A Poisson manifold is a smooth manifold with an antisymmetric contravariant tensor field such that the bracket
satisfies the Jacobi identity. Bilinearity, antisymmetry and the Leibniz rule follow directly from this formula. The Poisson bivector is allowed to be degenerate.
Apply the Jacobi identity to coordinate functions . Necessity gives the coordinate Jacobi condition for a Poisson bivector:
For sufficiency, expand . The terms differentiating are . All terms containing second derivatives cancel. For example, those containing have coefficient , which is antisymmetric under after contraction with , whereas is symmetric. The same argument handles the second derivatives of and . Thus the displayed condition is both necessary and sufficient.
A symplectic manifold has a smooth nondegenerate closed differential form of degree two. Write and choose the explicit inverse convention . This defines a smooth antisymmetric bivector. Differentiating the inverse matrix gives
Substitution into the Jacobi coefficient, followed by relabeling summed indices, gives
since the parentheses are the components of . Hence every symplectic manifold carries a Poisson structure. The opposite overall convention for the inverse bracket gives the same conclusion. Nondegeneracy and closure together are crucial; an arbitrary invertible antisymmetric tensor need not satisfy the Jacobi identity.
For a finite-dimensional Lie algebra , its dual space carries the Lie-Poisson bracket
where are identified with elements of . If and , this reads . The Jacobi coefficient is
which vanishes by the Lie algebra Jacobi identity.
In particular, the dual of is with the rotational Lie-Poisson structure on R3,
The Poisson bivector has rank two away from the origin and rank zero at the origin. The function is a Casimir function, since its bracket with every function vanishes. The centred spheres are its two-dimensional symplectic leaves, and the origin is a point leaf. This is a Poisson manifold but not a symplectic manifold: its bivector is not invertible, and an odd-dimensional manifold cannot have a nondegenerate alternating bilinear form.
A Poisson structure is a real bilinear operation on smooth functions on ,
which is antisymmetric, obeys the Jacobi identity, and is a derivation in each argument. Explicitly,
Antisymmetry supplies the corresponding Leibniz rule in the first argument. Equivalently it is a smooth Poisson bivector with and for the Schouten-Nijenhuis bracket. In local coordinates,
The last equation is the coordinate Jacobi identity. Nondegeneracy is not part of the definition: a Poisson structure may have Casimir functions and symplectic leaves of different dimensions.
A Hamiltonian system consists of such a Poisson manifold, a Hamiltonian , and the flow of its Hamiltonian vector field. Choose the convention
For an observable with no explicit time dependence, . In particular is conserved because . For the canonical Poisson bracket, this convention gives and .
Use the canonical representatives of functionals of : , . The formal pseudodifferential composition rule gives
and the reversed product has exchanged. Therefore
Multiplying by on the left, only the leading displayed commutator term can produce a residue. Differentiation of its coefficient produces powers at most , and multiplication by produces powers at most . Thus
and, with the trace convention of part (i),
There is no dependence in this bracket.
Moreover , so and . If is the distributional field bracket, it is characterized by
Since , the answer is
The Dirac delta is periodic in the periodic setting, or the ordinary Dirac delta on the real line with admissible test functions. This is the first Hamiltonian structure of the KdV equation, with Poisson operator . Its skewness follows by integration by parts; its coefficients are constant, so the functional Jacobi identity has no coefficient-variation terms.
A qualification is needed if the displayed trace formula is interpreted as a bracket on the reduced space for arbitrary operator representatives. Multiplication by a function gives , yet direct expansion gives
With on a period , the latter is . Hence the formula does not descend through every possible representative of a functional on this reduced affine space. The requested representatives, used consistently for variational gradients, give the well-defined constant field bracket just computed; a general restriction from the ambient operator algebra needs an appropriate reduction.
For based maps and , use the standard cell decomposition
The attaching map is obtained from the boundary of , collapsing the appropriate coordinate boundaries. The geometric Whitehead product is the homotopy class
Orient the product cell consistently with the ordinary product orientation. Its class depends only on the two homotopy classes, and it is natural: .
For it is additive in both variables:
Thus it is bilinear over , and after rationalization of a topological space over . In the geometric convention its symmetry is
For a genuine graded Lie convention, put a class in in shifted degree and set . Equivalently transport the Samelson product through reduced suspension and loop space adjunction. Writing , this bracket has degree zero, satisfies
and has the graded Jacobi identity
These are two equivalent sign presentations of the same Whitehead product. In particular the square of an odd-dimensional geometric class is two-torsion, whereas an even-dimensional sphere class can have a nonzero rational square. Reduced suspension kills Whitehead products, since the suspended attaching map of the product cell is null-homotopic. No proofs of these remaining algebraic properties are needed here.
Bilinearity has a specific fundamental-group exception. If both inputs lie in , the attaching loop of the torus is the commutator, so the operation is , with the possible inverse corresponding to reversal of its boundary orientation. This is not a homomorphism in either input in a general nonabelian group.
If one input is and the other is , , the product records the action difference , up to the fixed overall boundary sign. Choose the action convention matching that boundary orientation and write . Then
The second formula is a crossed-additivity law, not ordinary additivity in . It follows by expanding . Consequently the higher-homotopy variable remains additive, while the fundamental-group variable is generally not. If the action is trivial the mixed product is zero. This explains exactly where the usual bilinearity statement fails.
Work over with finite-dimensional Lie algebras and Lie algebra representation spaces. The adjoint form of Engel theorem is
Here a nilpotent Lie algebra has terminating lower central series, , . We prove the stronger linear statement: if , and every member of is a nilpotent endomorphism, then there is a nonzero killed by all of , and can be simultaneously represented by strictly upper triangular matrices.
For the proof of Engel theorem by induction and normalizers, first establish a useful nilpotence fact. If , left and right multiplication by on commute. Expanding their difference gives
For , every summand contains a power of at least , so . Restrictions and induced quotient maps remain nilpotent.
Now prove the common-kernel statement, the Engel lemma, by induction on . The zero algebra is immediate. Choose a maximal proper Lie subalgebra . Its action on by commutators consists of nilpotent maps by the preceding fact. Applying the lower-dimensional induction hypothesis to its image gives a nonzero coset with . Hence
The normalizer of a Lie subalgebra is a Lie subalgebra by the Jacobi identity. Maximality implies , so is an ideal of a Lie algebra. Moreover has no proper nonzero Lie subalgebra, and every one-dimensional subspace is a Lie subalgebra. Thus .
Induction also provides a nonzero common annihilator
It is stable under : for , , ,
because . Choose representing a basis of . The restriction of the nilpotent endomorphism to the nonzero space has nonzero kernel. A vector in this kernel is killed by both and , hence by all of . This finishes the induction. When an action is not faithful, induction is applied to its image, whose dimension is no larger than ; no faithfulness assumption is hidden.
Starting with the common-kernel line, apply the same statement to each successive quotient Lie algebra representation space. It constructs a complete flag of invariant subspaces
An adapted basis represents every member of by a strictly upper triangular matrix. Every product of such matrices is zero, so every iterated commutator with entries is zero as well.
Finally, if every on is nilpotent, apply the linear statement to the Adjoint representation. With , every product of adjoint operators vanishes, so . Conversely, if , then for all , proving the other implication. This proves Engel's theorem and its simultaneous-triangularization form. The hypothesis concerns every element of the algebra, not merely a chosen set of generators.
The Lie bracket is bilinear, so is a linear map. Rearranging the Jacobi identity gives
Thus
which is the defining Leibniz rule for a derivation of a Lie algebra. In particular is an inner derivation of a Lie algebra.
Apply the Jacobi identity to an arbitrary :
Thus the Adjoint representation of a Lie algebra preserves the Lie bracket:
The map is linear, so its kernel is a vector subspace of the matrix algebra. If , use to compute
Thus is closed under the commutator. This bracket is bilinear and satisfies . Associativity of matrix multiplication gives the Jacobi identity: expanding makes each of the six ordered triple products occur once with each sign. Therefore is a Lie algebra. No nonsingularity or symmetry assumption on was needed.
The Adjoint representation of a Lie algebra acts on the Lie algebra itself by . The Jacobi identity gives
Thus it is a Lie algebra representation. In the basis with , its matrices are
The column index labels the basis vector being acted on; this convention fixes the matrix signs.
Work in finite dimension over characteristic zero, as in the usual real or complex gauge algebras. A simple Lie algebra is nonabelian and has no nonzero proper Lie algebra ideal. A semisimple Lie algebra has no nonzero solvable ideal; equivalently it is a direct sum of simple ideals. The nondegenerate Killing form is . Its invariance follows from the representation identity and trace cyclicity:
For the reduction, take a nonzero proper ideal , if one exists, and define its Killing-orthogonal complement . Invariance makes it an ideal: for , , , . Moreover , because for , , and any ,
and the global Killing form is nondegenerate. Their intersection is consequently an abelian ideal: its elements lie in both commuting ideals. Semisimplicity forces that intersection to be zero. The dimension formula for a nondegenerate bilinear form then gives
The summands commute and are semisimple, since a solvable ideal in either summand would also be an ideal of . Repeating on smaller summands terminates in simple ideals. This proves the orthogonal ideal splitting for a nondegenerate Killing form and describes the required reduction; abelian one-dimensional factors do not occur in a semisimple algebra.
If with , invariance gives
so after lowering the output index with . The bracket already gives . These two adjacent transpositions generate all permutations, proving that the structure constants of a Lie algebra are completely antisymmetric. This is the antisymmetry of Killing-lowered structure constants; the scalar cancels in the chosen normalization.
For the gauge calculation write , , and . The representation generators here obey ; factors of and the gauge coupling are absorbed in this connection convention. Expanding the varied derivative gives
For this to equal , choose the gauge transformation in the derivative-plus-connection convention
Then all extra terms cancel, proving covariance of the gauge covariant derivative for arbitrary space-dependent parameters.
Apply both derivatives to a test field. The second derivatives commute and the terms involving one derivative of the field cancel, leaving the Yang-Mills field strength
Thus its components are
The already obtained variation can be written . The operator Jacobi identity then yields
or
Finally, with fixed space-time metric,
The contracted product is symmetric in , while is antisymmetric in those indices. Hence the Yang-Mills action density is gauge invariant, with the sign convention derived rather than assumed.
Use a finite-dimensional complex semisimple Lie algebra, or the complexification of its compact real form, as required for the root construction. Choose a Cartan subalgebra with basis . Simultaneous diagonalization of its adjoint action gives the root-space decomposition
The nonzero weights are the roots of a root system; each root space is one-dimensional in this setting, and roots occur in opposite pairs. This supplies the Cartan and root-vector basis.
The Jacobi identity gives
If the bracket is nonzero and , it is a nonzero vector in the root space of weight , so that sum is a root. The printed implication needs the opposite-root exception: for , can be a nonzero Cartan element, while zero is not a root. The supplied simple-root commutator itself gives this counterexample. This is the root bracket and the opposite-root exception.
Choose a real linear functional nonzero on every root; positive roots are those on which it is positive, and negative roots are their negatives. The simple roots are positive roots not decomposable into two positive roots. They form a basis of the root span, and every root is an integer combination
with all for a positive root and all for a negative root. Positive roots can be decomposed repeatedly until simple roots remain; the finite root set makes this procedure terminate.
For , has simple-root coefficients of both signs and is not a root. It is also nonzero, so the root-space bracket rule gives
The operators have the SU(2) Lie algebra normalization , . In a finite-dimensional representation, a vector killed by is a lowest-weight vector in its SU(2) summands. If its value is , those summands have spin , so
One can also read the termination from successive raising coefficients starting at the lowest weight.
Apply this result in the finite-dimensional Adjoint representation, taking the lowest-weight vector to be . The vanishing bracket just proved is its lowering condition. If , the lowest-weight result forces with a nonnegative integer. It also yields
The last identity is exactly the requested nested commutator. This is the SU(2) proof of the Serre relations, and the identities are the Serre relations in these Chevalley basis conventions.
To construct a highest-weight representation, start from its highest-weight vector and apply negative-root operators. Fix an order on the negative roots. The Poincaré-Birkhoff-Witt theorem gives spanning vectors
of weight . The spanning assertion follows by commuting all negative-root operators to the left, Cartan operators to the middle and positive-root operators to the right; commutators supply lower-order words, positive operators kill the highest-weight vector and Cartan operators act there by scalars. In the finite-dimensional highest-weight representation, impose the simple-root string relations and the commutator/Serre relations. At each weight retain a linearly independent set of the resulting words, discarding zero words and dependencies. This gives a basis, with separate independent vectors retained when a weight has multiplicity greater than one. The construction is finite in the assumed finite-dimensional representation; treating all lowering words as automatically independent would overcount.
For SU(3), put , and . The off-diagonal Cartan entries are minus one, so the Serre relations give . With , these imply
For , expand the commutator using Jacobi identity and the distinct-root brackets:
since . Similarly,
and the same calculation on gives . Thus
These signs also agree with the explicit model , , , , , .
For the SU(3) Casimir in Chevalley generators, set
Using , , and putting Cartan elements on the left, the four terms of are
Their sum is . The remaining terms give
The last two cancel, so . Also commutes with every Cartan polynomial and with each : their raising and lowering weights cancel in the product. Hence
On , and vanish and therefore vanishes as well. All three terms consequently give zero, leaving
The paper's normalization is relative to the conventional SU(3) quadratic Casimir eigenvalue. For example it gives in the fundamental representation, in the octet and in the decuplet.
Use the convention , with . Expanding the Jacobi identity on three basis elements gives
so each coefficient satisfies
Antisymmetry in the input indices makes this equivalent to
The vertical bars exclude the summed index from antisymmetrization.
In dimension three choose a nonzero contravariant volume form on and its dual , normalized to have component on an oriented basis. The three-dimensional Lie algebra structure decomposition starts with
The contraction identifies an antisymmetric pair of indices with one dual index. Every such matrix splits uniquely into its symmetric part and antisymmetric part. The latter has the unique representation
Thus is a symmetric contravariant tensor and a covector, and
Using gives the inverse formula
The factors follow from the unnormalized contraction in this particular question.
Only the alternating triple has to be checked. Substitution of the inverse formula into its Jacobiator gives
One can see the cancellation explicitly by using an auxiliary positive inner product and diagonalizing the symmetric matrix by an orientation-preserving orthogonal change of basis. If its diagonal entries are , the brackets are
In their Jacobiator, the terms involving two 's or two 's cancel and the remaining terms are . Returning to the original basis proves the displayed formula. Therefore
This imposes three algebraic conditions on the nine independent entries of the original antisymmetric structure constants; if , it must lie in the kernel of .
A symplectic manifold is a smooth manifold with a closed, nondegenerate two-form . Nondegeneracy forces . Examples are with , an oriented surface with a nowhere-zero area form, and every cotangent bundle with its canonical form.
A Poisson manifold has a bivector such that is an antisymmetric bilinear Poisson bracket, is a derivation in each argument, and satisfies the Jacobi identity. Its rank need not be full or constant. The zero bivector gives a Poisson manifold on any smooth manifold, including an odd-dimensional or nonorientable one. A nonzero example on is the Lie-Poisson bracket : it has rank two off the origin and rank zero at the origin, so it does not arise from a symplectic form on the whole three-dimensional space. Even on , is Poisson, since its Jacobi condition is a three-vector and hence vanishes, but its degeneracy on prevents it from being the inverse of a global symplectic form. A manifold carrying a degenerate Poisson structure might separately admit some other symplectic structure; these are distinct claims.
At each point of a symplectic manifold, linear nondegeneracy gives a basis with . Its top wedge product of differential forms is
Thus is a global nowhere-zero volume form and selects a consistent symplectic orientation. This proves every symplectic manifold is orientable without choosing a global frame.
Let and let a point of the cotangent bundle be with . Define the canonical Liouville one-form intrinsically by . In local coordinates it is , so
This definition is global, by , and its coordinate matrix has invertible blocks. Hence is symplectic for every smooth , even if itself is not orientable.
The coordinate Jacobi condition for a Poisson bivector is
Necessity follows by applying the Jacobi identity to three coordinate functions. For arbitrary functions, the second-derivative terms in the Jacobiator cancel by antisymmetry of ; the terms left are exactly this coefficient multiplying , proving sufficiency.
For a symplectic form, take and . With these signs the matrix of is . Differentiation gives . The cyclic expression above consequently equals
which vanishes because . This directly proves that a symplectic manifold defines a Poisson manifold.
Use and . For an actual infinitesimal left Lie group action, define . Its fundamental vector fields obey with this convention.
Existence and its global obstruction. Preservation of the symplectic form gives . By Cartan's magic formula, is closed. Locally it equals ; globally this requires its class in to vanish. If it does for every , choose potentials linearly in and define
This gives the component Hamiltonians of a weakly Hamiltonian action. The assumption in the question does not alone guarantee a global moment map: on with , translation in preserves , but its contraction is , whose integral around the circle is nonzero. It is not an exact one-form. Thus no global real-valued component Hamiltonian exists for that circle action. The intended construction is valid locally, or globally with this exactness condition, for example if .
Matching the Lie algebra. On each connected component, the moment-map equivariance obstruction is the constant
Indeed, the identities and show that its differential vanishes. The Jacobi identity for the Poisson bracket says
Changing by a linear constant changes to . Consequently the necessary and sufficient infinitesimal condition is the cocycle must be a coboundary, so that the constants can be chosen with
Equivalently its class in vanishes. For a connected group this infinitesimal equivariance integrates to equivariance under its coadjoint action. A disconnected group can impose additional conditions. Here “coincides” means representing the specified Lie brackets; it does not guarantee injectivity when the group action has ineffective generators.
Proof using the Killing form. A nondegenerate Killing form makes semisimple. First, it is perfect: the -orthogonal complement of is the center by invariance, and the center is zero by nondegeneracy. For symplectic fields,
by Cartan's magic formula and the antihomomorphism sign. Every commutator therefore has an exact contraction. Perfectness supplies component Hamiltonians for every generator, even when is not simply connected: this is Hamiltonian existence for a semisimple symplectic action.
It remains to eliminate the cocycle, not merely to name an existence theorem. Define a linear operator on by . Antisymmetry of makes skew for . Combining its cocycle identity with invariance of gives
Choose by , possible because is nondegenerate. Since is a derivation, . Cyclicity of the matrix trace then gives
Thus , and . Taking removes , proving the required condition. This applies to semisimple Lie groups, including for , and for . It is nondegeneracy, not positive definiteness, that matters. Groups with a nonzero central Lie algebra, such as , do not satisfy this Killing-form criterion, although particular actions can still have equivariant moment maps.
The isotropic oscillator. On , put
The action , , preserves the Hermitian norm and the symplectic form, and therefore preserves . A Hermitian matrix parametrizes the Lie algebra generator . Its unitary moment map of an isotropic oscillator is
Since , direct differentiation yields
The matrix is Hermitian and corresponds precisely to ; no central defect remains. The full moment map can be identified, using the pairing with Hermitian matrices, with the rank-one matrix . The central generator gives , whose flow is . Globally , so the “ factor” refers to this central circle, rather than a literal direct-product decomposition.
The real orthogonal subgroup acts geometrically by , the cotangent lift of a diffeomorphism of . If is real antisymmetric and , then . For , this is , so its three components are the usual angular momentum .
The remaining six independent Hermitian directions can be taken as real symmetric matrices. Their moment functions span
The diagonal ones are the individual oscillator energies; their sum is . The off-diagonal ones correlate two oscillator modes. Their flows mix positions and momenta and are not cotangent lifts of the obvious spatial rotation action: for a real symmetric , and , rather than , . All nine quadratic functions commute with , since the entire unitary group action preserves the oscillator Hamiltonian.