Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge / 2018 / iii / Paper 102 / 2

Use the coroot normalization ${\alpha }^{\vee }=2\alpha /(\alpha ,\alpha )$, with the pairing understood via the root system and its invariant inner product. A dominant integral weight, called a dominant weight here, is a functional $\lambda \in {\mathfrak{t}}^{\ast }$ such thatEquivalently, $\lambda ={\sum }_i{n}_i{\omega }_i$ with $n_i\in {\mathbb{Z}}_{\ge 0}$, where the fundamental weights satisfy $⟨{\omega }_i,{\alpha }_j^{\vee }⟩={\delta }_{ij}$. If dominance and integrality are defined separately, dominance means the inequalities and membership in the weight lattice means integrality.

A highest-weight vector is a nonzero weight vector $v\in V_{\lambda }$, so $h\cdot v=\lambda (h)v$ for all $h\in \mathfrak{t}$, annihilated by every positive root space:The last condition is equivalently annihilation by the raising operators for the simple roots.

Fix a simple root ${\alpha }_i$ and choose generators $e_i,f_i,h_i$ of the sl2 subalgebra associated with a root, with $h_i={\alpha }_i^{\vee }$ andThe highest-weight vector satisfies $e_{i}v=0$ and $h_{i}v=m_{i}v$, where $m_i=⟨\lambda ,{\alpha }_i^{\vee }⟩$. The classification of finite-dimensional sl2 representations already implies that $m_i$ is a nonnegative integer. One can also see the necessary integrality directly from the lowering operator.

Indeed, $f_i^{k}v$, if nonzero, has $h_i$ eigenvalue $m_i-2k$. These distinct eigenvalues cannot occur indefinitely in a finite-dimensional space, so there is a largest $r\ge 0$ with $f_i^{r}v\ne 0$. The sl2 Lie algebra relations imply, by induction on $k$,For $k=r+1$ the left side is zero, hence $(r+1)(m_i-r)f_i^{r}v=0$. Thus $m_i=r\in {\mathbb{Z}}_{\ge 0}$. Since this holds for every simple root,

Choose the given short root $\alpha$ as a simple root, and let $\beta$ be the long simple root. This entails no loss of generality: the Weyl group is transitive on the short roots of the G2 root system. The relevant Cartan integers are $⟨\beta ,{\alpha }^{\vee }⟩=-3$ and $⟨\alpha ,{\beta }^{\vee }⟩=-1$. The positive roots areUnder ${\mathfrak{m}}_{\alpha }\cong {\mathfrak{sl}}_2$, the root space for $m\alpha +n\beta$ has $h_{\alpha }$ eigenvalue $2m-3n$. The subalgebra ${\mathfrak{m}}_{\alpha }$ itself is the three-dimensional irreducible $V(2)$ in the Adjoint representation.

The four root spaces along the root string $\beta ,\alpha +\beta ,2\alpha +\beta ,3\alpha +\beta$ have eigenvalues $-3,-1,1,3$. Consecutive spaces are connected by nonzero raising operators and lowering operators, so their sum is $V(3)$. The negative root string supplies another $V(3)$. The root spaces for $\pm (3\alpha +2\beta )$ have eigenvalue zero, and neither adding nor subtracting $\alpha$ gives a root; they are two copies of $V(0)$. Finally, the one-dimensional space $\ker \alpha \subset \mathfrak{t}$ commutes with ${\mathfrak{m}}_{\alpha }$, giving one more $V(0)$. We have accounted for all $14$ dimensions, and therefore the G2 adjoint branching to a short-root sl2 subalgebra isFor a nonzero root vector $x\in {\mathfrak{g}}_{\alpha }$, its Adjoint representation action is a nonzero scalar multiple of the raising operator on each summand. On each irreducible $V(n)$ this operator has a one-dimensional kernel, including $V(0)$. Since the Lie algebra centralizer is that kernel,

Suppose first that $x\ne 0$, and let $E$ be the real span of the root system, of dimension equal to the rank of a semisimple Lie algebra $\ell$. The images of the roots span $E/\mathbb{R}\alpha$, so select roots ${\beta }_1,\dots ,{\beta }_{\ell -1}$ whose images form a basis of this quotient.

For each $i$, take the highest endpoint ${\gamma }_i^{+}$ of the $\alpha$ root string through ${\beta }_i$, and the highest endpoint ${\gamma }_i^{-}$ of the root string through $-{\beta }_i$. By construction, ${\gamma }_i^{\pm }+\alpha$ is not a root. Moreover ${\gamma }_i^{\pm }\ne -\alpha$, since their images in $E/\mathbb{R}\alpha$ are nonzero. The root-space decomposition and its bracket rule therefore giveThese $2(\ell -1)$ roots are distinct: their quotient images are the two signs of a basis, which are distinct. Their one-dimensional root spaces consequently contribute $2(\ell -1)$ independent vectors to the Lie algebra centralizer.

In addition, the $\ell -1$ dimensional subspace $\ker \alpha \subset \mathfrak{t}$ commutes with $x$, because $[h,x]=\alpha (h)x$. The line $\mathbb{C}x\subset {\mathfrak{g}}_{\alpha }$ also commutes with $x$. These contributions are independent by the root-space decomposition; in particular none of the selected endpoint roots is $\alpha$. Thus the centralizer lower bound for a root vector isIf $x=0$, then $Z_{\mathfrak{g}}(x)=\mathfrak{g}$. The root system contains the $2\ell$ distinct roots $\pm {\alpha }_i$, so $\dim \mathfrak{g}=\ell +|\Phi |\ge 3\ell$, which also proves the desired inequality. The argument includes rank one, where the list of ${\beta }_i$ is empty.