Questions tagged [exceptional-groups]

Exceptional Lie groups G2, F4, E6, E7, E8 of dimensions 14, 52, 78, 133, 248 were obtained as result of classification of simple Lie groups performed by Killing and Elie Cartan. The tool used in classification is Dynkin diagram and root system of vectors in Lie algebra of the group. The remaining Lie groups form four infinite families of transformations of n-dimensional space over real (odd and even), complex and quaternionic field.

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Groups that do not exist

In the long process that resulted in the classification of finite simple groups, some of the exceptional groups were only shown to exist after people had computed (most of) their character tables and ...
Mariano Suárez-Álvarez's user avatar
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5 answers
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$G_2$ and Geometry

In a recent question Deane Yang mentioned the beautiful Riemannian geometry that comes up when looking at $G_2$. I am wondering if people could expand on the geometry related to the exceptional Lie ...
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Triality of Spin(8)

Among simple Lie groups, $Spin(8)$ is the most symmetrical one in the sense that $Out(Spin(8))$ is the largest possible group. A description of this outer automorphism groups is as follows. $Spin(8)$ ...
Aliakbar Daemi's user avatar
22 votes
2 answers
603 views

Does the 3875-dimensional rep of $E_8$ have a solution to $x\star x=0$?

Consider the compact Lie group $E_8$. Its second-smallest fundamental representation is $3875$-dimensional and admits a symmetric invariant form, and so is real: $E_8 \curvearrowright \mathbb{R}^{3875}...
Theo Johnson-Freyd's user avatar
22 votes
2 answers
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Does $\mathrm{E}_7/(\mathrm{SU}_8/(\mathbb{Z}/2))$ carry an almost complex structure?

Recall the list of irreducible simply connected inner symmetric spaces of compact type in dimension $4k+2$: Hermitian symmetric spaces (one can write them down explicitly); Grassmannians of oriented ...
Andrei Moroianu's user avatar
21 votes
5 answers
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Explanation for E_8's torsion

To study the topology of Lie groups, you can decompose them into the simple compact ones, plus some additional steps, such as taking the cover if necessary. After that, the structure of $SO(n)$'s is ...
Ilya Nikokoshev's user avatar
21 votes
2 answers
1k views

Geometric interpretation of exceptional symmetric spaces

Elie Cartan has classified all compact symmetric spaces admitting a compact simple Lie group as their group of motion.There are 7 infinite series and 12 exceptional cases. The exceptional cases are ...
JME's user avatar
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19 votes
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Matrix representation for $F_4$

Has anyone ever bothered to write down the 26-dimensional fundamental representation of $F_4$? I wouldn't mind looking at it. Is it in $\mathfrak{so}(26)$? I'm familiar with the construction of the ...
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18 votes
1 answer
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$8 \times 31 = 8 \times 31$?

The Lie algebra $\mathfrak{e}_8$ has (at least) two ways to be written as a direct sum of $31$ Cartan subalgebras. First, Thompson and Smith showed that the (compact or complex) Lie group $\mathrm{E}...
Theo Johnson-Freyd's user avatar
15 votes
2 answers
403 views

Constructing $E_8$ from its branching to $A_8$

Background/motivation: One of the usual constructions of [the adjoint representation of] the $E_8$ exceptional Lie group (found, e.g., in J. F. Adams's, "Lectures on Exceptional Lie Groups", esp. chap....
Gro-Tsen's user avatar
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14 votes
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Description of the generalized grassmannians and flag varieties (parabolic quotients) associated to the exceptional groups

If $G$ is a classical semisimple algebraic/Lie group over an algebraically closed field (maybe just say $\mathbb{C}$), viꝫ. $\mathit{SL}_n$, $\mathit{SO}_n$, $\mathit{Sp}_n$ (isogenies irrelevant here)...
Gro-Tsen's user avatar
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12 votes
2 answers
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Where can I find details of Elie Cartan's thesis?

I am interested in the details of Elie Cartan's thesis, and, more specifically the explicit construction of the exceptional Lie groups as groups of symmetries of some specific homogeneous polynomials (...
Malkoun's user avatar
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12 votes
1 answer
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Flag manifolds as incidence correspondences

Let $G$ be a reductive group, $B$ a Borel and $P_j$ the maximal parabolics, indexed by the vertices $j$ of the Dynkin diagram. Then $B = \bigcap_j P_j$, so the flag manifold $G/B$ injects into $\...
David E Speyer's user avatar
11 votes
0 answers
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The Grassmannian Gr(2,8) and an E7 surprise

Are there any mathematical explanations for the following surprising facts? $$\int_{Gr(2,8)} c_{\text{top}}(TX(-2)) = 6556 = \frac{1}{2} \deg(E_7/P(\alpha_7)) + 1,$$ and $$\int_{Gr(2,6)} c_{\text{top}}...
Richard Eager's user avatar
10 votes
1 answer
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Viewing exceptional Lie algebras via the classical ones

I've been trying to understand the exceptional Lie algebras through the classical ones that I am more familiar with. In particular I wanted to get a handle on the root spaces and most discussions that ...
Callum's user avatar
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The double cover of $[W(E_7),W(E_7)] \cong Sp_6(\mathbb F_2)$ as a Galois group over $\mathbb Q$

I came across the following problem when I was trying to construct a certain type of homomorphisms from $\Gamma_{\mathbb Q}$ to $E^{sc}_7(\mathbb F_p)$ for any prime $p$: Is the double cover of $Sp_6(...
Shawn's user avatar
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9 votes
2 answers
354 views

Why do these two irreps of $E_6$ have the same dimension?

$E_6$'s Dynkin diagram is a line of 5 vertices, which we will number 1...5, and a sixth one attached to #3, which we will ignore. $\dim V_{\omega_2} = 351 = \dim V_{2\ \omega_1}$, where $\omega_i$ ...
Allen Knutson's user avatar
9 votes
1 answer
378 views

Concrete description of an exceptional minuscule variety

Let $G$ be a complete reductive Lie group. A simple root $\alpha$ is said to be minuscule if the multiplicity of the coroot $\alpha^\vee$ in $\beta^\vee$ is at most $1$ for all positive roots $\beta$. ...
Oliver's user avatar
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9 votes
1 answer
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Construction of Thom-Spectrum for G_2-Structures

The motivation to this question is the paper of Crowley and Nordstrøm "A New Invariant of $G_2$-Structures". I am trying to find a homotopy theoretic interpretation of the following geometric ...
Arkadi's user avatar
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8 votes
1 answer
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Does $G_2(\mathbb{Z})$ depend on the choice of an integral model?

I am trying to understand constructions of exceptional groups of type $G_2$ (over rings). In this post, by a model (of type $G_2$) I mean an affine smooth group scheme over $\mathbb{Z}$ such that the ...
user148212's user avatar
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8 votes
1 answer
392 views

$Spin(7)$ as stabilizer of a $4$-form

According to Bryant's work on special holonomy groups, $G_2\subset SO(7)$ may be defined as the group preserving the following 3-form: $\phi_0=\mathrm{d}x_{123}+\mathrm{d}x_{145}+\mathrm{d}x_{167}+\...
Jjm's user avatar
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8 votes
1 answer
222 views

Orbits of action of the split group of type $F_4$

Let the split group of type $F_4$ act as the automorphism group of the split Albert algebra $A$. Consider the action of $F_4\times \mathbb{G}_m$ on $A$, given by letting $\mathbb{G}_m$ act by scalar ...
A.Garcia's user avatar
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7 votes
1 answer
331 views

Relation between different $E_8$ matrices

There are several rank-8 square matrices known to be related to $E_8$: Cartan $E_8$ matrix https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/E8_(mathematics)#Cartan_matrix $$M_1=\left [\begin{array}{rr} 2 & -1 &...
Марина Marina S's user avatar
7 votes
2 answers
788 views

How do Jordan algebras help one understand representations of exceptional Lie algebras?

For this question I'm happy to take the complex numbers as the base field. I've been trying to learn a little bit about the exceptional Lie algebras and for a while they seemed inaccessible. I looked ...
Steven Sam's user avatar
7 votes
2 answers
421 views

Quadratic forms on $\mathbb{R}^{16}$ coming from octonions

$\DeclareMathOperator\RRe{Re}\DeclareMathOperator\Spin{Spin}\DeclareMathOperator\Sym{Sym}$Let $\mathcal{H}_2(\mathbb{O})$ denote the (10-dimensional) real vector space of octonionic Hermitian matrices ...
asv's user avatar
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7 votes
2 answers
489 views

Is this characterization of (-1)-eigenspaces of the Weyl group of $E_6$ known?

I recently needed to know which circles $S$ in a maximal torus $T^6$ of the compact exceptional group $E_6$ yield one-dimensional subspaces $\mathfrak s$ of the Lie algebra $\mathfrak t^6$ that are ...
jdc's user avatar
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Does Deligne's exceptional series lead to an "exceptional K-theory"?

To a certain extent, Deligne's exceptional series $A_1 \subset A_2 \subset G_2 \subset D_4 \subset F_4 \subset E_6 \subset E_7 \subset E_8$ plays a role analogous to the classical series $A_n \subset ...
Theo Johnson-Freyd's user avatar
7 votes
0 answers
207 views

Freudenthal geometries for exceptional simple Lie groups

When reading answer to this question I recall Freudenthal, Lie groups and foundations of geometry, 1964. In chapter 4 he describes 2-dim elliptic geometry, 2-dim projective geometry, 5-dim symplectic ...
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7 votes
0 answers
591 views

A few questions about $E_6$ and its symmetric spaces

Preface The purpose of my question - on high level - is to understand exceptional symmetric spaces. My latest idea is to embed them into Lie group. There is quite nice embedding of 32-dimensional $E_{...
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6 votes
1 answer
370 views

Do the exceptional root systems arise in the real world?

I am looking for a list of real world examples where the exceptional roots systems $E_6, E_7, E_8, F_4$, and $G_2$, and their associated Lie algebras and Lie groups, arise. To make this question a ...
Lorenzo Del Vecchiopontopolos's user avatar
6 votes
2 answers
267 views

How to check whether a given matrix is in the image of a representation?

Let $G$ be a compact simple Lie group, and let $\rho$ be a (faithful, unitary) irreducible representation thereof of $\mathbb K$-dimension $n$, where $\mathbb K=\mathbb C/\mathbb R/\mathbb H$ if $R$ ...
AccidentalFourierTransform's user avatar
6 votes
2 answers
497 views

Constructing real forms of the Tits-Freudenthal magic square for (Rosenfeld) projective planes

If $\mathbb{K},\mathbb{L} \in \{\mathbb{R},\mathbb{C},\mathbb{H},\mathbb{O}\}$ then the Rosenfeld projective ("elliptic"?) plane $\mathbb{P}^2(\mathbb{K}\otimes\mathbb{L})$ is "the" compact Riemannian ...
Gro-Tsen's user avatar
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6 votes
2 answers
111 views

Describing the action of $^2E_6(q)$

One of the constructions of the group $^2E_6(q)$ was presented by Tits in his paper "Les «formes réelles» des groupes de type $E_6$". It is being constructed by looking at the action of $^2E_6(q)$ on ...
AlexCon's user avatar
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6 votes
0 answers
258 views

Branching rules for E6 into SU(3)^3

I am very confused about what are the branching rules for representations of $E6$ into a $SU(3)\times SU(3)\times SU(3)$ subgroup. At least in the physics literature, there seems to be a serious ...
Federico Carta's user avatar
6 votes
1 answer
409 views

Adjoint orbits of a finite group of type $G_2$

Let $q=p^\alpha$ be a prime power and $k=\mathbb{F}_q$. Let $G\subseteq \mathrm{GL}_N(k)$ be a simple finite group of Lie type, with root system of type $G_2$, and let $\mathfrak{g}\subseteq \mathfrak{...
kneidell's user avatar
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6 votes
0 answers
264 views

Exceptional symmetric spaces embedded in exceptional Lie group

In Yokota (1959) and Atsuyama (1977) papers one can find embedding of projective space $\mathbb OP^2$ into Lie group $F_4$. Lately I come to following idea to have embedding of all four projective ...
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5 votes
1 answer
778 views

Is there a connection between exceptional Galois groups and Ramanujan's partition congruences

There are three exceptional Galois groups $L_2(5)$, $L_2(7)$ and $L_2(11)$ . These are cited as one of Arnold's "trinities" and are connected with other trinities and the McKay Correspondence. ...
Philip Gibbs's user avatar
5 votes
1 answer
295 views

What is the largest subgroup of $GL^{+}(7,\mathbb{R})$ which smoothly retracts onto $G_2$?

There is a nice smooth retraction from $\operatorname{GL}(n,\mathbb{C})$ onto $\operatorname{U}(n)$, which can be explained using polar decomposition. There is an analogous one from $\operatorname{GL}(...
Malkoun's user avatar
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5 votes
0 answers
390 views

Better names for Lie groups

After reading this question I was wondering whether mathematicians tried to invent better names for exceptional simple Lie groups $F_4, E_6, E_7, E_8$ ? These names seems a bit obscure and does not ...
user avatar
4 votes
2 answers
522 views

How to describe the compact real forms of the exceptional Lie groups as matrix groups?

I know that $G_2$ can be described as the subgroup of $SO(7)$ preserving a specific element of $\Lambda^3(\mathbb{R}^7)^*$. It can thus be realized as a matrix group. Prof. Robert Bryant did describe ...
Malkoun's user avatar
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4 votes
1 answer
213 views

A question on complex semisimple Lie groups and $(\mathbb{C}^2, \omega)$

Consider $(\mathbb{C}^2, \omega)$ where $\omega$ is a non-degenerate complex skew-symmetric bilinear form on $\mathbb{C}^2$. Let us write $V = (\mathbb{C}^2, \omega)$ There are many spaces one can ...
Malkoun's user avatar
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4 votes
1 answer
201 views

Dimensions of $E_{7\frac{1}{2}}$

Is there much known about the dimensions $D$ of $E_{7\frac{1}{2}}$ (that is: $D_6.H_{32}$) beyond $$ 44\otimes44(def)=1\oplus945\oplus99(adj)\oplus891\, ? $$ Generally, does a weight indexing scheme ...
Hauke Reddmann's user avatar
4 votes
0 answers
219 views

What is known about the cohomology of the U-duality group?

$\newcommand{\Es}{E_{7(7)}}\newcommand{\Z}{\mathbb Z}$Let $\Es$ denote the split form of $E_7$, which is a real Lie group. It can be characterized as the subgroup of $\mathrm{Sp}_{56}(\mathbb R)$ ...
Arun Debray's user avatar
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4 votes
0 answers
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Is there a smooth Weyl equivariant map from this quotient space into $G_2/T^2$?

It is known that $G_2$ acts transitively on $S^6$ with fibers $SU(3)$. Let us consider the following set $P$ of complex unitary $7 \times7$ matrices $A$, where $$ A = (v_0, \, v_1, \, v_2, \, v_3, \, ...
Malkoun's user avatar
  • 4,991
4 votes
0 answers
75 views

Parabolic Bruhat graphs for exceptional types

I am looking for some computer software or a reference for some parabolic Bruhat graphs. In particular, what I really need $E_8 \setminus E_7$. Does anyone know where or how I'd find this?
Chris Bowman's user avatar
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4 votes
0 answers
141 views

Exceptional symmetric spaces with quaternionic structure

Following this and this question I found following chain of exceptional symmetric spaces being quaternionic manifolds. I listed dimensions as superscripts for reader convenience. $F_{I}^{28}\subset ...
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4 votes
0 answers
184 views

A few questions about $E_7$ and its symmetric spaces

My question about $E_6$ survived, so I post next episode. From the Yokota book I found out that there is $-1$ in $E_7$ Lie group. This book defines Lie group $E_7$ using 56-dimensional Freudenthal ...
user avatar
3 votes
3 answers
792 views

Irreducibility of fundamental Weyl modules

It is known that for a simple algebraic group over an algebraically closed field of positive characteristic (which I assume to be {\it good} for the group), the Weyl modules corresponding to the ...
P-Sam's user avatar
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3 votes
1 answer
118 views

Explicit generators of the Lie algebra $spin(9)$

It is well known that the Lie group $Spin(9)$ acts on the vector space $\mathbb{R}^{16}$ (see e.g. Harvey's book "Spinors and calibrations".) It is convenient to identify this vector space with the ...
asv's user avatar
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3 votes
1 answer
135 views

Transitivity of $Spin(7)$ in triples of vectors

I have a simple question: transitivity of $Spin(7)$ in triples of orthogonal vectors. Let $Spin(7)\subset SO(8)$ act on $\mathbb{R}^8$, and $e_1,e_2,e_3$, $v_1,v_2,v_3$ be two triples of mutually ...
Jjm's user avatar
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