Lie Groups and Lie Algebras

Kumar Balasubramanian

Remark: These are a few important definitions, examples and results from
the Lie Theory Course.

1. GLn (C) - Group of all n × n invertible matrices with complex entries.

2. Mn (C) - Set of all n × n matrices with entries in C.

3. Let G be any subgroup of GLn (C). G is called a matrix Lie Group

if it satisfies the following. If (Am ) is any sequence of matrices in G and
Am → A then A ∈ G or A is not invertible.

4. A function A : R → GLn (C) is called a one parameter subgroup if

i) A is continuous
ii) A(0) = 1
iii) A(t + s) = A(t) + A(s) ∀ t, s ∈ R
5. Let G be a matrix Lie group. The Lie Algebra of G, denoted by g, is the
set of all matrices X such that etX is in G for all real numbers t

6. Let G a matrix Lie Group with lie algebra g. Let X ∈ g and A ∈ g,

then AXA−1 ∈ g

7. Let G be a matrix Lie group and g be the lie algebra of G. Then g

is always a vector space over R.

8. Let G and H be matrix lie groups, with lie algebras g and h respec-
tively. Suppose Φ : G → H is a lie group homomorphism Then there exists
a unique real linear map φ : g → h such that

i) φ(AXA−1 ) = Φ(A)φ(X)Φ(A)−1 ∀A ∈ G

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 ii) φ([X, Y ]) = [φ(X), φ(Y )]

iii) dtd t=0 Φ(etX ) = φ(X)

Remark:The above theorem says, every Lie Group homomorphism gives a

Lie Algebra Homomorphism. Given a Lie algebra homomorphism φ : g →
gl(V ) we can extend it to a lie group homomorphism Φ : G → GL(V ) if G
is simply connected.

9. Adjoint mapping: G be a matrix Lie group with lie algebra g. For

each A ∈ G, define a linear map AdA : g → g by AdA (X) = AXA−1 . Then
the map AdA satisfies the following.

i) AdA ∈ GL(g) A ∈ G.

ii) AdA ([X, Y ]) = [AdA (X), AdA (Y )]

10. Ad : G → GL(g) (A → AdA ) is a lie group homomorphism. Let

ad : g → gl(g) be the corresponding lie algebra homomorphism. Then

eadX = Ad(eX ) ∀X ∈ g

11. If G is a connected matrix lie group, then every element A in G can be

written as A = eX1 . . . eXm , X1 , X2 , ..., Xm ∈ g

12. Every continuous homomorphism between any two matrix lie groups
is smooth.

13. A finite dimensional real or complex lie algebra is a real or complex

vector space g, together with a map

i) [, ]is bilinear

ii) [X, Y ] = −[Y, X]

iii) [X[Y, Z]]+[Y [Z, X]]+[Z[X, Y ]] = 0, ∀X, Y, Z ∈ g (Jacobi Identity)

14. Ado’s Theorem: Every finite dimensional real or complex lie algebra
is isomorphic to a real or complex subalgebra of gl(n, R) or gl(n, C)

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15. Exponential mapping and it’s properties: Let G be a lie group
and g be the lie algebra of G. For X ∈ g we define the exponential as
∞
X Xm
eX =
m=0
m!

16. Properties of the exponential mapping

i) e0 = I

ii) (eX )−1 = e−X

iii) det(eX )= etrace(X)

iv) e(α+β)X = eαX eβX ∀α, β ∈ C

v) eX+Y = eX + eY if XY = Y X
−1
vi) eCDC = CeD C −1

17. Lie Product Formula

X Y
m
eX+Y = lim e m e m
m→∞

18. Let G be a matrix lie group with lie algebra g. H ⊂ G is called an

analytic subgroup or connected lie subgroup of G if

i) H is a subgroup of G

ii) Lie(H)=h is a subspace of g=Lie(G)

iii) Every element of H can be written in the form eX1 . . . eXm , X1 , . . . , Xm ∈

h

19. Let G be a matrix lie group with lie algebra g and let Π be a finite
dimensional real or complex representation of G, acting on the space V .
Then there is a unique representation π of g acting on the same space V
satisfying

i) Π(eX ) = eπ(X) ∀ X ∈ g

ii) π(X) = dtd t=0 Π(etX )

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 iii) π(AXA−1 ) = Π(A)π(X)Π(A)−1 ∀ X ∈ g, ∀ A∈G
20. A finite dimensional representation of a group or lie algebra is said to
be completely reducible if it is isomorphic to a direct sum of irreducible
irreducibles.

21. A group G is said to have the complete reducibility property, if

every representation of G is completely reducible.

Remark: Some things to remember on complete reducibility of represen-

tations.
i) (Π, V ) be a unitary representation of a group G (lie algebra g).
Then (π, V ) is always completely reducible.

ii) Some examples of compact groups

O(n), SO(n), U (n), SU (n), Sp(n)
22. Universal Property of Tensor Products: If U and V are finite
dimensional real or complexNvector spaces, then a tensor product of U with
V is a vector space W = U V , together with a bilinear map φ : U ×V → W
with the following property. If ψ is any other bilinear map from U × V → X,
then there exists a unique linear map ψe : W → X such that the diagram
commutes.
φ
U ×VP /W
PPP
PPP
P
ψ PPPP
ψ̃
P( 
X.

23. Theorem of highest weight for sl(3, C)

i) Every irreducible representation π of sl(3, C) is direct sum of its weight
spaces.

ii) Every irreducible representation of sl(3, C) has a unique highest weight

ν0 and two equivalent irreducible representations have the same highest
weight.

iii) Two irreducible representations of sl(3, C) with the same highest weight
are equivalent.

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 iv) If π is an irreducible representation of sl(3, C), then the highest weight
µ0 of π is of the form µo = (m1 , m2 ), m1 , m2 are non-negative integers.

v) If m1 , m2 are non-negative integers, then there exists an irreducible

representation of sl(3, C) with the highest weight µ0 = (m1 , m2 ).

vi) The dimension of the irreducible representation with highest weight

µ0 = (m1 , m2 ) is 21 (m1 + 1)(m2 + 1)(m1 + m2 + 2).

24. A complex lie algebra g is called indecomposable if the only ideals

in g are 0 and g.

25. A complex lie algebra g is called simple if the only ideals in g are 0
and g and dimg ≥ 2.

26. A complex lie algebra g is called reductive if g is isomorphic to a

direct sum of indecomposable lie algebras.

27. A complex lie algebra g is called semisimple if g is isomorphic to a

direct sum of simple lie algebras.

28. An important characterization of semisimple Lie Algebras:

A complex lie algebra is semisimple iff it is isomorphic to the complexifica-
tion of the lie algebra of a simply connected compact matrix lie group. i.e
g∼= kC where k = Lie(K) is the lie algebra of the simply connected compact
matrix lie group K

29. An Example of a complex Semisimple Lie Algebra

sl(3, C) ∼
= su(3)C and su(3) = Lie(SU (3))

Remark: SU (3) is compact and simply connected.

30. Weyl Group of SU(3): Let h = CH1 + CH2


Z = A ∈ SU (3) | AdA (H) = H ∀ H ∈ h

N = A ∈ SU (3) | AdA (H) ∈ h ∀ H ∈ h

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Z and N are subgroups of SU (3) and Z is a normal subgroup of N . The
Z
Weyl Group W is defined to be the quotient group N .

31. Action of the Weyl group on h: For each element w ∈ W , choose

an element A of the corresponding equivalence class of N . Then for H ∈ h
define the action of w.H of w on H by w.H = AdA (H)

32. Different notions of weights

i) An ordered pair (m1 , m2 ) ∈ C2 is called a weight for π if there existes
v 6= 0 ∈ V such that π(H1 )v = m1 v and π(H2 )v = m2 v
ii) Weights as elements of h∗ . Let h = CH1 + CH2 be the Cartan
Subalgebra. Let µ ∈ h∗ . µ is called a weight for π if there exists
v 6= 0 ∈ V such that π(H)v = µ(H)v ∀ H ∈ h.
iii) Weights as elements of h. We choose an inner product on h which
is invariant under the action of the Weyl Group.
Innerproduct on h

< A, B >= trace(A∗ B)

For each α ∈ h, define α ∈ h∗ as α(H) =< α, H > .

We use this inner product to identify h with h∗ . Now we can look

at the weights as elements of h. Let α ∈ h. α is called a weight for π
if there exists v 6= 0 ∈ V such that π(H)v =< α, H > ∀ H ∈ h
34. If π is any finite dimensional representation of sl(3, C) and µ ∈ h∗
is a weight for π then for any w ∈ W , w.µ is also a weight for π, and the
multiplicity of w.µ is the same as the multiplicity of µ. i.e. The Weyl Group
leave the weights and their multiplicities invariant.

35. Suppose that π is an irreducible representation of sl(3, C) with highest

weight µ0 . Then, an element µ of h is a weight for π iff the following two
conditions are satisfied:
i) µ is contained in the convex hull of the orbit of µ0 under the weyl
group.

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 ii) µ0 −µ is expressible as a linear combination of the positive simple roots
α1 and α2 with integer coefficients.

35. Compact Real Forms for Complex Semisimple Lie Algebras:

Let g be a complex semisimple Lie Algebra. A compact real form of g is a
real subalgebra l of g with the property that every element X ∈ g can be
uniquely written as X = X1 + iX2 (i.e lC = g) and such that there exists a
compact simply connected matrix Lie group K1 such that the Lie algebra l1
of K1 is isomorphic to l.

Remark: For a complex semisimple Lie algebra g, a compact real form

always exists.

36. Some examples of compact real forms for complex semisim-

ple Lie algebras

i) Let g = sl(n, C) and l = su(n). l = su(n) is clearly a real subalgebra

of g = sl(n, C) = su(n)C and su(n) is the Lie algebra of the compact
simply connected matrix Lie group SU(n)

ii) Let g = so(3, C) and l = so(3). l = so(3) is clearly a real subalgebra

of so(3, C) = su(2)C and so(3) ∼
= su(2) which is the Lie algebra of the
compact simply connected matrix Lie group SU(2)