Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge / 2017 / ii / Paper 4 / 18G / b

The Clebsch-Gordan decomposition for SU2 statesRealize the tensor product as polynomials of bidegree $(m,n)$ in $(x_1,y_1)$ and $(x_2,y_2)$. The determinant $D=x_1{y}_2-y_1{x}_2$ is invariant under the simultaneous SU2 action. For each $r$, the vectorhas torus weight $q=m+n-2r$ and is killed by $E=x_1{\partial }_{y_1}+x_2{\partial }_{y_2}$. Applying $F=y_1{\partial }_{x_1}+y_2{\partial }_{x_2}$ produces $q+1$ nonzero vectors of distinct weights, with $F^{q+1}{v}_r=0$. The relations $[E,F]=H$ and $H{v}_r=q{v}_r$ give $E{F}^j{v}_r=j(q-j+1)F^{j-1}{v}_r$, so their span is an irreducible copy of $V_q$.

These irreducible submodules have distinct highest weights and form a direct sum: a sum of earlier ones cannot contain an irreducible module inequivalent to all its summands. Equivalently use complete reducibility, obtained by averaging an inner product over the compact group. Assuming $m\le n$, their total dimension iswhich equals the dimension of the tensor product. Hence they exhaust it, proving the theorem.