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3 votes
0 answers
141 views

Examples of divisible Lie algebras

We say that a nonzero Lie algebra $L$ is divisible, if for all elements $a$ and $b$ with $a\neq 0$, there exists $x\in L$ such that $[a, x]=b$. What are examples of divisible Lie algebras?
5 votes
1 answer
982 views

Determining the Lie algebra elements exponentiating to the center of a Lie group

For a semi-simple compact Lie group $G$ with center $Z(G)$, one can characterize the preimage of $Z(G)$ in the Cartan subalgebra under the exponential map as the nodes of the Stiefel diagram (see for ...
0 votes
1 answer
274 views

when $g^*$ is invariant under $Ad(G)$?

Let $G$ be a Lie Group and $\mathfrak{g}$ be its lie algebra. Let $\mathfrak{g}$ is semisimple or reductive lie algebra, then prove that $\mathfrak{g}^*$ (dual of $\mathfrak{g}$)is invariant under $...
6 votes
2 answers
768 views

When did the meaning of the term "metabelian" change?

I just realised that the meaning of the term "metabelian", when applied to groups, or Lie algebras, seems to have changed over years. (These days, it means that $[[G,G],[G,G]]$ is trivial, while in ...
7 votes
3 answers
617 views

Why/when classification of simple objects is "simple" ? E.g. (unknown) classification of simple Lie algebras in char =2,3...

Classification of simple finite-dim Lie algebras for char >=5 has been accomplished not so long time ago, and char p=2,3 is open problem. I wonder what is known/expected for char p=2,3 ? More vague ...
5 votes
1 answer
820 views

Maximal subgroups of semisimple Lie groups

The problem of finding and classifying the maximal subgroups of simple Lie groups like $SU(3)$ is well known and solved in the literature. What about maximal subgroups of semisimple groups like $SU(3) ...
44 votes
2 answers
3k views

What algebraic group does Tannaka-Krein reconstruct when fed the category of modules of a non-algebraic Lie algebra?

Let $\mathfrak g$ be a finite-dimensional Lie algebra over $\mathbb C$, and let $\mathfrak g \text{-rep}$ be its category of finite-dimensional modules. Then $\mathfrak g\text{-rep}$ comes equipped ...
4 votes
2 answers
1k views

Dimension of Unipotent Radicals

A parabolic subgroup of a linear algebraic group $G$ defined over a field $k$ is a subgroup $P\subseteq G$, closed in the Zariski topology, for which the quotient space $G/P$ is a projective algebraic ...
1 vote
2 answers
341 views

Copies of ax+b inside the AN part of an Iwasawa decomposition?

As a relative novice to the structure theory of Lie algebras and Lie groups, the following is what I can gather from reading parts of Helgason's book DG, Lie groups and symmetric spaces and Knapp's ...
3 votes
2 answers
748 views

For a Weyl group, what is the connection between its exponents and lengths of its elements?

The following seems to be true: if $|W_q| := \sum {q^{l(w)}}$, where the sum is taken over the elements $w$, then $|W_q| = \prod {(1 + q +...+ q^{e_i})}$, where the product is taken over the exponents ...
2 votes
1 answer
316 views

Decomposition of Lorentz-like groups

When studying the Lorentz group $O(1,3)$, one can decompose it into four parts... physicist usually called these Proper-orthochronuos $\mathscr{L}^{\uparrow}_+$, Proper-asynchronous $\mathscr{L}^{\...
1 vote
0 answers
252 views

Generalizing groups via the Hall-Witt identity

In studying the integrability problem for Lie algebra representations, I have been led to wonder whether generalizing the notion of group by dropping associativity, while keeping the Hall-Witt ...
2 votes
0 answers
866 views

dual Coxeter number, affine algebra, invariants under twisting

Sometime ago we came across invariant quantities under twisting of all affine algebra. (See the appendix E of http://arxiv.org/abs/hep-th/0403076 .) Choose the convention so that the longest root has ...
8 votes
3 answers
1k views

A reference for the Chevalley Groups

Hello everyone I would like to learn basic theory of the Chevalley Groups. There are several references for this subject, like "Introduction to Lie algebras and representation theory" by Humphreys, ...
11 votes
3 answers
554 views

Uniform setting for computing orders of algebraic groups over finite quotients of the integers?

A couple of recent questions on MO have involved the characters or the orders of specific finite groups of the form $G(\mathbb{Z}/n\mathbb{Z})$ for a familiar algebraic group $G$ defined over $\mathbb{...
10 votes
4 answers
998 views

Longest Element of an Affine Weyl Group

I know that the Weyl groups of affine Lie algebras don't have a longest element, but are there any good substitutes for w_0. In particular, is there any good substitute for a reduced decomposition of ...
18 votes
1 answer
727 views

(Dis)similarity between groups and Lie algebras

There are many questions which sound similar or the same for groups and Lie algebras. Some (very few, actually) of those questions have identical solutions and answers. Some have identical answers but ...
1 vote
2 answers
465 views

subgroups with the same number of roots that the group.

When thinking in terms of Dynkin diagrams, I am naively used to see that the diagram for a subgroup can be extracted from the diagram of the group by removing some roots. Now, I noticed that for SO(10)...
1 vote
1 answer
1k views

Ado's Theorem Proof

Could someone please tell me what I am missing in the following argument. Either my understanding of the exact statement of Ado's theorem is wrong, or there is a flaw in my argument below. For a ...
6 votes
3 answers
993 views

Occurrences of a simple reflection in the longest element of a Weyl group?

While looking at a preprint I've just bumped into a question about the longest element $w_0$ of a Weyl group $W$ (say irreducible of a Lie type $A$ - $G$ and of rank $n>1$, to simplify). ...
3 votes
0 answers
359 views

Does Branching in the Weight Diagram affect an embedding?

All groups here are compact semisimple Lie groups. Out of laziness I will use $B_7$ to mean $Spin(15)$. Suppose that one has a group $H$ and a subgroup $G$. The embedding determines the decomposition ...
3 votes
0 answers
423 views

Cohomologies associated to residually torsion-free nilpotent groups

This question is related to my previous question: Relationship between the cohomology of a group and the cohomology of its associated Lie algebra. A group $G$ is ${\it residually \ torsion \ free \ ...
13 votes
4 answers
3k views

What is a "block" in an abelian category?

In the literature and in some posts here, there has been variation in the undefined use of the term "block" for a category of modules over a ring, or more abstractly an abelian category (all of which ...
3 votes
1 answer
361 views

A functor that comes from a morphism in a bigger category

My loose question is like this: what would you say about an equivalence of categories where both are concrete categories, and the equivalence functor is induced from a set-theoretic bijection at the ...
3 votes
1 answer
298 views

In what way do exact sequences of Lie ideals integrate to the category of groups?

Please excuse, very naive question: Suppose $g$ is a topological Lie algebra over Q and $G$ = $exp(g)$ the associated group (take free group on formal symbols $exp(X)$, X $\in$ $G$, and impose all ...
10 votes
3 answers
1k views

subgroup of SU(N) with maximal manifold dimension

Given the group SU(N) of NxN unitary matrices, does there exist a subgroup S with a manifold dimension larger than the SU(N-1) manifold dimension and smaller than the SU(N) one? S should not ...

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