Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2005 iii Paper 2 2 iii Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-14
The printed phrase “not reducible” is a misprint: the requested nonzero complementary submodules establish that this tensor square is reducible. The natural reason is that the flip commutes with the Lie algebra representation. Its two eigenspaces are the symmetric square and the exterior square, givingIn the symmetric square, the four weights and four weights each occur once, while zero occurs twice. In the exterior square, the four weights each occur once and zero occurs twice; the are absent because repeated wedge factors vanish. These are the two requested complementary weight diagrams.
The complementary symmetric and alternating tensor submodules of the defining sp4 representation
. Details. More precisely, the tensor-square decomposition of the defining symplectic representation identifies with the irreducible adjoint module . The identification is an intertwiner sending a symmetric tensor to the element of the symplectic Lie algebra . For the exterior square, symplectic contraction of an exterior square has a five-dimensional kernel, the primitive exterior square, and the invariant tensor supplies a complementary line. Thus the full irreducible decomposition isHere and . The two zero weights in the exterior square split into one primitive zero weight and the invariant line.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2009 iii Paper 6 3 iv Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-14
Use the ordered alphabetwith weights and . The crystal of the defining symplectic representation is the chainThe label of an arrow is its simple root color; a Kashiwara operator follows an arrow of color and lowers the weight by .
Here is a grid description of the entire tensor product of crystals, valid for every . Put one vertex at row and column , in the alphabet order above. Let be the set of chain positions with outgoing color , and the positions with incoming color :Their indicators are and . Use the crystal tensor-product ruleAn arrow is omitted if the selected factor has no outgoing arrow of that color. Thus the complete grid has a downward color- arrow when and , and a rightward color- arrow when and . There are no other arrows. These two coordinate rules specify every vertex and every edge of the requested general-rank drawing. The following figure displays the full grid at , including all components, together with the standard chain; increasing uses exactly the same grid construction.
Defining C3 crystal and its complete tensor-square crystal with all colored arrows and the three highest-weight components
. Details. For completeness, highest vertices can be read from the raising rule, which selects the first factor when . If has an incoming edge of color , then ; either the raising operator acts nontrivially on , or and it acts nontrivially on . Thus a highest vertex must have . At , all vanish except . To be highest, the incoming color of , if any, must consequently be . For , the possibilities are exactlyTheir weights are , , and zero. Each occurs once. Connected highest-weight components of the crystal basis describe the irreducible representations in the tensor product of Lie algebra representations, soThis is the tensor-square decomposition of the defining symplectic representation. The symmetric square is ; the exterior square is the direct sum of its invariant inverse-form line and the primitive exterior square . Their dimensions are respectively , , and one, summing to . At , the chain has two vertices and the highest tensor vertices are only and : the decomposition is , of dimensions three and one.

