Splints of root systems for special Lie subalgebras V.D. Lyakhovsky1, A.A. Nazarov1,2, P.I. Kakin1 1 Department of High-energy and elementary particle physics, St Petersburg State University 198904, Saint-Petersburg, Russia, 2 e-mail: [email protected] Abstract Splint is a decomposition of root system into union of root systems. Splint of root system for simple Lie algebra appears naturally in stud- ies of (regular) embeddings of reductive subalgebras. Splint can be used to construct branching rules. We consider special embedding of Lie sub- algebra to Lie algebra. We classify projections of algebra root systems using extended Dynkin diagrams and single out the conditions of splint appearance and coincidence of branching coefficients with weight multi- plicities. While such a coincidence is not very common it is connected with Gelfand-Tsetlin basis. 1 Introduction The notion of splint was introduced by David Richter in the paper [Richter, 2012]. Splint is the decomposition of root system into disjoint union of images of two or more embeddings of some other root systems. Embedding φ of a root system ∆1 into a root system ∆ is a bijective map of roots of ∆1 to a (proper) subset of ∆ that commutes with vector composition law in ∆1 and ∆. φ : ∆1 −→ ∆ arXiv:1501.04809v1 [math.RT] 20 Jan 2015 φ ◦ (α + β)= φ ◦ α + φ ◦ β, α,β ∈ ∆1 Note that the image Im(φ) is not required to inherit the root system prop- erties except the addition rules equivalent to the addition rules in ∆1 (for pre- images). If an embedding φ preserves the angles between the roots it is called “metric”. Two embeddings φ1 and φ2 can splinter ∆ when the latter can be presented as a disjoint union of images Im(φ1) and Im(φ2). Why one would consider non angle-preserving maps of root systems? Addi- tive properties of root system determine the structure of Verma module: µ µ −α1 n1 −αs ns ni=0,1,... M = U(g) ⊗ D (b )= {(E ) ... (E ) |vµi} + + αi∈∆ U(b+) 1 µ Here b+ is the Borel subalgebra of g, D its one-dimensional representation, −αj |vµi is the highest weight vector and E are lowering operators that are in + correspondence with positive roots αj ∈ ∆ . Weyl character formula expresses character of irreducible representation as a combination of characters of Verma modules: ε(w)ew(µ+ρ)−ρ chLµ = Pw∈W = ε(w) chM w(µ+ρ)−ρ ε(w)ewρ−ρ X Pw∈W w∈W Here the sum is over elements of the Weyl group and their actions w⊲µ = w(µ+ ρ) − ρ depend on angles between roots. But we can rewrite Weyl character for- mula representing Weyl group elements as the products of reflections sα, α ∈ S in hyperplanes orthogonal to simple roots: w = sα1 · sα2 ... Reflections act on root system by permutations, so the composition of such an action with embed- ding φ is easily obtained. The orbit of Weyl groups action w⊲µ,w ∈ W , can be constructed by subtractions of roots from the highest weight µ. Let’s denote Dynkin labels of µ by (µ1,...µr). Then µ−µ1α1,µ−µ2α2,...,µ−µrαr, αi ∈ S, are the points of the orbit that can be obtained by elementary reflections sαi , αi ∈ S. Next set of points that are obtained by two consecutive reflections sαi · sαj ⊲µ are obtained as the subtraction µ − µiαi − µj (sαi αj ). Continuing w(µ+ρ)−ρ this way we construct the image of singular element Ψ = w∈W ε(w)e after the embedding φ [Laykhovsky and Nazarov, 2012].P The multiplicities in the character of Verma module are unchanged by the embedding since they are determined by additive properties of the roots. So we see that weight multiplic- ities of irreducible modules are also preserved by the embedding. Root system of regular subalgebra is contained in the root system of algebra so splint is useful in computation of branching coefficients. In the paper [Laykhovsky and Nazarov, 2012] it was proven that the ex- istence of splint leads to the coincidence of branching coefficients with weight multiplicities under certain conditions. We denote Lie algebra by g and consider it’s subalgebra a. If a is a regular subalgebra, its root system ∆a is contained (µ) in ∆g. Branching coefficients bν appear in decomposition of irreducible repre- µ sentation Lg of g to the sum of irreducible representations of a: Lµ = b(µ)Lν (1) g M ν a ν Assume that root system ∆g splinters as ∆g = ∆a ∪ φ(∆s), where φ is an embedding of root system ∆s of some semisimple Lie algebra s. Then (µ) (µ) branching coefficients bν for the reduction Lg↓a coincide with weight multi- (˜µ) plicities mν in s-representations provided certain technical condition holds [Laykhovsky and Nazarov, 2012]. Highest weightµ ˜ of s-representation is calcu- lated from Dynkin labels of highest weight µ of g-module. In the next section 2 we review the classification of splints for simple root systems and results for branching coefficients. Then we move to the study of special embeddings which is the main subject of the present paper. We con- sider special embeddings of Lie subalgebras into a Lie algebra. In this case root 2 system of the subalgebra is not contained in the root system of the algebra. So the original motivation for splints is not applicable. But we can consider the projection of root system of the algebra on the root space of the subalge- bra. Such a projection is not a root system anymore, but it satisfies milder conditions (Section 3). It is possible to classify most projections using Dynkin diagrams augmented with multiplicities. We then define splint for such ’weak’ root systems and state the conditions of its appearance and implications for the calculation of branching coefficients (Section 4). Use of representation theory of the subalgebra allows us to classify all the splints for the projections of algebra root system. We also apply this method to metric splints and regular subalgebras and get a unified treatment. We obtain Gelfand-Tsetlin rules for regular and special embeddings this way. In conclusion 4 we discuss the cases when the projection of the root system does not fall into the classification mentioned above. 2 Splints of root systems and regular subalge- bras The notion and classification of splints for simple root systems were introduced in the paper [Richter, 2012]. Consider a simple Lie algebra g and its regular subalgebra a ֒→ g such that ∗ ∗ s a is a reductive subalgebra a ⊂ g with correlated root spaces: ha ⊂ hg. Let a be a semisimple summand of a, this means that a = as ⊕ u(1) ⊕ u(1) ⊕ ... We shall consider as to be a proper regular subalgebra and a to be the maximal subalgebra with as fixed that is the rank r of a is equal to that of g. Computation of branching coefficients relies on roots ∆g\∆a [Lyakhovsky and Nazarov, 2011a] so splint is naturally connected to branching coefficients for regular subalgebra. Only three types of splints are injective and thus are naturally connected to branching [Richter, 2012]: type ∆ ∆a ∆s (i) G2 A2 A2 F4 D4 D4 r (ii) Br(r ≥ 2) Dr ⊕ A1 (2) r (∗) Cr(r ≥ 3) ⊕ A1 Dr r (iii) Ar(r ≥ 2) Ar−1 ⊕ u (1) ⊕ A1 B2 A1 ⊕ u (1) A2 Each row in the table gives a splint (∆a, ∆s) of the simple root system ∆. In the first two types both ∆a and ∆s are embedded metrically. Stems in the first type splints are equivalent and in the second are not. In the third type splints only ∆a is embedded metrically. The summands u (1) are added to keep ra = r. This does not change the principle properties of branching but makes it possible to use the multiplicities of s -modules without further projecting their weights. 3 Note that in the case of Cr-series (marked with the star in table (13)) met- rical embedding ∆Dr → ∆Cr does not lead to the appearance of regular subal- gebra a (See [Dynkin, 1952b]). In the paper [Lyakhovsky and Nazarov, 2011b] it was shown that Property 2.1. There is a decomposition of a singular element of the algebra g into singular elements of the subalgebra s: e e Φµ = ǫ (w) w eµ+ρg φ e−µΨµ , (3) g X s w∈Wa where ǫ (w) is a determinant of the element w of the Weyl group Wa of the sub- algebra a. The action of Weyl group on the weights is extended to the algebra of ν wν µe formal exponents by the rule w (e )= e , w ∈ W . Hence, the multiplicity M(s)νe of the weight ν from the weight diagram of the algebra s with the highest weight µ˜ (µ) defines the branchinge coefficient bν for the highest weight ν = (µ − φ (µ − ν)): (µ) µe e e b(µ−φ(µe−νe)) = M(s)νe. (4) 3 Special embeddings and projections of root system The study of specialy embedded subalgebras traces back to fundamental papers by Eugene Dynkin [Dynkin, 1952b, Dynkin, 1952a] where he called such sub- algebras “S-subalgebras” to distinguish from regular or “R-subalgebras” that have root systems obtained by dropping some roots of the algebra root sys- tem. Thus regular subalgebras are easy to construct by dropping nodes from extended Dynkin diagram of the algebra, while the case of special subalgebras is more difficult. Complete classification for exceptional Lie algebras was ob- tained recently in [Minchenko, 2006]. The algorithm of the special subalgebras construction is available in GAP package but still requires manual intervention [de Graaf, 2011].