Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2002 iii Paper 18 1 Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-14
The displayed torus-only Weyl integration formula needs to be a class function, meaning . This hypothesis is implicit in the usual formula but is not printed here. We prove the general version for a continuous function, then specialize:Here and are probability Haar measures; is the invariant probability measure on the homogeneous space ; and is the finite Weyl group.
We use the following standard maximal-torus facts, as permitted: every element of a connected compact Lie group lies in some maximal torus; all maximal tori are conjugate; two elements of a fixed are conjugate in exactly when they are in the same -orbit; and the complexified Lie algebra decomposes into and one-dimensional root spaces. Opposite roots of a root system give real two-dimensional planes in . At an element for which no root character has value one, the identity component of its centralizer is .
Choose a positive root system . Regard each root as a character through the Adjoint representation. A convenient globally defined denominator isThe usual Weyl denominator additionally has a unit-modulus factor , with half the sum of positive roots. Where that half-weight is not a global torus character, it may be interpreted on a covering torus; the squared modulus is nevertheless unambiguous. In either convention,
Average an inner product on over the Adjoint representation to make it invariant. It defines a bi-invariant Riemannian metric on and the quotient metric on . Consider the conjugation mapAt , identify the source tangent directions with and , and translate the target tangent vector to the identity by . Differentiating givesThe two summands are orthogonal. On a real root plane, is a rotation with complex eigenvalues . Thus the absolute real Jacobian determinant on this plane is . The torus direction contributes one. Therefore the conjugation Jacobian for a compact Lie group isThis is also the Jacobian for the normalized measures: the Riemannian submersion has fibers isometric to , so ; the probability-volume normalization factors cancel.
Let be the elements for which . The restriction of is a local diffeomorphism onto the regular elements of . It is -to-one. Indeed, fixing , any pair with has , because conjugation identifies the identity components of the two centralizers. Thus , and there is exactly one pair for each coset in . This argument does not require the full centralizer of to be connected.
The nonregular locus has measure zero. In it is a finite union of sets of smaller dimension; their conjugation images are images of smaller-dimensional manifolds under , and hence have zero volume in . The change-of-variables formula for the regular covering therefore givesFor a class function, the inner integral is , proving the required formula with its correct hypothesis.
Weyl alternant 2026-10-14
For a Weyl group acting on a weight lattice, the displayed element of its group ring is alternating: applying multiplies it by , by reindexing the sum. It vanishes when is fixed by a root reflection. For the Weyl vector , it is the Weyl denominator. The Weyl character formula is the ratio . These general root-system alternants specialize to monomial determinants in type A but are not restricted to that type.