Past exam of the groups and representations course of the University of Oxford / 2022 / 2 / a / Solution

Normalize the simple roots to $({\alpha }_i,{\alpha }_i)=2$. The A2 root system has $({\alpha }_1,{\alpha }_2)=-1$, so its Dynkin diagram is two nodes joined by one bond:The fundamental weights satisfy $({\omega }_i,{\alpha }_j)={\delta }_{ij}$. Hence the Gram matrix in the fundamental weight basis, the metric for Dynkin label coordinates, isFor weights of a representation with Dynkin labels $a$ and $b$, their inner product is $a^{T}Gb$. In the simple root basis the metric is instead $A$ itself; stating the basis removes this apparent convention ambiguity.