Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-09-25
For , the simple-coroot coordinates are and . Solving for the fundamental weights givesHence , , and . The weight is the fundamental weight of the short root, and its highest-weight representation is the seven-dimensional fundamental representation of . Its weights are zero and the six short roots.
sl3 highest-weight tensor rule Created 2026-10-06 Updated 2026-10-14
For the complex special linear Lie algebra , tensoring an irreducible highest-weight representation by the defining representation gives the displayed sum, omitting terms with negative Dynkin labels. It follows by multiplying its Weyl character formula by . In particular , with dimensions .
sl3 interlacing character formula 2026-10-06
For the special linear Lie algebra , the irreducible highest-weight representation with Dynkin labels has the displayed formal character on diagonal matrices with . The interlacing rows , and enumerate a Gelfand–Tsetlin basis; each triple contributes the exponent differences as its weight. This gives exact integer weight multiplicities, including repeated weights, without floating-point character evaluation.
Symmetric cubic representation of SU(3) 2026-10-14
The degree-three monomials , with , form a basis of this ten-dimensional highest-weight representation. Its highest monomial is , and and generate every basis monomial. Its Dynkin labels are , and the weight of a monomial is . In coordinates , the ten weights form four horizontal rows of lengths , all with weight multiplicity one. The baryon decuplet realizes this representation of approximate flavor symmetry.
// Target: special-relativity.bigb
For the special linear Lie algebra , with Dynkin labels indexing irreducible highest-weight representations,The summands have dimensions , summing to . The identity follows from the formal character of a weight module formula and the Weyl character formula.
Virasoro Verma module 2026-10-14
The Virasoro Verma module is the universal highest-weight representation with central charge and ground weight . The Poincaré-Birkhoff-Witt theorem gives a basis with . Its invariant Hermitian form is fixed by and the norm of the ground vector. Quotienting by its maximal proper submodule produces the irreducible highest-weight module; in the unitary cases this removes the null vectors.
Let , and let be the dual basis. The equivariant contraction sends to . Its kernel has a weight basis consisting of for , for three distinct indices with , and for . The three families have sizes six, three and six. This is the irreducible fifteen-dimensional highest-weight representation with highest weight .
Weyl dimension formula for C2 2026-10-05
For the C2 root system with its first simple root short, the irreducible highest-weight representation of highest weight , where , has dimension

