For the A2 root system, and . The weight lattice contains the root lattice with index three. In fundamental coordinates , root-lattice membership is .
Dominant root-lattice highest weights have zero weight Created 2026-10-05 Updated 2026-10-06
If a dominant integral weight lies in the root lattice, its finite-dimensional irreducible highest-weight representation contains zero as a weight. First is a nonnegative integral combination of simple roots: a negative part would have negative inner product with , contradicting dominance. For any nonzero weight with , the identity supplies an index with and . By Injectivity of sl2 lowering above weight zero, applying the corresponding lowering operator produces a nonzero vector of weight . Repetition reaches zero.
Multiply the Weyl character formula by the generating series of the Kostant partition function. In each numerator summand, the coefficient of occurs when . Summing those coefficients with the Weyl group signs proves the displayed weight multiplicity formula. Although need not itself be an integral group weight, is in the root lattice, so each partition-function argument is an integral weight.
By dominant root-lattice highest weights have zero weight, a minuscule weight in the root lattice has zero in its Weyl group orbit. Since every element of the Weyl group is invertible, the highest weight must itself be zero. Thus equality of the weight lattice and root lattice rules out every nontrivial minuscule representation without requiring a classification of root systems.
Give the real root span an inner product with orthonormal. The B2 root system consists of four short roots on the coordinate axes and four long roots on the diagonals. Choose the long-first simple roots
The positive roots are , and . The corresponding simple reflections are
They generate every signed permutation of the two coordinates. Thus the Weyl group has order eight and is the symmetry group of a square; every element sends to or , with independent signs.
Since form an integral basis of , the root lattice is . The simple coroots are and . Therefore the weight lattice is
Solving gives the fundamental weights
The cone of dominant weights is
Indeed and are exactly the two simple-coroot pairings. This describes representations of the Lie algebra, or of its simply connected Spin group; half-integral weights are allowed. For representations descending to itself, the weight must lie in , equivalently must be even.
Let be the real span of the roots in . The weight lattice is
where is the coroot in the root's sl2 subalgebra associated with a root, normalized by . It suffices to test the simple coroots. Equivalently, if defines the fundamental weights, then .
To prove integrality of representation weights on coroots, restrict a finite-dimensional module to the root's sl2 Lie algebra. By the classification of finite-dimensional sl2 representations, the eigenvalues of its Cartan element are integers. Thus every has . The simple coroots form a basis of the real Cartan space, so these integral values also put in . Therefore for every finite-dimensional representation in this setting. The weight lattice need not coincide with the smaller root lattice.
Use the corrected generating series of the Kostant partition function and the permitted Weyl character formula:
For a fixed , the coefficient of arises exactly when
There are only finitely many Weyl-group terms, and the partition function vanishes outside the cone of nonnegative root combinations. Coefficient extraction is therefore legitimate in the formal completion used in the preceding part. Summing the signed contributions proves
This proves the Kostant multiplicity formula for every compact connected Lie group, not just the unitary groups. In the presence of a central torus, roots have zero central component, so the partition function automatically gives zero for any incompatible central weight. Also need not itself be an integral weight for the given global group: always belongs to the root lattice, so every argument in the formula is nevertheless integral whenever and are integral group weights.
As a normalization check, for write a highest weight as the nonnegative integer , with positive root and . The two Weyl-group terms give
Since precisely when is even and nonnegative, this is one for and zero otherwise, including the cancellation below the lowest weight. This recovers the full familiar weight string.
The anti-Hermitian operators represent the compact real form; its complexification also contains the Hermitian and the raising operators and lowering operators , with . Define the roots in the two-dimensional Cartan plane by
Each has squared length one. For each , set
The displayed commutators give and . Thus these are the three root SU(2) subalgebras of SU(3).
The commuting Hermitian operators can be simultaneously diagonalized. A weight of a representation is a pair for which
where labels independent states of that representation weight. The weight multiplicity is the dimension of this simultaneous eigenspace. Commuting past a ladder operator proves
with zero image allowed when the raised or lowered representation weight is absent.
Choose as positive simple roots. A highest-weight vector is a nonzero simultaneous eigenvector annihilated by ; the third condition follows from the first two and their commutator. In an irreducible representation, its highest weight has multiplicity one and repeated lowering generates the representation. The three root SU(2) subalgebras of SU(3) give nonnegative integer Dynkin labels
Equivalently, with and ,
These are the SU(3) highest-weight coordinates in the normalization used here.
The Weyl group is generated by the reflections . The SU(2) Lie algebra root-string symmetry makes these reflections preserve both representation weights and their weight multiplicities. They generate the symmetries of an equilateral triangle: rotations through and three reflections. The outer polygon is the convex hull of the Weyl group orbit of . When it is a hexagon with alternating side lengths in root-step units; when exactly one is zero it is a triangle; when both vanish it is a point. The representation conjugate to has labels and negative representation weights. For , this gives an additional inversion symmetry and a regular hexagon with rotations. A general unequal-sided hexagon need not have that extra symmetry.
The shell multiplicities in an SU(3) weight diagram can be stated precisely. Let be the convex hull of the Weyl group orbit of . For in the root lattice coset ,
representation weights outside this coset or outside the outer polygon are absent. This states that boundary representation weights have multiplicity one, each inward shell adds one, and the innermost triangular region has constant multiplicity . When the innermost region is a single point. All representation weights of a triangular diagram have multiplicity one. Counting the diagram gives . The examples below display both triangular orientations, a regular hexagon, an unequal-sided hexagon, a central multiplicity three, and the trivial diagram.
Figure 1.
SU(3) weight diagrams, including quark and adjoint weights and shell multiplicities
. Details.
Let be the standard Cartan element of the sl2 Lie algebra, with and . For a finite-dimensional representation, its formal character records its weight multiplicities:
The classification of finite-dimensional sl2 representations and the Weyl complete reducibility theorem give , with finitely many nonzero . Each has weights , each of multiplicity one. Therefore
In particular , and for one has . This proves parity unimodality of an sl2 character: within each parity, the coefficients increase towards zero and decrease away from zero. For a representation whose weights have a single parity, deleting the intervening zero coefficients gives a symmetric unimodal sequence.
The parity convention is necessary for the printed assertion. If unimodality means the full coefficient sequence at every consecutive integer exponent, it is false: the standard two-dimensional representation has character , whose coefficients at exponents are . The statement established above is unimodality on cosets of the root lattice for , and is the version needed in part ii. Infinite-dimensional representations need not even have Laurent-polynomial characters.
Let be the coroots. With a chosen set of simple roots, the root lattice and weight lattice are
The fundamental weights are defined by , and form an integral basis of . We use the Cartan matrix convention .
For the A2 root system, inversion of its Cartan matrix yields the A2 fundamental weights and weight lattice:
Equivalently and . The root lattice has index three in the weight lattice, since the change-of-basis matrix has determinant three. For a planar realization take
The weight lattice is triangular. In fundamental weight coordinates , a point is in the root lattice exactly when is divisible by three. The following sketch marks both bases and the sublattice:
The integers called Dynkin indices here are the Dynkin labels of the highest weight:
For finite-dimensional Irreducible Lie algebra representations, they are nonnegative integers. All weight coordinates below are these Dynkin label coordinates, not simple-root coordinates.
A weight-string enumeration algorithm gives the set of weights without their weight multiplicities. Begin with and process known weights by increasing height below . For each simple root and known weight , find the largest with a weight; all such higher weights have already been processed. The weight string theorem says that the string has endpoints , , with
and includes every intermediate step. Append and repeat until no new weights appear. This terminates in finite dimension and supplies all weights; every nonhighest weight can be reached by simple-root lowering. A string can contain contributions from several sl2 summands, so the resulting set does not by itself determine weight multiplicities.
For the explicit calculation we use the following general facts: finite-dimensional representations of a complex semisimple Lie algebra are completely reducible by the Weyl complete reducibility theorem; the symmetric powers of the defining sln representation are irreducible of highest weight ; and weights in a tensor product of Lie algebra representations add with multiplicities multiplied. We also use the highest-weight representation classification: each finite-dimensional irreducible has a unique dominant integral highest weight, and a nonzero vector killed by all simple-root raising operators supplies an irreducible summand with that highest weight in a completely reducible module. For , the Weyl dimension formula specializes to
For , the defining fundamental representation has weights . Thus the A2 representation of highest weight (2,0) is , with the six distinct weights
Each has multiplicity one: these are the weights of the six quadratic monomials.
For the tensor square of the A2 representation of highest weight (2,0), add every ordered pair of elements of . To list the complete answer compactly, define four disjoint weight sets:
The tensor product has multiplicity one at each point of , two at each point of , three at each point of , and four at each point of . These fifteen distinct weights account for states.
We next identify the irreducible summands rather than just their dimensions. Split the tensor square of the six-dimensional space into its symmetric power and exterior power, of dimensions and . The square of a highest-weight vector in the symmetric part has highest weight , giving of dimension .
Let be vectors of weights and . In the exterior part has weight and is killed by both simple-root raising operators: raising along gives a multiple of , whose wedge with itself is zero, and the other raising actions vanish. Thus it is a highest-weight vector. The Weyl dimension formula gives , so the entire exterior part is this irreducible summand.
The remaining symmetric part has dimension six. To identify it, the fifteen weights of are exactly
each once. Subtract them from the unordered-pair weights of . The residual weights are , each once, with highest weight . They are the negatives of , so this six-dimensional summand is . Consequently
The corresponding dimensions are ; complete reducibility and the exhibited highest weights ensure that no summands are missing.
The full weight multiplicities in the A2 tensor square of highest weight (2,0) are summarized below. An entry is the multiplicity of each individual weight in that row's set:
Thus has all fifteen weights once, has the six weights once, and has its nine boundary weights once and its three interior weights twice. Only the three interior weights of are degenerate among the irreducible components.
The triple bond in the original Dynkin diagram gives the Cartan integers
where is the long root and the short root. Their product is , and the inner product of distinct simple roots is nonpositive. The ratio of the two integers gives the squared-length ratio. Therefore
It is convenient to normalize , and . Scaling the inner product does not affect the root system or the fundamental-weight relations.
For nonproportional roots , the root-string theorem states that the root string is consecutive:
The endpoints are maximal, and reflection in reverses the string. The Cartan integer determines , not in general the total by itself. This result follows by restricting the Adjoint representation to the sl2 subalgebra associated with a root. If the roots are distinct simple roots, cannot be a root: its simple-root coefficients have opposite signs. Thus and
Here length means number of roots; the number of intervals between them is one less. Distinctness matters. If , a reduced root system gives the set , with a missing zero between them, so the consecutive-string theorem and the displayed simple-root formula do not apply.
In the G2 root system, the initial strings are
For , . Since is not a root in a reduced root system, and : this generates . The remaining strings explain why the construction stops. The -strings through and are the same two-element string; the one through is a singleton since subtracting gives , and its Cartan integer is zero; the one through is the string . The -strings through , , and are the initial four-element string. Finally, is orthogonal to ; its -string is a singleton because is not a root. Apply the same reasoning to negatives. Using the permitted completeness of this procedure gives
The short positive roots are , of squared length two; the other three are long, of squared length six. Each root space is one-dimensional and the Cartan subalgebra has dimension two, so
Here the dimension refers to the Lie algebra, with one Cartan generator per rank, not just the number of roots.
Write a prospective weight as . The pairings with simple coroots are
The fundamental weights are dual to those coroots. Solving the two linear systems gives, in the long-root-first numbering of this paper,
The representation with Dynkin labels has highest weight , a short root. Numbering the short root first, as some references do, would call this the representation instead; the representation itself is unchanged.
The weight set of a finite-dimensional irreducible highest-weight representation is invariant under the Weyl group and lies in the convex hull of the orbit of its highest weight. All weights also differ from the highest weight by an element of the root lattice. The orbit of comprises the six short roots, so all six are weights. The lowering operators give the chain
In particular zero occurs: at weight , its pairing with is two, so the lowering operator is nonzero by the finite-dimensional sl2 Lie algebra representation theory. The -string through it is the usual three-weight string ; higher weight would lie outside the highest-weight convex hull.
There can be no further weights. Every point of that convex hull has squared norm at most , while a root-lattice point has
The integer solutions of the bound are precisely zero and the six short roots: gives ; gives ; and gives . Thus
The final dimension uses the stipulated nondegeneracy of the weights. It also agrees with the Weyl dimension formula without that stipulation. The zero weight is not in the Weyl orbit of the nonzero weights, so this is not a minuscule representation.
Figure 1.
G2 roots and weights of its seven-dimensional representation
. The twelve roots of a root system and seven weights in the long-root-first convention. Details.
In the diagram above, a coordinate label means . The left panel contains all twelve roots of a root system; the right panel contains the six short-root weights and the zero weight. The long-root-first convention is the same as in the calculations.
First, is a nonnegative integral combination of simple roots. Indeed, write , separating its positive and negative coefficients in the root basis. The two parts have disjoint supports, and distinct simple roots have nonpositive inner product, so . If , then
On the other hand, dominance gives for each simple root, hence . This contradiction proves .
Now suppose a nonzero weight has all . The identity
shows that some satisfies and . We use the standard sl2 Lie algebra fact that its lowering operator is injective on any positive eigenspace in a finite-dimensional representation. This follows from the classification of finite-dimensional sl2 representations: in each irreducible , the only weight killed by the lowering operator is the lowest weight .
Consequently a nonzero vector of weight lowers to a nonzero vector of weight . Its simple-root coefficients remain nonnegative and their sum decreases by one. Starting at , repeated lowering must therefore reach the zero weight. Notice that intermediate weights need not remain dominant; positivity of the chosen coroot pairing is enough at each step.
For a minuscule representation, every weight belongs to , so the zero weight just obtained lies in this orbit. Every Weyl group element is invertible, and forces . This proves that minuscule weights in the root lattice are zero. Under the assumption , every possible highest weight lies in , hence
Here is the one-dimensional trivial Lie algebra representation, by the classification of finite-dimensional irreducible highest-weight representations.
The root lattice is . The weight lattice is
Because every Cartan integer is integral, . The Dynkin labels of are
There are three isomorphism classes of complex simple rank-three Lie algebras: types A3 root system, B3 root system, and C3 root system. Use the convention , and order the chain as ---- with .
  • For , take , , and . The double-edge arrow points to the short third root, and
  • For , take , , and . The double-edge arrow points to the short second root, and
The Dynkin labels of a finite-dimensional irreducible representation are those of its highest weight. Thus means the fundamental representation . The weights, written in Dynkin labels and in a lowering order, are
For these are the weights of the defining representation of ; for they are in the vector representation of ; for they are in the defining representation of . Hence the requested dimensions are , , and , respectively.
After ordering a symplectic basis in two blocks, write
Matrices in the symplectic Lie algebra have block form
The root-space decomposition is
For example, these one-dimensional spaces are spanned respectively by
Thus this is the Cn root system
The upper-triangular choice gives
Its simple roots, highest root, fundamental weights, and half-sum of positive roots are
Using the notation requested in the paper, the root lattice and weight lattice are
so . This reverses the common notation in which the root lattice is called and the weight lattice is called .
Since a multiple-edge arrow in a Dynkin diagram points toward the shorter root, the finite and extended diagrams are
and
Use the B2 root system convention
Thus is the five-dimensional vector representation of the Special orthogonal Lie algebra . Label its weight vertices
The crystal basis is the colored chain
because each Kashiwara operator subtracts .
For the tensor product of crystals, write for . The complete colored-arrow graph is compactly specified by
Its three connected highest-weight components start at , , and . Their vertex sets are
Their highest weights and dimensions identify the ten-vertex component with the exterior square and the other two with the symmetric square. Therefore
of dimensions and , respectively.
The module is the four-dimensional spin representation. Its weights are , and its crystal is
Every weight of lies in the root lattice, so every weight of every tensor power also lies in that lattice. But represents the nonzero coset in the quotient of the weight lattice by the root lattice. Consequently no irreducible constituent of can have highest weight , and never occurs.