Undergraduate Texts in

Editors S. Axler K.A. Ribet Undergraduate Texts in Mathematics

Abbott: Understanding Analysis. Daepp/Gorkin: Reading, Writing, and Proving: Anglin: Mathematics: A Concise History and A Closer Look at Mathematics. Philosophy. Devlin: The Joy of Sets: Fundamentals Readings in Mathematics. of-Contemporary Set . Second edition. Anglin/Lambek: The Heritage of Thales. Dixmier: General . Readings in Mathematics. Driver: Why Math? Apostol: Introduction to Analytic . Ebbinghaus/Flum/Thomas: . Second edition. Second edition. Armstrong: Basic Topology. Edgar: Measure, Topology, and Fractal . Armstrong: Groups and . Second edition. Axler: Linear Done Right. Second edition. Elaydi: An Introduction to Difference Equations. Beardon: Limits: A New Approach to Real Third edition. Analysis. Erdos/Sur˜ anyi:´ Topics in the Theory of Numbers. Bak/Newman: . Second edition. Estep: Practical Analysis on One Variable. Banchoff/Wermer: Through Exner: An Accompaniment to Higher Mathematics. Geometry. Second edition. Exner: Inside . Beck/Robins: Computing the Continuous Fine/Rosenberger: The Fundamental Theory Discretely of Algebra. Berberian: A First Course in . Fischer: Intermediate Real Analysis. Bix: Conics and Cubics: A Concrete Introduction to Flanigan/Kazdan: Calculus Two: Linear and Algebraic Curves. Second edition. Nonlinear Functions. Second edition. Bremaud:` An Introduction to Probabilistic Fleming: Functions of Several Variables. Second Modeling. edition. Bressoud: Factorization and Primality Testing. Foulds: Combinatorial Optimization for Bressoud: Second Year Calculus. Undergraduates. Readings in Mathematics. Foulds: Optimization Techniques: An Introduction. Brickman: Mathematical Introduction to Linear Franklin: Methods of Mathematical Programming and . Economics. Browder: : An Introduction. Frazier: An Introduction to Wavelets Through Buchmann: Introduction to Cryptography. Second Linear Algebra. Edition. Gamelin: Complex Analysis. Buskes/van Rooij: Topological Spaces: From Ghorpade/Limaye: A Course in Calculus and Real Distance to Neighborhood. Analysis Callahan: The Geometry of Spacetime: An Gordon: Discrete Probability. Introduction to Special and General Relavitity. Hairer/Wanner: Analysis by Its History. Carter/van Brunt: The Lebesgue– Stieltjes Readings in Mathematics. Integral: A Practical Introduction. Halmos: Finite-Dimensional Vector Spaces. Cederberg: A Course in Modern . Second edition. Second edition. Halmos: Naive . Chambert-Loir: A Field Guide to Algebra Hammerlin/Hoffmann:¨ Numerical Mathematics. Childs: A Concrete Introduction to Higher Algebra. Readings in Mathematics. Second edition. Harris/Hirst/Mossinghoff: and Chung/AitSahlia: Elementary : . With Stochastic Processes and an Introduction to Hartshorne: Geometry: Euclid and Beyond. . Fourth edition. Hijab: Introduction to Calculus and Classical Cox/Little/O’Shea: Ideals, Varieties, and Analysis. Second edition. Algorithms. Second edition. Hilton/Holton/Pedersen: Mathematical Croom: Basic Concepts of . Reflections: In a Room with Many Mirrors. Cull/Flahive/Robson: Difference Equations. From Hilton/Holton/Pedersen: Mathematical Vistas: Rabbits to Chaos From a Room with Many Windows. Curtis: Linear Algebra: An Introductory Approach. Iooss/Joseph: Elementary Stability and Bifurcation Fourth edition. Theory. Second Edition.

(continued after index) John Stillwell

Naive Lie Theory

123 John Stillwell Department of Mathematics University of San Francisco San Francisco, CA 94117 USA [email protected]

Editorial Board S. Axler K.A. Ribet Mathematics Department Department of Mathematics San Francisco State University University of California San Francisco, CA 94132 at Berkeley USA Berkeley, CA 94720 [email protected] USA [email protected]

ISBN: 978-0-387-78214-0 e-ISBN: 978-0-387-78215-7 DOI: 10.1007/978-0-387-78214-0

Library of Congress Control Number: 2008927921

Mathematics Subject Classification (2000): 22Exx:22E60

c 2008 Springer Science+Business Media, LLC All rights reserved. This work may not be translated or copied in whole or in part without the written permission of the publisher (Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, 233 Spring Street, New York, NY 10013, USA), except for brief excerpts in connection with reviews or scholarly analysis. Use in connection with any form of information storage and retrieval, electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar or dissimilar methodology now known or hereafter developed is forbidden. The use in this publication of trade names, trademarks, service marks, and similar terms, even if they are not identified as such, is not to be taken as an expression of opinion as to whether or not they are subject to proprietary rights.

Printed on acid-free paper

987654321 springer.com To Paul Halmos In Memoriam

Preface

It seems to have been decided that undergraduate mathematics today rests on two foundations: calculus and linear algebra. These may not be the best foundations for, say, number theory or combinatorics, but they serve quite well for undergraduate analysis and several varieties of undergradu- ate algebra and geometry. The really perfect sequel to calculus and linear algebra, however, would be a blend of the two—a subject in which calcu- lus throws light on linear algebra and vice versa. Look no further! This perfect blend of calculus and linear algebra is Lie theory (named to honor the Norwegian —pronounced “Lee ”). So why is Lie theory not a standard undergraduate topic? The problem is that, until recently, Lie theory was a subject for mature or else a tool for chemists and physicists. There was no Lie theory for novice mathematicians. Only in the last few years have there been serious attempts to write Lie theory books for undergraduates. These books broke through to the undergraduate level by making some sensible compromises with generality; they stick to matrix groups and mainly to the classical ones, such as rotation groups of n-dimensional space. In this book I stick to similar subject matter. The classical groups are introduced via a study of rotations in two, three, and four dimensions, which is also an appropriate place to bring in complex numbers and quater- nions. From there it is only a short step to studying rotations in real, complex, and spaces of any dimension. In so doing, one has introduced the classical simple Lie groups, in their most geometric form, using only basic linear algebra. Then calculus intervenes to find the tan- gent spaces of the classical groups—their Lie —and to move back and forth between the group and its algebra via the log and exponential functions. Again, the basics suffice: single-variable differentiation and the Taylor series for ex and log(1 + x).

vii viii Preface

Where my book diverges from the others is at the next level, the mirac- ulous level where one discovers that the (curved) structure of a is almost completely captured by the structure of its (flat) . At this level, the other books retain many traces of the sophisticated approach to Lie theory. For example, they rely on deep ideas from outside Lie theory, such as the inverse function theorem, existence theorems for ODEs, and representation theory. Even inside Lie theory, they depend on the Killing form and the whole machine to prove simplicity of the classical Lie algebras, and they use everything under the sun to prove the Campbell– Baker–Hausdorff theorem that lifts structure from the Lie algebra to the Lie group. But actually, proving simplicity of the classical Lie algebras can be done by basic matrix , and there is an amazing elementary proof of Campbell–Baker–Hausdorff due to Eichler [1968]. The existence of these little-known elementary proofs convinced me that a naive approach to Lie theory is possible and desirable. The aim of this book is to carry it out—developing the central concepts and results of Lie theory by the simplest possible methods, mainly from single-variable calculus and linear algebra. Familiarity with elementary is also desirable, but I provide a crash course on the basics of group theory in Sections 2.1 and 2.2. The naive approach to Lie theory is due to von Neumann [1929], and it is now possible to streamline it by using standard results of undergraduate mathematics, particularly the results of linear algebra. Of course, there is a downside to naivet´e. It is probably not powerful enough to prove some of the results for which Lie theory is famous, such as the classification of the simple Lie algebras and the discovery of the five exceptional algebras.1 To compensate for this lack of technical power, the end-of-chapter discussions introduce important results beyond those proved in the book, as part of an informal sketch of Lie theory and its history. It is also true that the naive methods do not afford the same insights as more sophisticated methods. But they offer another insight that is often undervalued—some important theorems are not as difficult as they look! I think that all mathematics students appreciate this kind of insight. In any case, my approach is not entirely naive. A certain amount of topology is essential, even in basic Lie theory, and in Chapter 8 I take

1I say so from painful experience, having entered Lie theory with the aim of under- standing the exceptional groups. My opinion now is that the Lie theory that precedes the classification is a book in itself. Preface ix the opportunity to develop all the appropriate concepts from scratch. This includes everything from open and closed sets to simple connectedness, so the book contains in effect a minicourse on topology, with the rich class of multidimensional examples that Lie theory provides. Readers already familiar with topology can probably skip this chapter, or simply skim it to see how Lie theory influences the subject. (Also, if time does not permit covering the whole book, then the end of Chapter 7 is a good place to stop.) I am indebted to Wendy Baratta, Simon Goberstein, Brian Hall, Ro- han Hewson, Chris Hough, Nathan Jolly, David Kramer, Jonathan Lough, Michael Sun, Marc Ryser, Abe Shenitzer, Paul Stanford, Fan Wu and the anonymous referees for many corrections and comments. As usual, my wife, Elaine, served as first proofreader; my son Robert also served as the model for Figure 8.7. Thanks go to Monash University for the opportunity to teach courses from which this book has grown, and to the University of San Francisco for support while writing it. Finally, a word about my title. Readers of a certain age will remember the book Naive Set Theory by Paul Halmos—a lean and lively volume covering the parts of set theory that all mathematicians ought to know. Paul Halmos (1916–2006) was my mentor in mathematical writing, and I dedicate this book to his memory. While not attempting to emulate his style (which is inimitable), I hope that Naive Lie Theory can serve as a similar introduction to Lie groups and Lie algebras. Lie theory today has become the subject that all mathematicians ought to know something about, so I believe the time has come for a naive, but mathematical, approach.

John Stillwell University of San Francisco, December 2007 Monash University, February 2008

Contents

1 Geometry of complex numbers and 1 1.1Rotationsoftheplane...... 2 1.2 Matrix representation of complex numbers ...... 5 1.3Quaternions...... 7 1.4 Consequences of multiplicative absolute value ...... 11 1.5 Quaternion representation of space rotations ...... 14 1.6Discussion...... 18

2 Groups 23 2.1 Crash course on groups ...... 24 2.2Crashcourseonhomomorphisms...... 27 2.3 The groups SU(2) and SO(3) ...... 32 2.4 Isometries of Rn andreflections...... 36 2.5 Rotations of R4 andpairsofquaternions...... 38 2.6 Direct products of groups ...... 40 2.7 The map from SU(2)×SU(2)toSO(4)...... 42 2.8Discussion...... 45

3 Generalized rotation groups 48 3.1 Rotations as orthogonal transformations ...... 49 3.2 The orthogonal and special orthogonal groups ...... 51 3.3 The unitary groups ...... 54 3.4 The symplectic groups ...... 57 3.5Maximaltoriandcenters...... 60 3.6 Maximal tori in SO(n), U(n), SU(n), Sp(n)...... 62 3.7 Centers of SO(n), U(n), SU(n), Sp(n)...... 67 3.8Connectednessanddiscreteness...... 69 3.9Discussion...... 71

xi xii Contents

4 The exponential map 74 4.1 The exponential map onto SO(2) ...... 75 4.2 The exponential map onto SU(2) ...... 77 4.3ThetangentspaceofSU(2)...... 79 4.4 The Lie algebra su(2)ofSU(2)...... 82 4.5 The exponential of a square matrix ...... 84 4.6Theaffinegroupoftheline...... 87 4.7Discussion...... 91

5 The tangent space 93 5.1 Tangent vectors of O(n), U(n), Sp(n)...... 94 5.2 The tangent space of SO(n)...... 96 5.3 The tangent space of U(n), SU(n), Sp(n)...... 99 5.4 Algebraic properties of the tangent space ...... 103 5.5DimensionofLiealgebras...... 106 5.6Complexification...... 107 5.7QuaternionLiealgebras...... 111 5.8Discussion...... 113

6 Structure of Lie algebras 116 6.1 Normal subgroups and ideals ...... 117 6.2Idealsandhomomorphisms...... 120 6.3 Classical non-simple Lie algebras ...... 122 6.4 Simplicity of sl(n,C)andsu(n)...... 124 6.5 Simplicity of so(n)forn > 4 ...... 127 6.6 Simplicity of sp(n) ...... 133 6.7Discussion...... 137

7 The matrix logarithm 139 7.1 Logarithm and exponential ...... 140 7.2Theexpfunctiononthetangentspace...... 142 7.3 Limit properties of log and exp ...... 145 7.4Thelogfunctionintothetangentspace...... 147 7.5 SO(n), SU(n), and Sp(n)revisited...... 150 7.6TheCampbell–Baker–Hausdorfftheorem...... 152 7.7Eichler’sproofofCampbell–Baker–Hausdorff...... 154 7.8Discussion...... 158 Contents xiii

8 Topology 160 8.1OpenandclosedsetsinEuclideanspace...... 161 8.2 Closed matrix groups ...... 164 8.3 Continuous functions ...... 166 8.4Compactsets...... 169 8.5 Continuous functions and compactness ...... 171 8.6Pathsandpath-connectedness...... 173 8.7Simpleconnectedness...... 177 8.8Discussion...... 182

9 Simply connected Lie groups 186 9.1 Three groups with tangent space R ...... 187 9.2 Three groups with the cross-product Lie algebra ...... 188 9.3Liehomomorphisms...... 191 9.4Uniformcontinuityofpathsanddeformations...... 194 9.5Deformingapathinasequenceofsmallsteps...... 195 9.6 Lifting a Lie algebra homomorphism ...... 197 9.7Discussion...... 201

Bibliography 204

Index 207