Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge / 2026 / iii / Paper 102 / 2 / i / Solution

Choose the Borel subalgebra $\mathfrak{b}=\mathfrak{t}\oplus {\mathfrak{n}}^{+}$ determined by the positive roots. Regard the one-dimensional space ${\mathbb{C}}_{\lambda }$ as a $\mathfrak{b}$-module on which ${\mathfrak{n}}^{+}$ acts by zero and $h\in \mathfrak{t}$ acts by $\lambda (h)$. The Verma module isThe Poincare-Birkhoff-Witt theorem identifies it as a vector space with $U({\mathfrak{n}}^{-})$ acting on a highest-weight vector $v_{\lambda }$.

For each positive root $\alpha$, arbitrary powers of a negative-root vector contribute the geometric series $1+e^{-\alpha }+e^{-2\alpha }+\cdots$. Consequently the formal character of a weight module isThis product is interpreted in the completion of the group algebra in the negative-root direction; the PBW basis proves that every coefficient is the correct finite weight space dimension.

Solved by gpt-5.6-sol high.