Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2003 iii Paper 45 2 Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-14
The invariant tensors of SU(3) include , and its upper-index counterpart. Consequently an antisymmetric pair of upper fundamental indices can be converted into one lower antifundamental index, and conversely; a completely antisymmetric triple is a determinant singlet. In the Young-symmetrizer tensor decomposition, complete columns of three can therefore be removed. A remaining diagram has rows of lengths : its two-box columns become dual indices and its remaining boxes give defining indices. The irreducible highest-weight component is represented by a mixed SU(3) tensor representation symmetric in all upper indices, symmetric in all lower indices, and with every upper-lower contraction removed. Such contractions produce the lower-weight components. The resulting symmetric traceless SU(3) tensor representation has Dynkin labels ; this is an equivalent canonical realization, not a claim that an arbitrary tensor already has those symmetries.
There are symmetric upper-index components and symmetric lower-index components. All contractions are equivalent under the separate symmetries. Their image is the separately symmetric tensor space with indices. To subtract its dimension legitimately, we must show that contraction is onto.
Represent such tensors by polynomials of bidegree in three variables and three dual variables . Up to a nonzero normalization, contraction isIf has bidegree , differentiation givesChoose and . Thenhas bidegree and : consecutive terms cancel, and the last further derivative vanishes. This constructs a preimage of every contraction target. If or , there is no contraction. Therefore the number of trace-free components isThe highest-weight vector lies in this kernel. The Young-symmetry construction identifies the traceless highest-weight component with the irreducible representation of labels ; equivalently its Weyl dimension formula agrees with the independently calculated kernel dimension above.
For traceless matrices , the tensor square of the SU(3) adjoint representation decomposes asThe component maps make the decomposition concrete. The singlet is . The two octets are the antisymmetric commutator and symmetric traceless anticommutator . Symmetrizing the two upper and two lower indices in and removing contractions gives , the 27. Its highest component is already visible in .
For the 10, contract the two lower indices with and symmetrize the three upper indices ; for its conjugate, contract the upper pair with and symmetrize the three lower indices. These maps are antisymmetric under exchange of . They are nonzero: produces a nonzero all-upper-1 component, and produces the conjugate all-lower-1 component. Thus they reach the irreducible and , each of dimension ten. The octet maps are also nonzero, for example on a pair of noncommuting matrix units and on equal nonzero traceless diagonal matrices. These equivariant maps supply distinct irreducible constituents, with the two octets separated by exchange symmetry. Their dimensions exhaust the product:
An octet operator between baryon octet states defines an intertwining operator . Its covariance follows from the commutator transformation law in the question. By Schur lemma, the number of independent reduced matrix elements is the multiplicity of the output octet in the product: there are exactly two independent coefficients. To display them, use a Hermitian octet matrix basis , , normalized by . The two allowed actions areWith and , this gives the two reduced octet matrix elements:up to the common normalization absorbed into . All component dependence is fixed by the invariant symmetric and antisymmetric tensors. For a Hermitian operator and this Hermitian basis, may be chosen real; neither their values nor a relation between them follows from symmetry alone.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2013 iii Paper 5 3 Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-07
For a Young tableau , let permute the entries within its rows and within its columns. We use the Young symmetrizer conventionReversing the order gives another usual realization of the same irreducible polynomial module. On the tensor power , the actions areThey commute because applying to every factor commutes with permuting the factors.
We state the permitted combinatorial input explicitly. A Young symmetrizer satisfies , where is the nonzero hook product of a partition. Thus is a primitive idempotent. The standard-tableau decomposition of the right regular module is . Tensor this right-module direct sum with the left module . The map sending to is an isomorphism, with inverse . Therefore the Young-symmetrizer tensor decomposition isThis is a direct sum of -modules; individual summands need not be -invariant.
We also state the allowed Schur algebra result, namely Schur–Weyl duality: the two actions are mutual commutants, andwhere the are pairwise nonisomorphic irreducible homogeneous polynomial representations of degree . We also use the standard Schur algebra equivalence between its modules and homogeneous degree- polynomial representations, so these exhaust the irreducibles in that category. A primitive idempotent has one-dimensional image on and zero image on the other simple factors, so . This identifies the requested irreducibles. They classify the polynomial degree- representations in this tensor power, not all rational representations of every degree.
The length bound for a Schur module is if and only if . A column of length greater than antisymmetrizes more than vectors and gives zero. Conversely, for , fill every tensor position in row with the th basis vector of . Row symmetrization multiplies it by , and column antisymmetrization is nonzero because the vectors within each column are distinct basis vectors.
A rational representation of an algebraic group is a regular morphism into the general linear group of its representation space. For , its matrix entries belong to ; rational here permits determinant denominators but not arbitrary poles on . A one-dimensional rational character of is a Laurent polynomial with and . Comparing Laurent coefficients shows that just one monomial occurs and its coefficient is , hence for .
Restrict a one-dimensional rational character of to its diagonal torus. The same argument in several variables gives . Conjugation by permutation matrices makes all equal. On every diagonalizable invertible matrix it consequently agrees with . The allowed Zariski-density statement, and equality of regular functions on a dense subset, giveThese are the one-dimensional rational characters of the general linear group.
For complete reducibility of rational GL and SL representations, use the compact-group averaging argument. Average any positive definite Hermitian inner product over using normalized Haar measure. The orthogonal complement of an invariant subspace is then -invariant. Differentiating makes it invariant under and therefore under its complex span . The elementary unipotent matrices generate , so the complement is -invariant. This proves complete reducibility. Averaging over similarly gives complete reducibility for rational representations.
Here is an explicit rational extension from SL to GL. Decompose the representation space by the finite scalar center of into subspaces on which acts as , with and . These subspaces are invariant. For , choose with , set , and defineChanging to changes to , so the two factors cancel. It is a homomorphism, since scalar roots multiply up to the same harmless factor, and it restricts to on .
It is rational as well. Every matrix coefficient of has a polynomial representative on . Averaging that representative over the finite scalar center selects its homogeneous parts with . Substitution in the extension gives , a regular function on . Each -invariant subspace decomposes into its parts, and the extension acts on each part by a scalar times an action. Thus these subspaces are also invariant under the chosen extension. Consequently is irreducible if and only if this is irreducible. For , is trivial and the trivial extension supplies the same conclusion.