A complex semisimple Lie algebra has an intrinsic Jordan–Chevalley decomposition characterized by , a diagonalizable Adjoint representation operator , and a nilpotent Adjoint representation operator . The Adjoint representation is faithful because the centre is zero. Closure of semisimple matrix Lie algebras are closed under additive Jordan decomposition applied to this faithful representation supplies the parts and their uniqueness. For every finite-dimensional Lie algebra representation , the operators and are the semisimple and nilpotent parts of . Thus the decomposition is independent of a matrix embedding; for a nonfaithful representation it passes to the semisimple quotient by its kernel.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2015 iii Paper 2 3 Solution 2026-10-06
Work over . Decompose as the direct sum of the generalized eigenspaces of . Define to be on and set . Then is a diagonalisable endomorphism, is a nilpotent endomorphism, and they commute. For uniqueness, any commuting decomposition has and commuting with , hence preserving each . Decompose further into eigenspaces of . On a nonzero such space with eigenvalue , the operator has only the eigenvalue , so . Since is diagonalizable, throughout . Thus and . This is the Additive Jordan decomposition.
The Chinese remainder theorem for the pairwise coprime polynomials also gives a polynomial with , where is the largest Jordan block size. Consequently and . This polynomial description shows that both parts preserve every -invariant subspace.
On the operator is the scalar , so it is diagonalizable. The nilpotence of commutation by a nilpotent endomorphism makes nilpotent. They commute, since . Uniqueness of the Additive Jordan decomposition therefore gives the adjoint compatibility of additive Jordan decomposition:Now let be a complex semisimple Lie algebra and . Since the semisimple part of is a polynomial in , it preserves . Thus . By the Weyl complete reducibility theorem, the Adjoint representation of on has a decomposition into invariant subspaces. Write with and . For , the vector lies in , and invariance of puts it in as well. Hence .
Decompose into Irreducible Lie algebra representations. Each is preserved by and by , hence by . The Schur lemma makes . A semisimple Lie algebra is a perfect Lie algebra, so every representing element of has zero trace on every . Also , because is nilpotent there. It follows that . In characteristic zero, , so . Therefore and . This proves that semisimple matrix Lie algebras are closed under additive Jordan decomposition, including representations with repeated isomorphic irreducible summands.