5

Subalgebras of gl(V )

Many Lie algebras occur naturally as subalgebras of the Lie algebras of linear
transformations of vector spaces. Even more are easily seen to be isomorphic
to such subalgebras. Given such a Lie algebra, one can profitably use linear
algebra to study its properties.
Throughout this chapter, we let V denote an n-dimensional vector space
over a field F . We consider some elementary facts concerning linear maps and
Lie subalgebras of gl(V ) which are needed for the theorems to come.

5.1 Nilpotent Maps

Let L be a Lie subalgebra of gl(V ). We may regard elements of L as linear
transformations of V , so in addition to the Lie bracket we can also exploit
compositions xy of linear maps for x, y ∈ L. Care must be taken, however,
as in general this composition will not belong to L. Suppose that x ∈ L is a
nilpotent map; that is, xr = 0 for some r ≥ 1. What does this tell us about x
as an element of the Lie algebra?

Lemma 5.1
Let x ∈ L. If the linear map x : V → V is nilpotent, then ad x : L → L is also
nilpotent.
38 5. Subalgebras of gl(V )

Proof
To see this, take y ∈ L and expand (ad x)m (y) = [x, [x, . . . [x, y] . . .]]. Every
term in the resulting sum is of the form xj yxm−j for some j between 0 and m.
For example, (ad x)2 y = x2 y −2xyx+yx2 . Suppose that xr = 0 and let m ≥ 2r.
Either j ≥ r, in which case xj = 0, or m − j ≥ r, in which case xm−j = 0. It
follows that (ad x)2r = 0.

This lemma can be regarded as a companion result to Exercise 1.17, which

asked you to show that if L = gl(V ) and x : V → V is diagonalisable, then
ad x : L → L is also diagonalisable.

5.2 Weights
In linear algebra, one is often interested in the eigenvalues and eigenvectors
of a fixed linear map. We now generalise these notions to families of linear
maps. Let A be a subalgebra of gl(V ). It seems reasonable to say that v ∈ V
is an eigenvector for A if v is an eigenvector for every element of A; that is,
a(v) ∈ Span {v} for every a ∈ A.

Example 5.2
Let A = d(n, F ), the Lie subalgebra of gl(n, F ) consisting of diagonal matrices.
Let {e1 , . . . , en } be the standard basis of F n . Then each ei is an eigenvector
for A.

It is not so obvious how we should generalise eigenvalues. Consider the

example above. Let a be the diagonal matrix with entries (α1 , . . . , αn ). The
eigenvalue of a on ei is αi , but this varies as a runs through the elements
of A, so we must be prepared to let different elements of A act with different
eigenvalues. We can specify the eigenvalues of elements of A by giving a function
λ : A → F . The corresponding eigenspace is then

Vλ := {v ∈ V : a(v) = λ(a)v for all a ∈ A} .

Exercise 5.1
(i) Check that the eigenspaces Vλ defined above are vector subspaces
of V .
5.3 The Invariance Lemma 39

(ii) Using the notation above, define εi : A → F by εi (a) = αi . Show

that Vεi = Span {ei } and that V decomposes as a direct sum of
the Vεi for 1 ≤ i ≤ n.

The reader may already have realised that not every function A → F can
have a non-zero eigenspace. Suppose that Vλ is a non-zero eigenspace for the
function λ : A → F . Let v ∈ Vλ be non-zero, let a, b ∈ A, and let α, β ∈ F .
Then

(αa + βb)v = α(av) + β(bv) = αλ(a)v + βλ(b)v = (αλ(a) + βλ(b))v,

so the eigenvalue of αa + βb on v is αλ(a) + βλ(b). In other words, λ(αa + βb) =

αλ(a) + βλ(b). Thus λ is linear and so λ ∈ A
, the dual space of linear maps
from A to F .
We now introduce the standard terminology.

Definition 5.3
A weight for a Lie subalgebra A of gl(V ) is a linear map λ : A → F such that

Vλ := {v ∈ V : a(v) = λ(a)v for all a ∈ A}

is a non-zero subspace of V .

The vector space Vλ is the weight space associated to the weight λ. Thus Vλ
is non-zero if and only if V contains a common eigenvector for the elements
of A, with the eigenvalues of elements of A given by the function λ.
Exercise 5.2
Let A = b(n, F ) be the Lie subalgebra of gl(n, F ) consisting of upper
triangular matrices. Show that e1 is an eigenvector for A. Find the cor-
responding weight and determine its weight space.

5.3 The Invariance Lemma

In linear algebra, one shows that if a, b : V → V are commuting linear trans-
formations and W is the kernel of a, then W is b-invariant. That is, b maps
W into W . The proof is very easy: If w ∈ W , then a(bw) = b(aw) = 0 and so
bw ∈ W . This result has a generalisation to Lie subalgebras of gl(V ) as follows.
40 5. Subalgebras of gl(V )

Lemma 5.4
Suppose that A is an ideal of a Lie subalgebra L of gl(V ). Let

W = {v ∈ V : a(v) = 0 for all a ∈ A}.

Then W is an L-invariant subspace of V .

Proof
Take w ∈ W and y ∈ L. We must show that a(yw) = 0 for all a ∈ A. But
ay = ya + [a, y], where [a, y] ∈ A as A is an ideal, so

a(yw) = y(aw) + [a, y](w) = 0.

The technique used here of replacing ay with ya + [a, y] is frequently useful.

We shall have recourse to it many times below.
Exercise 5.3
Show that Lemma 5.4 really does generalise the result mentioned in the
first paragraph of this section.

This has dealt with zero eigenvalues. More generally, one can prove that if
a, b : V → V are commuting linear maps, λ ∈ F , and Vλ is the λ-eigenspace
of a (that is, Vλ = {v ∈ V : av = λv}), then Vλ is invariant under b.
This fact too has a generalisation to Lie algebras. As before, we shall replace
the linear map a by an ideal A ⊆ gl(V ). The subspace considered in Lemma
5.4 may be viewed as the 0-weight space for A. In our generalisation, we allow
an arbitrary weight.

Lemma 5.5 (Invariance Lemma)

Assume that F has characteristic zero. Let L be a Lie subalgebra of gl(V ) and
let A be an ideal of L. Let λ : A → F be a weight of A. The associated weight
space
Vλ = {v ∈ V : av = λ(a)v for all a ∈ A}
is an L-invariant subspace of V .

Proof
We must show that if y ∈ L and w ∈ Vλ , then y(w) is an eigenvector for every
element of A, with the eigenvalue of a ∈ A given by λ(a).
5.3 The Invariance Lemma 41

For a ∈ A, we have

a(yw) = y(aw) + [a, y](w) = λ(a)yw + λ([a, y])w.

Note that [a, y] ∈ A as A is an ideal. Therefore all we need show is that the
eigenvalue of the commutator
 [a, y] on Vλ iszero.
Consider U = Span w, y(w), y 2 (w), . . . , . This is a finite-dimensional sub-
space of V . Let m be the least number such that the vectors w, y(w), . . . , y m (w)
are linearly dependent. It is a straightforward exercise in linear algebra to show
that U is m-dimensional and has as a basis

w, y(w), . . . , y m−1 (w).

We claim that if z ∈ A, then z maps U into itself. In fact, we shall show

that with respect to the basis above, z has an upper triangular matrix with
diagonal entries equal to λ(z):
⎛ ⎞
λ(z)
...

⎜ 0 λ(z) . . .
⎟
⎜ ⎟
⎜ . . . .. ⎟ .
⎝ .. .. .. . ⎠
0 0 . . . λ(z)

We work by induction on the number of the column. First of all, zw = λ(z)w.

This gives the first column of the matrix. Next, since [z, y] ∈ A, we have

z(yw) = y(zw) + [z, y]w = λ(z)y(w) + λ([z, y])w

giving the second column.

For column r, we have

z(y r (w)) = zy(y r−1 w) = (yz + [z, y])y r−1 w.

By the inductive hypothesis, we can say that

z(y r−1 w) = λ(z)y r−1 w + u

for some u in the span of {y j w : j < r − 1}. Substituting this gives

yz(y r−1 w) = λ(z)y r w + yu,

and yu belongs to the span of the {y j w : j < r}. Furthermore, since [z, y] ∈ A,
we get by induction that
[z, y]y r−1 w = v
for some v in the span of {y j w : j ≤ r − 1}. Combining the last two results
shows that column r is as stated.
42 5. Subalgebras of gl(V )

Now take z = [a, y]. We have just shown that the trace of the matrix of z
acting on U is mλ(z). On the other hand, by the previous paragraph, U is
invariant under the action of a ∈ A, and U is y-invariant by construction. So
the trace of z on U is the trace of ay −ya, also viewed as a linear transformation
of U , and this is obviously 0. Therefore

mλ([a, y]) = 0.

As F has characteristic zero, it follows that λ([a, y]) = 0.

Remark 5.6
This proof would be much easier if it were true that the linear maps y r belonged
to the Lie algebra L. Unfortunately, this is not true in general.

5.4 An Application of the Invariance Lemma

The following proposition shows how the Invariance Lemma may be applied in
practice.

Proposition 5.7
Let x, y : V → V be linear maps from a complex vector space V to itself.
Suppose that x and y both commute with [x, y]. Then [x, y] is a nilpotent map.

Proof
Since we are working over the complex numbers, it is enough to show that if λ
is an eigenvalue of the linear map [x, y], then λ = 0.
Let λ be an eigenvalue. Let W = {v ∈ V : [x, y]v = λv} be the corre-
sponding eigenspace of [x, y]; this is a non-zero subspace of V . Let L be the
Lie subalgebra of gl(V ) spanned by x, y, and [x, y]. As Span {[x, y]} is an ideal
of L, the Invariance Lemma implies that W is invariant under x and y.
Pick a basis of W and let X and Y be the matrices of x and y with respect
to this basis. The commutator [x, y] has matrix XY − Y X in its action on W .