Timeline for Why are affine Lie algebras called affine?
Current License: CC BY-SA 3.0
7 events
| when toggle format | what | by | license | comment | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| May 22, 2013 at 6:49 | vote | accept | Oliver Thistlethwaite | ||
| May 19, 2013 at 16:18 | answer | added | Jim Humphreys | timeline score: 25 | |
| May 19, 2013 at 8:45 | comment | added | Dietrich Burde | The roots are "affine linear functions" on the "affine linear Euclidean" space. Here is a thesis with emphasis on the "affine aspect":science.uva.nl/onderwijs/thesis/centraal/files/f91068273.pdf | |
| May 19, 2013 at 4:42 | comment | added | solbap | Another possibility is that the roots of an affine Lie algebra can be identified with affine linear forms on the Lie algebra of a Cartan subalgebra of the corresponding finite dimensional semisimple Lie algebra. See e.g. pg 71-72 of Loop Groups by Pressley, Segal. | |
| May 19, 2013 at 1:22 | comment | added | John Baez | That's what I thought too. I wouldn't be surprised if 'affine Coxeter diagrams' or 'affine Dynkin diagrams' were well-known long before people seriously started studying the corresponding Lie algebras. | |
| May 19, 2013 at 0:29 | comment | added | Noam D. Elkies | I always assumed it was because they correspond to affine reflection groups in the way that finite-dimensional semisimple algebras correspond to spherical (Euclidean) reflection groups. | |
| May 19, 2013 at 0:24 | history | asked | Oliver Thistlethwaite | CC BY-SA 3.0 |