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Lie algebras are algebraic structures which were introduced to study the concept of infinitesimal transformations. The term "Lie algebra" (after Sophus Lie) was introduced by Hermann Weyl in the 1930s. In older texts, the name "infinitesimal group" is used. Related mathematical concepts include Lie groups and differentiable manifolds.

50 votes
5 answers
9k views

What role does the "dual Coxeter number" play in Lie theory (and should it be called the "Ka...

While trying to get some perspective on the extensive literature about highest weight modules for affine Lie algebras relative to "level" (work by Feigin, E. Frenkel, Gaitsgory, Kac, ....), I run into …
Jim Humphreys's user avatar
41 votes
2 answers
2k views

Implications of non-negativity of coefficients of arbitrary Kazhdan-Lusztig polynomials?

In their seminal 1979 paper Representations of Coxeter groups and Hecke algebras (Invent. Math. 53, doi:10.1007/BF01390031), Kazhdan and Lusztig studied an arbitrary Coxeter group $(W,S)$ and the corr …
Jim Humphreys's user avatar
31 votes
4 answers
3k views

What was Casimir's precise role in describing the center of the universal enveloping algebra...

This question is prompted by a recent MO question on explicit computations of Weyl group invariants for certain exceptional simple Lie algebras: 37602. Like some others who started graduate study in …
Jim Humphreys's user avatar
30 votes
0 answers
997 views

Follow-up to Steinberg's problem (12) in his 1966 ICM talk?

Steinberg's lecture at the 1966 ICM in Moscow here surveyed his work on regular elements of semisimple algebraic groups, while also formulating a number of then-open questions as "problems" (with posi …
Jim Humphreys's user avatar
19 votes
2 answers
2k views

Dual versions of "folding" symmetric ADE Dynkin diagrams?

Start with the Dynkin diagram of an irreducible root system, typically associated with a simple Lie algebra over $\mathbb{C}$ or a simple algebraic group. Most of the simply-laced ADE diagrams admi …
Jim Humphreys's user avatar
17 votes
2 answers
926 views

Are the unipotent and nilpotent varieties isomorphic in bad characteristics?

In characteristic 0 or good prime characteristic, there are standard ways to relate the unipotent variety $\mathcal{U}$ of a simple algebraic group $G$ and the nilpotent variety $\mathcal{N}$ of its L …
Jim Humphreys's user avatar
14 votes
1 answer
1k views

Uniform proof of dimension formula for minimal special nilpotent orbit?

Given a simple Lie algebra over an algebraically closed field of good characteristic such as $\mathbb{C}$, its subvariety $\mathcal{N}$ of nilpotent elements has dimension $2N$ (where $N$ is the num …
Jim Humphreys's user avatar
13 votes
0 answers
1k views

Source of a formula for tensor product multiplicities?

This is a follow-up to a recent question by Allen Knutson here, involving a special type of tensor product multiplicity for a simple Lie algebra $\mathfrak{g}$ over $\mathbb{C}$ (or other algebraicall …
Jim Humphreys's user avatar
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 …
Jim Humphreys's user avatar
13 votes
0 answers
766 views

Is there a reasonable way to define "reductive Lie algebra" in prime characteristic?

Among the finite dimensional Lie algebras over a field of characteristic 0, there is a sensible definition of "reductive Lie algebra" going back at least to the 1960 first chapter of N. Bourbaki's tre …
Jim Humphreys's user avatar
12 votes
0 answers
515 views

Irreducible representations of Weyl group of F$_4$ on zero weight spaces?

This is a follow-up to a recent question here concerning the natural representation of a Weyl group $W$ on the zero weight space of an irreducible representation $L(\lambda)$ of highest weight $\lambd …
Jim Humphreys's user avatar
12 votes
1 answer
681 views

Comparing a Chevalley basis with the canonical basis of the adjoint module?

First some background: Given a simple Lie algebra $\mathfrak{g}$ over an algebraically closed field of characteristic 0 such as $\mathbb{C}$, fix a Cartan decomposition $\mathfrak{g} = \mathfrak{h} \o …
Jim Humphreys's user avatar
12 votes
0 answers
213 views

Failure of surjectivity in Hotta-Springer specialization: examples for special unipotents?

Last weekend's workshop on Springer theory and its generalizations at UMass demonstrated how far the subject has expanded over four decades, but the original set-up for the Springer correspondence sti …
Jim Humphreys's user avatar
12 votes
1 answer
1k views

Smallest dimension of nontrivial representation of a simple Lie algebra over `$\mathbb{C}$`

The question involved here is natural and very classical, but I'm unsure what has been formally stated and proved in the literature. The only approach I know involves assembling facts that apparently …
Jim Humphreys's user avatar
11 votes
3 answers
552 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 …
Jim Humphreys's user avatar

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