A2 root system 2026-10-05
The root system has equal-length simple roots with angle , and roots , , . Its Cartan matrix is . The corresponding complex simple Lie algebra is , of dimension eight.
For a Cartan-Weyl basis, the Jacobi identity gives
Thus the bracket has joint Cartan weight . If , it belongs to the zero-weight space, which is the Cartan subalgebra, and so is a linear combination . If is a nonzero root, its root space is one-dimensional and the bracket is proportional to . If that nonzero sum is not a root, the bracket vanishes. This proves the asserted forms without assuming every pair of roots has a root sum.
With the stated normalization, put . The commutators become
The adjoint relations make , , the usual SU(2) Lie algebra generators. Hence every finite-dimensional SU(2) irreducible component has eigenvalues , with an integer. Therefore has integer eigenvalues , including in the finite-dimensional Adjoint representation. Algebraically this is the sl2 subalgebra associated with a root.
If , another use of the Jacobi identity gives
The bracket is therefore zero or lies in the eigenvalue- space. Within one irreducible SU(2) ladder it is proportional to the next chosen vector . If the full eigenspace has multiplicity, the weight statement is the general one; proportionality to one named vector presupposes the ladder choice. Similarly lowers this eigenvalue by two, and the ladder weights run from to in steps of two.
For a root vector , its weight is
The adjoint SU(2) ladder therefore proves
For nonparallel , raising and lowering move its joint Cartan weight through the root string . The finite irreducible ladder has weights symmetric about zero. Starting at , reaching its partner requires . The corresponding nonzero vector lies in the root space of , proving the Weyl reflection property:
There is no zero joint root in this string when are nonparallel. Its one-dimensional root spaces prevent two irreducible ladders with the same weight parity from overlapping, so the ladder argument applies to the entire string. For , reflection simply interchanges the two opposite roots, which already exist by the adjoint relation.
For angle and length restrictions, set and . These Cartan integers have the same sign when nonzero and obey
For nonparallel, nonorthogonal roots, is an integer strictly between zero and four. The possibilities are consequently:
  • : , equal lengths, and or .
  • : , squared-length ratio or , and or .
  • : , squared-length ratio or , and or .
Orthogonal roots have and . Parallel roots have ; the integer pairs would allow only length multiples . The stated reducedness condition excludes the latter two, so parallel roots are equal or opposite, with angles zero or and equal lengths. Thus
Not every root system realizes every listed angle.
The orthogonal pair alone gives no ratio through . To finish the length restriction for a simple Lie algebra, use irreducibility of its root system. Let span the Weyl group orbit of . Both and are invariant under the orthogonal root reflections. If a root had nonzero projections in both, reflection of its projection in would have a nonzero component, violating invariance. Hence every root is entirely in one of these subspaces. A proper nonzero would split the root system into two orthogonal parts, contradicting irreducibility. This proves that the Weyl orbit spans an irreducible root space.
In particular, some orbit root is nonorthogonal to any chosen , and . Applying the previous integer-pair restriction to therefore also handles orthogonal :
There can be at most two different root lengths: three lengths would have ratios two and three relative to the shortest, but then the longest-to-middle squared-length ratio would be , which is forbidden. A reducible collection of orthogonal rank-one factors could have independently chosen scales; the simple-algebra assumption excludes that exception.
Choose a generic linear functional to define positive roots. The simple roots are those positive roots which cannot be written as sums of two positive roots; they form a basis in which all root coefficients are integers of one sign. Distinct simple roots have nonpositive inner product: if their inner product were positive, their root string would contain their difference, and whichever difference is positive would decompose one of them. In rank two, irreducibility excludes the orthogonal case. The allowed simple-root angles are therefore , giving the three irreducible diagrams in the classification of rank-two root systems: A2 root system, B2 root system and G2 root system. Reflections in the two simple roots generate their respective six, eight and twelve roots.
Here are explicit simple-root choices and positive roots; adding their negatives gives each complete diagram.
  • For A2 root system, take and . The positive roots are ; all have squared length one.
  • For B2 root system, take the long and short . The positive roots are . These give the four axis roots and four diagonal roots, with squared lengths one and two. The rank-two Lie algebra is isomorphic to this one; changing the long/short ordering changes its Cartan presentation.
  • For G2 root system, take short and long . The positive roots are . They give two hexagons rotated by , with squared lengths one and three.
The nonnegative coefficients in each positive-root list verify the chosen simple roots explicitly. The orthogonal four-root system is rank two but reducible, so it is not a diagram for the simple algebra assumed here.
Define the Cartan matrix in the column-coroot convention:
Using the ordered roots above gives
The alternative row-coroot convention transposes these matrices. Stating the convention and root ordering avoids a spurious disagreement in the unequal-length cases.
Figure 1.
The irreducible rank-two root systems A2, B2 and G2, with long and short roots and explicit ordered simple roots highlighted
. Details.
Write the affine modes as , and put . The Sugawara construction requires a restricted module, meaning that sufficiently large positive current modes annihilate each fixed vector, and a noncritical level . A positive-energy highest-weight representation has the required restriction. Define
Normal ordering puts positive modes to the right, making each sum finite on a fixed finite-energy vector. The invariant sum over the current index is the quadratic Casimir operator construction for the affine current algebra.
Here is the normal ordering calculation responsible for its denominator. In commuting with , the two affine central terms supply . The remaining terms contain times the two ways to replace a current by . Relabeling the summation index and using antisymmetry of cancels the un-reordered terms. Reordering the modes that cross the creation/annihilation boundary leaves signed terms, whose two structure constants contract by . Their sum is . Thus
The adjoint-Casimir contribution is genuinely quantum. For an explicit check of its coefficient, let be the affine vacuum, with all for . Then
The first term acts by the adjoint Casimir operator , and only contributes to the second. This also verifies that a current has conformal weight one under the displayed normalization.
Now commute the quadratic generators with one another. Acting on either current factor produces ; the residual full contractions are scalar and vanish unless . The Jacobi identity fixes their cubic dependence on , and the plane vacuum convention fixes the combination . To determine its coefficient explicitly, note
Commuting a single through the numerator gives : the two central contractions give , and the zero-mode commutator in the structure-constant term gives . The remaining contraction gives for each adjoint index. Therefore
For an algebraic module without a positive inner product, the same calculation is its vacuum matrix element and fixes the universal central term. Consequently
This is a representation of the Virasoro algebra, not merely its centerless part.
For a complex semisimple Lie algebra, a Cartan subalgebra is a maximal abelian subalgebra of semisimple elements; equivalently it is the complexification of a maximal torus algebra in the compact real form. Its dimension is the rank of a semisimple Lie algebra, . Choose an orthonormal Cartan basis with currents . They have no structure-constant term:
For , their abelian Sugawara construction is
Each Cartan current has weight one under both and , so commutes with all , hence also with . Subtracting the two commuting stress tensors yields the Coset construction
In the intended nontrivial compact unitary theory at positive admissible level, this coset acts on a positive inner-product space, with . Its vacuum satisfies for , so
Thus . Also for a compact simple Lie algebra and , so , which proves the upper bound directly. Hence, under these physical representation hypotheses,
The upper inequality is strict at finite positive level; tends to as the level grows.
The positivity hypothesis is necessary and is not implied by the bare affine commutation relation. For example, at its trivial representation has all currents zero and gives . Even positive arbitrary levels need not satisfy the bound: with , , and , the formula gives . Such a level does not give the intended compact unitary positive-energy theory. Thus the last bound is a statement about nontrivial unitary admissible-level representations; it cannot hold for every representation in the unrestricted algebraic formulation. At the displayed Sugawara construction itself is undefined.
In the defining representation , the basis vectors and have weights and , respectively, each with multiplicity one. Thus its formal character is
The vector is killed by every positive root space, since all positive-root matrices are upper triangular, and is a highest-weight vector. Any nonzero invariant subspace splits into weight spaces and therefore contains one of the natural weight vectors, since those weight spaces are one-dimensional. The root matrices connect that vector to all the others, so this representation is irreducible for . In terms of the fundamental weights of Dn, its highest weight is for and for .
The flip of the two tensor factors is equivariant, hence
Use the invariant symmetric bilinear form . Contraction is an equivariant map to the trivial Lie algebra representation. Its inverse-form tensor
is invariant and satisfies . Consequently
The traceless summand contains the highest-weight vector of weight . The Weyl complete reducibility theorem states that every finite-dimensional complex semisimple Lie algebra representation is a direct sum of irreducible representations, so the submodule generated by this highest vector is . The Weyl dimension formula verifies that it is the entire traceless space: only positive roots involving change their factors, and
This equals . Thus the traceless symmetric square of the defining even orthogonal representation is irreducible, including .
For the other summand, the exterior square of the defining orthogonal representation has the equivariant identification
The image is skew relative to , and in a basis making the identity the images are the independent elementary skew matrices. The map is therefore an isomorphism onto the Adjoint representation of a Lie algebra. For , the connected Dn Dynkin diagram gives a simple Lie algebra (with ); its adjoint module is irreducible because its invariant subspaces are exactly its ideals. Its highest weight is , and is a highest vector. The tensor-square decomposition of the defining even orthogonal representation is consequently
The three dimensions are , and one, adding to . The highest weights are , and zero for ; for the middle weight is .
For , the Chiral decomposition of the complexified so4 Lie algebra splits the adjoint module into its two three-dimensional ideals. Thus
The weights are , , and zero. Equivalently, labelling highest weights by the two sl2 Lie algebra factors, this is . If is allowed, the abelian algebra has and ; there is then no single highest weight for an irreducible natural module.
The Adjoint representation of a Lie algebra acts on the Lie algebra itself by . The Jacobi identity gives
Thus it is a Lie algebra representation. In the basis with , its matrices are
The column index labels the basis vector being acted on; this convention fixes the matrix signs.
Work in finite dimension over characteristic zero, as in the usual real or complex gauge algebras. A simple Lie algebra is nonabelian and has no nonzero proper Lie algebra ideal. A semisimple Lie algebra has no nonzero solvable ideal; equivalently it is a direct sum of simple ideals. The nondegenerate Killing form is . Its invariance follows from the representation identity and trace cyclicity:
For the reduction, take a nonzero proper ideal , if one exists, and define its Killing-orthogonal complement . Invariance makes it an ideal: for , , , . Moreover , because for , , and any ,
and the global Killing form is nondegenerate. Their intersection is consequently an abelian ideal: its elements lie in both commuting ideals. Semisimplicity forces that intersection to be zero. The dimension formula for a nondegenerate bilinear form then gives
The summands commute and are semisimple, since a solvable ideal in either summand would also be an ideal of . Repeating on smaller summands terminates in simple ideals. This proves the orthogonal ideal splitting for a nondegenerate Killing form and describes the required reduction; abelian one-dimensional factors do not occur in a semisimple algebra.
If with , invariance gives
so after lowering the output index with . The bracket already gives . These two adjacent transpositions generate all permutations, proving that the structure constants of a Lie algebra are completely antisymmetric. This is the antisymmetry of Killing-lowered structure constants; the scalar cancels in the chosen normalization.
For the gauge calculation write , , and . The representation generators here obey ; factors of and the gauge coupling are absorbed in this connection convention. Expanding the varied derivative gives
For this to equal , choose the gauge transformation in the derivative-plus-connection convention
Then all extra terms cancel, proving covariance of the gauge covariant derivative for arbitrary space-dependent parameters.
Apply both derivatives to a test field. The second derivatives commute and the terms involving one derivative of the field cancel, leaving the Yang-Mills field strength
Thus its components are
The already obtained variation can be written . The operator Jacobi identity then yields
or
Finally, with fixed space-time metric,
The contracted product is symmetric in , while is antisymmetric in those indices. Hence the Yang-Mills action density is gauge invariant, with the sign convention derived rather than assumed.
For , define the Adjoint representation of a Lie algebra by . The Jacobi identity gives, for every ,
Thus preserves brackets and is a Lie algebra representation. Its Killing form is
Using the representation identity and the cyclic property of the trace,
The Killing form is also symmetric by cyclicity.
In a basis , write . The lowered structure constants satisfy
The first expression is antisymmetric in and the second in . These transpositions generate all permutations, so is totally antisymmetric.
An invariant subspace of under its Adjoint representation of a Lie algebra is exactly an ideal of a Lie algebra: . A simple Lie algebra has no nonzero proper ideal, proving the adjoint representation is irreducible.
Put . The same trace calculation proves invariance of the Trace form of a Lie algebra representation:
Because the are anti-Hermitian, is a real symmetric bilinear form. The Killing form of a simple compact Lie algebra is negative definite. Define a real linear map by . Invariance of both forms implies that commutes with every , while symmetry makes self-adjoint for the positive inner product . By the spectral theorem, its real eigenspaces are invariant under the Adjoint representation of a Lie algebra. Irreducibility forces a single eigenvalue, so and . This also avoids the extra care needed when applying the complex form of the Schur lemma to a real vector space.
The kernel of is an ideal of a Lie algebra. It cannot be all of : a trivial representation of dimension greater than one is reducible. Simplicity therefore makes faithful. For every nonzero ,
Hence the positive trace index for a compact simple Lie algebra gives
in the adapted basis.
For the cubic trace tensor of a Lie algebra representation, the identity
expands to
Set , , , . Cyclicity of converts to and to . Thus the invariance identity for a cubic trace tensor is
For the final contraction, it is important to keep the specified index-raising convention. In the adapted basis write . Then , while raising the last two indices with gives . Total antisymmetry and the definition of the Killing form imply
Only the antisymmetric part of in contributes, so
Consequently the Killing-normalized contraction of a cubic trace tensor is
The negative sign printed in the last requested identity is incompatible with raising indices by the inverse Killing form. The opposite sign is obtained if one instead defines the lowered structure constants using the positive Euclidean metric, a different convention from the one specified.
For a concrete check, take the two-dimensional representation of with , where the are Pauli matrices. Then
Their contraction is , confirming the positive sign with and providing a counterexample to the printed sign.
Start with a nonzero highest-weight vector and set . The sl2 highest-weight lowering formula follows inductively from the commutator relations:
Indeed gives the weight formula, and turns the coefficient at step into at step . The nonzero have distinct eigenvalues, so are linearly independent. Finite dimensionality therefore forces a last nonzero vector . Applying to gives , hence . This also proves that no earlier vector can vanish. Thus the cyclic highest-weight representation generated by is
It is irreducible: spectral projections in select a weight vector from any nonzero invariant subspace, and its nonzero raising and lowering coefficients then generate the whole string. This gives the classification of finite-dimensional sl2 representations used for each root direction below.
For the SU(3) Lie algebra, the repeated-index relation is the trace constraint . The displayed generators are a basis of its complexification, not nine independent generators or three individually vanishing diagonal elements. Realize them by matrix units as ; the compact real algebra is obtained from anti-Hermitian combinations. Then
and , , , . Substituting into the given commutators gives
Thus both root pairs obey the required sl2 Lie algebra relations. More generally, their Cartan matrix is
A weight vector with eigenvalues moves by under and by under . The third negative-root operator is and moves it by . In the required weight diagram coordinates
these moves are , and respectively. Successive lowerings from a highest-weight vector, with linear dependencies removed, construct the following bases.
For Dynkin labels , use the defining action of SU(3) on . Its highest vector is ; lowering gives and . There are no further independent vectors. The weight diagram of the defining SU(3) representation, in the present rescaled coordinates, is
and . Any invariant weight subspace raises to and lowers to all three vectors, proving irreducibility.
For , use the adjoint representation of SU(3) on traceless matrices, with acting by . The highest vector is : both and vanish, while . Lowering gives and . Further lowering produces and , then and , and finally . Consequently the basis is the six off-diagonal matrix units together with :
The six nonzero weights have weight multiplicity one, and zero has multiplicity two. Thus . Its irreducibility follows also because an adjoint-invariant subspace is an ideal and is a simple Lie algebra.
For , take the symmetric cubic representation of SU(3), , realized by homogeneous degree-three polynomials. Here
so is a highest-weight vector with eigenvalues . For ,
which is nonzero and constructs every monomial. These monomials form a basis and have distinct weights . If an invariant subspace is nonzero, joint spectral projections in select one monomial; repeated transfers its powers to , and repeated transfers all its powers to , reaching . Lowering then generates the whole basis, proving irreducibility without merely assuming the dimension formula. The plotted weights are
with multiplicity one at every point. Hence .
Figure 1.
SU(3) weights in the three requested representations, with the two independent zero-weight octet states marked
. Details.
For approximate flavor symmetry, identify with the up quark, down quark and strange quark. The defining representation is their flavour triplet. The baryon octet realizes and contains the spin- nucleons and the multiplets; its central double weight distinguishes and . The baryon decuplet realizes the symmetric flavour representation , containing the spin- multiplets. In standard isospin and flavor hypercharge normalization, and , so these plots use and . Three-quark spin and flavour combine subject to the Pauli constraint on three-quark flavour multiplets and the antisymmetric three-quark colour singlet. The adjoint flavour representation also describes a meson octet. A distinct, exact colour SU(3) gauge symmetry places quarks in its defining representation and gluons in its adjoint octet; colour and flavour here are different physical group actions.
We use the permitted Casimir operator properties in the following precise form. There is a central quadratic operator commuting with the action on every module; it is zero on the trivial Lie algebra representation, and on every nontrivial finite-dimensional Irreducible Lie algebra representation it is a nonzero scalar . This follows from the Schur lemma and the Casimir eigenvalue , using the Killing form normalization. We also use the permitted one-dimensional-representation fact: a complex semisimple Lie algebra has only trivial one-dimensional representations. Equivalently, it is a perfect Lie algebra, , so a character annihilating brackets must vanish. Neither fact assumes complete reducibility of the module being proved reducible.
First prove that every finite-dimensional short exact sequence
with trivial quotient splits. If is nontrivial irreducible, the Casimir operator has image in and restricts to there. Consequently is a one-dimensional invariant complement to . If is trivial irreducible, has a basis in which every action is . The Lie algebra representation identity makes , so the one-dimensional-representation fact gives and again the sequence splits.
For general , induct on . Choose an irreducible submodule . The induced sequence with kernel and middle term splits by induction. The inverse image of its invariant complement is a submodule fitting into . The irreducible-kernel case gives an invariant line in mapping isomorphically to the quotient. It is also an invariant complement to in . The case starts this induction. This proves splitting of a trivial quotient for a semisimple Lie algebra, including kernels that are not assumed completely reducible.
Now let be any invariant subspace. On the Hom representation the action is
Let consist of the maps whose restriction to is a scalar multiple of . This is a submodule, and restriction gives
The right-hand map is surjective because an ordinary linear projection exists; its quotient action is trivial because a commutator with is zero. The splitting just proved supplies an invariant with . Thus intertwines the actions, , and
The cases and are immediate. Choosing an irreducible submodule and repeating this complement construction proves the Weyl complete reducibility theorem. This last step is invariant complement from an equivariant projection.
Dropping finite dimensionality gives an example with the complex simple Lie algebra . Its Verma module of highest weight zero has a basis with
where . These actions obey , , . The span of is a proper submodule and the quotient is trivial. It has no invariant complement: such a complement would be a trivial line, while is injective on the entire module. Thus a simple Lie algebra can have an infinite-dimensional representation that is not completely reducible, even over .
A Lie algebra representation on a vector space is a linear map preserving the Lie bracket:
The Adjoint representation acts on by . The Jacobi identity gives
If is nonabelian, some is nonzero, so this Adjoint representation is not the trivial Lie algebra representation. It is the required nontrivial representation of dimension . Nontriviality does not require its homomorphism to be injective.
For the finite-dimensional algebras here, with normalization one, the Killing form is
It is a symmetric bilinear form by cyclicity of the matrix trace. To prove its invariance, write , , . Then
This also gives , the equivalent invariant bilinear form on a Lie algebra identity.
For the unheaded structural requests, a simple Lie algebra is nonabelian and has no ideals of a Lie algebra other than zero and itself. A semisimple Lie algebra has no nonzero solvable ideal of a Lie algebra; in finite dimension over or this is equivalently a direct sum of simple Lie algebras.
Suppose first that the Killing form is nondegenerate. If is an abelian ideal of a Lie algebra and , then maps into and vanishes on . Every preserves . Therefore has zero diagonal blocks relative to a basis adapted to , and
Nondegeneracy forces . If a nonzero solvable ideal of a Lie algebra existed, its last nonzero derived series of a Lie algebra term would be a nonzero abelian ideal of a Lie algebra, again impossible. Hence the solvable radical is zero, proving
This argument proves the needed implication rather than assuming the Cartan criterion for semisimplicity.
One can also see the direct-sum formulation explicitly through orthogonal ideal splitting for a nondegenerate Killing form. For an ideal of a Lie algebra , invariance makes an ideal of a Lie algebra. If , then for , , so . Thus is an abelian ideal of a Lie algebra, and must vanish. Consequently and the two summands commute. Select a minimal nonzero ideal; it is nonabelian, and any ideal inside it is an ideal of because the complementary summand commutes with it. It is therefore simple. The restricted form is the remaining summand’s own Killing form, because the two ideals commute. Repeating the splitting there terminates in a direct sum of simple ideals.
Conversely the radical of the Killing form
is an ideal of a Lie algebra by the invariance just proved. For a simple Lie algebra it is either zero or the whole algebra. The permitted hypothesis that is not identically zero excludes the second alternative. Thus
The computations in the two following parts illustrate both a nondegenerate compact example and a degenerate algebra with an abelian ideal.
In field characteristic , the identity matrix has trace , and hence belongs to . Its span is a nonzero proper central ideal, so is not a simple Lie algebra. In fact its center of a Lie algebra is precisely : commuting with every off-diagonal matrix unit forces a matrix to be scalar.
For , the matrix-unit extraction lemma for special linear ideals still works because two is invertible. Any ideal containing a nonscalar matrix contains every off-diagonal matrix unit and every trace-zero diagonal matrix, hence equals . Therefore an ideal of the quotient Lie algebra pulls back either to the center or to the whole algebra. The quotient is nonabelian, since remains nonzero modulo the center. Consequently
No separation of diagonal root spaces is needed, so this proof also handles without assuming their weights are distinct.
For , every trace-zero two-by-two matrix has the form . The only nonzero bracket between these basis vectors is , which is central. Thus
A simple Lie algebra is a nonabelian Lie algebra whose only Lie algebra ideals are zero and the whole algebra. Assume ; is not simple. We prove the assertion by the matrix-unit extraction lemma for special linear ideals, avoiding any classification theorem.
Let be a nonzero ideal in the special linear Lie algebra and . If an off-diagonal entry is nonzero, two commutators with the matrix unit give
so . If is diagonal and nonscalar, choose unequal diagonal entries; again supplies a matrix unit. A nonzero scalar matrix cannot have zero trace over , so these cases cover every nonzero .
Once , its bracket with gives , and puts the reverse unit in . Bracketing with the other off-diagonal matrix units generates every off-diagonal unit: for a third index , and ; using the reverse unit fills the remaining row and column, then fills the others. Opposite pairs generate every trace-zero diagonal matrix. These vectors span , so
For a complex finite-dimensional simple Lie algebra, a Cartan subalgebra is a maximal commuting subalgebra of elements whose adjoint maps are semisimple. Equivalently in this setting it is a nilpotent self-normalizing subalgebra. Its dimension is the rank of a semisimple Lie algebra. Simultaneous diagonalization of its Adjoint representation gives the root-space decomposition
A root of a root system is a nonzero linear functional for which this root space is nonzero. For a complex semisimple algebra each root space is one-dimensional. A Cartan-Weyl basis consists of a basis of and one nonzero root vector for every root.
The general Lie brackets have the form
For the opposite-root bracket, use the Killing form to define by . Its invariant bilinear form on a Lie algebra property gives
One may normalize the root vectors so that the pairing is one. If instead one uses a coroot as the opposite-root bracket, the root-vector normalization changes accordingly. In particular, root evaluation coordinates cannot simply be used as coefficients in a nonorthonormal Cartan basis.
For the matrix calculation take . The complexification of a Lie algebra of the special unitary group Lie algebra is the special linear Lie algebra : traceless complex matrices. Its Cartan subalgebra consists of traceless diagonal matrices. Write for the matrix units. The given Cartan basis is , , and the other basis elements are with .
The matrix-unit identity gives
Thus all the roots, expressed as evaluation vectors in this precise Cartan basis, are
They are the functionals on traceless diagonal matrices; there are of them. The corresponding root vector is . Together with Cartan generators, they give basis elements. The simple roots can be chosen as , whose evaluation vectors are the rows of the type- Cartan matrix, with on the diagonal and on adjacent entries. These vectors are evaluations on , not coordinates in an orthonormal realization of the root system.
To express every bracket strictly in the chosen basis, introduce the abbreviation
Then all pairs are covered by
Here both input root vectors have distinct row and column indices. The first case is the only one producing diagonal matrix units, and the displayed sum of resolves them completely into the chosen Cartan basis. Reversing the order gives the negative bracket. This also shows explicitly that the two nonzero non-Cartan cases have structure constants and , and verifies the required root-addition rule.
For a finite-dimensional complex Lie algebra , the following three conditions are equivalent descriptions of a semisimple Lie algebra.
First, its solvable radical is zero. An ideal of a Lie algebra is a linear subspace satisfying . A solvable Lie algebra is one whose derived series, defined by and , eventually becomes zero. The solvable radical is the largest solvable ideal of a Lie algebra; its vanishing is equivalent to the absence of nonzero solvable ideals.
Second, the Killing form
is a nondegenerate bilinear form: if for every , then . Here is the Adjoint representation, and is the trace. This equivalence is the Cartan criterion for semisimplicity.
Third, is a direct sum of Lie algebras that are nonabelian simple Lie algebras. A simple Lie algebra is nonabelian and has no ideals of a Lie algebra other than zero and itself. Thus the three equivalent criteria are
The Dynkin diagram in part (b) is a three-node chain, hence . By the classification of complex semisimple Lie algebras by their root systems, this gives the Isomorphism between so6 and sl4:
There is also a concrete realization. On , choose a nonzero alternating four-form . The six-dimensional exterior square carries the nondegenerate symmetric bilinear form specified by
It is symmetric because exchanging two pairs entails four transpositions, and it is nondegenerate because each basis bivector pairs nontrivially with its complementary pair. The special linear Lie algebra acts by . Its action on is multiplication by , so it preserves . We obtain a nonzero Lie algebra homomorphism . Its kernel is an ideal of a Lie algebra, hence zero because is a simple Lie algebra. Both sides have dimension , so this homomorphism is a Lie algebra isomorphism.
Work over or , in finite dimension and characteristic zero. The Killing form of a Lie algebra is the trace form of its Adjoint representation:
It is bilinear and symmetric by the cyclic property of the trace. It is an invariant bilinear form on a Lie algebra, since the Jacobi identity gives and hence
Equivalently, . A Lie algebra automorphism preserves the form, because it conjugates the adjoint matrices. Its radical of a bilinear form is an ideal of a Lie algebra by invariance. The center of a Lie algebra lies in this radical, so the form vanishes for an abelian algebra. On a direct sum of ideals the summands are orthogonal and the form restricts to their own Killing forms.
A short argument proves the requested implication without assuming the Cartan criterion for semisimplicity. Let be an abelian ideal of a Lie algebra, , and . The map takes into and vanishes on , while preserves . Therefore has image in and is zero on . In a basis extending a basis of , both diagonal blocks are zero, so its trace vanishes. This proves that abelian ideals lie in the radical of the Killing form.
If the solvable radical were nonzero, its derived series of a Lie algebra would have a last nonzero term . The Jacobi identity makes every derived term an ideal of , and the last one is abelian. Thus , contradicting nondegeneracy. We obtain
The converse holds as well in characteristic zero; together these implications are the Cartan criterion for semisimplicity.
For a complex simple Lie algebra, that criterion gives nondegeneracy on . Let be a Cartan subalgebra. Use the standard root-space decomposition
For and a root vector , choose with . Invariance gives
Thus is orthogonal to every nonzero root space. If is also orthogonal to , it is orthogonal to all of and hence is zero. This establishes nondegeneracy of the Killing form on a Cartan subalgebra:
The same invariance calculation shows that unless . Opposite root spaces are therefore paired nondegenerately. Tracing the adjoint action on the root-space decomposition yields
since the root spaces of a complex semisimple algebra are one-dimensional and its adjoint action on is zero.
The relevant Euclidean subspace of a Cartan subalgebra is
where the are the simple coroots, normalized by . The standard Euclidean property is that is real and positive definite on this space. The displayed trace formula explains it: is a sum of real squares, and the roots span , so all squares vanish only for . Via the nondegenerate form, the roots can consequently be regarded as vectors in a real Euclidean normed vector space. The induced dual inner product makes root reflections orthogonal and allows root lengths and angles to be encoded by Cartan integers and the Dynkin diagram.
This positivity is on a specified real subspace; the complex Killing form is a bilinear form, not a positive Hermitian inner product. On a compact real form the Killing form is instead negative definite. For example the Killing form of the special linear Lie algebra gives for , so but .
A simple Lie algebra is a nonabelian Lie algebra whose only ideals of a Lie algebra are and the whole algebra.
Use the standard basis of the sl2 Lie algebra, with
Let be an ideal and choose . Since is invariant under the Adjoint representation, it is invariant under the linear operator . The three basis vectors are eigenvectors of with distinct eigenvalues . Applying the corresponding polynomial spectral projections to shows that contains at least one nonzero multiple of , , or .
If , then and ; the cases and are identical after taking brackets with the other basis vectors. Hence , so . Therefore is simple.