Lie algebra generator relation $T^a T^b propto T^c $ valid for any $a,b$?












1












$begingroup$


Given a Lie Algebra (such as $su(n), so(n))$ can I always find a set of generators + identity ${T^a}cup {id}$ such that there exists a $c$ for any given $a,b$ such that $T^a T^b = C(a,b) T^c $ for a $a,b$-dependent function $C$ into the real/complex numbers?










share|cite|improve this question











$endgroup$












  • $begingroup$
    What does $propto$ stand for.
    $endgroup$
    – José Carlos Santos
    Dec 19 '18 at 13:44






  • 1




    $begingroup$
    @JoséCarlosSantos: "proportional to". So OP is asking whether there exist constants $k^{ab}_c$ such that $T^aT^b=k^{ab}_c T^c$ (with no Einstein summation, just a single constant per equation)
    $endgroup$
    – ziggurism
    Dec 19 '18 at 13:51










  • $begingroup$
    are $mathfrak{su}(n)$ or $mathfrak{so}(n)$ even closed under multiplication?
    $endgroup$
    – ziggurism
    Dec 19 '18 at 13:56










  • $begingroup$
    sorry, let's add ${ id }$ to the set of generators
    $endgroup$
    – tonydo
    Dec 19 '18 at 13:58






  • 1




    $begingroup$
    Why would such identities be of interest? A representation of the Lie algebra need not preserve such product relations, only commutators.
    $endgroup$
    – Jyrki Lahtonen
    Dec 19 '18 at 17:26


















1












$begingroup$


Given a Lie Algebra (such as $su(n), so(n))$ can I always find a set of generators + identity ${T^a}cup {id}$ such that there exists a $c$ for any given $a,b$ such that $T^a T^b = C(a,b) T^c $ for a $a,b$-dependent function $C$ into the real/complex numbers?










share|cite|improve this question











$endgroup$












  • $begingroup$
    What does $propto$ stand for.
    $endgroup$
    – José Carlos Santos
    Dec 19 '18 at 13:44






  • 1




    $begingroup$
    @JoséCarlosSantos: "proportional to". So OP is asking whether there exist constants $k^{ab}_c$ such that $T^aT^b=k^{ab}_c T^c$ (with no Einstein summation, just a single constant per equation)
    $endgroup$
    – ziggurism
    Dec 19 '18 at 13:51










  • $begingroup$
    are $mathfrak{su}(n)$ or $mathfrak{so}(n)$ even closed under multiplication?
    $endgroup$
    – ziggurism
    Dec 19 '18 at 13:56










  • $begingroup$
    sorry, let's add ${ id }$ to the set of generators
    $endgroup$
    – tonydo
    Dec 19 '18 at 13:58






  • 1




    $begingroup$
    Why would such identities be of interest? A representation of the Lie algebra need not preserve such product relations, only commutators.
    $endgroup$
    – Jyrki Lahtonen
    Dec 19 '18 at 17:26
















1












1








1





$begingroup$


Given a Lie Algebra (such as $su(n), so(n))$ can I always find a set of generators + identity ${T^a}cup {id}$ such that there exists a $c$ for any given $a,b$ such that $T^a T^b = C(a,b) T^c $ for a $a,b$-dependent function $C$ into the real/complex numbers?










share|cite|improve this question











$endgroup$




Given a Lie Algebra (such as $su(n), so(n))$ can I always find a set of generators + identity ${T^a}cup {id}$ such that there exists a $c$ for any given $a,b$ such that $T^a T^b = C(a,b) T^c $ for a $a,b$-dependent function $C$ into the real/complex numbers?







lie-algebras






share|cite|improve this question















share|cite|improve this question













share|cite|improve this question




share|cite|improve this question








edited Dec 19 '18 at 13:59







tonydo

















asked Dec 19 '18 at 13:41









tonydotonydo

1497




1497












  • $begingroup$
    What does $propto$ stand for.
    $endgroup$
    – José Carlos Santos
    Dec 19 '18 at 13:44






  • 1




    $begingroup$
    @JoséCarlosSantos: "proportional to". So OP is asking whether there exist constants $k^{ab}_c$ such that $T^aT^b=k^{ab}_c T^c$ (with no Einstein summation, just a single constant per equation)
    $endgroup$
    – ziggurism
    Dec 19 '18 at 13:51










  • $begingroup$
    are $mathfrak{su}(n)$ or $mathfrak{so}(n)$ even closed under multiplication?
    $endgroup$
    – ziggurism
    Dec 19 '18 at 13:56










  • $begingroup$
    sorry, let's add ${ id }$ to the set of generators
    $endgroup$
    – tonydo
    Dec 19 '18 at 13:58






  • 1




    $begingroup$
    Why would such identities be of interest? A representation of the Lie algebra need not preserve such product relations, only commutators.
    $endgroup$
    – Jyrki Lahtonen
    Dec 19 '18 at 17:26




















  • $begingroup$
    What does $propto$ stand for.
    $endgroup$
    – José Carlos Santos
    Dec 19 '18 at 13:44






  • 1




    $begingroup$
    @JoséCarlosSantos: "proportional to". So OP is asking whether there exist constants $k^{ab}_c$ such that $T^aT^b=k^{ab}_c T^c$ (with no Einstein summation, just a single constant per equation)
    $endgroup$
    – ziggurism
    Dec 19 '18 at 13:51










  • $begingroup$
    are $mathfrak{su}(n)$ or $mathfrak{so}(n)$ even closed under multiplication?
    $endgroup$
    – ziggurism
    Dec 19 '18 at 13:56










  • $begingroup$
    sorry, let's add ${ id }$ to the set of generators
    $endgroup$
    – tonydo
    Dec 19 '18 at 13:58






  • 1




    $begingroup$
    Why would such identities be of interest? A representation of the Lie algebra need not preserve such product relations, only commutators.
    $endgroup$
    – Jyrki Lahtonen
    Dec 19 '18 at 17:26


















$begingroup$
What does $propto$ stand for.
$endgroup$
– José Carlos Santos
Dec 19 '18 at 13:44




$begingroup$
What does $propto$ stand for.
$endgroup$
– José Carlos Santos
Dec 19 '18 at 13:44




1




1




$begingroup$
@JoséCarlosSantos: "proportional to". So OP is asking whether there exist constants $k^{ab}_c$ such that $T^aT^b=k^{ab}_c T^c$ (with no Einstein summation, just a single constant per equation)
$endgroup$
– ziggurism
Dec 19 '18 at 13:51




$begingroup$
@JoséCarlosSantos: "proportional to". So OP is asking whether there exist constants $k^{ab}_c$ such that $T^aT^b=k^{ab}_c T^c$ (with no Einstein summation, just a single constant per equation)
$endgroup$
– ziggurism
Dec 19 '18 at 13:51












$begingroup$
are $mathfrak{su}(n)$ or $mathfrak{so}(n)$ even closed under multiplication?
$endgroup$
– ziggurism
Dec 19 '18 at 13:56




$begingroup$
are $mathfrak{su}(n)$ or $mathfrak{so}(n)$ even closed under multiplication?
$endgroup$
– ziggurism
Dec 19 '18 at 13:56












$begingroup$
sorry, let's add ${ id }$ to the set of generators
$endgroup$
– tonydo
Dec 19 '18 at 13:58




$begingroup$
sorry, let's add ${ id }$ to the set of generators
$endgroup$
– tonydo
Dec 19 '18 at 13:58




1




1




$begingroup$
Why would such identities be of interest? A representation of the Lie algebra need not preserve such product relations, only commutators.
$endgroup$
– Jyrki Lahtonen
Dec 19 '18 at 17:26






$begingroup$
Why would such identities be of interest? A representation of the Lie algebra need not preserve such product relations, only commutators.
$endgroup$
– Jyrki Lahtonen
Dec 19 '18 at 17:26












1 Answer
1






active

oldest

votes


















1












$begingroup$

The answer is a quick no. See this question. Your left-hand-side is in the universal enveloping algebra, not the Lie algebra itself.



You could have spared yourself the question, if you had considered the (presumed) preamble of your text, that surely reminded you of the spin-1, so, adjoint, representation of su(2), namely 3×3 traceless Hermitian matrices, hence a trivial counterexample:
$$
S_z=operatorname {diag} ~ (1,0,-1), qquad Longrightarrow qquad S_z S_z = operatorname {diag} (1,0,1).
$$

Now, this square cannot be written as a linear combination of $S_z$, the identity, which you allowed, and of course $S_x,S_y$ with zero in their diagonals.






share|cite|improve this answer











$endgroup$













    Your Answer





    StackExchange.ifUsing("editor", function () {
    return StackExchange.using("mathjaxEditing", function () {
    StackExchange.MarkdownEditor.creationCallbacks.add(function (editor, postfix) {
    StackExchange.mathjaxEditing.prepareWmdForMathJax(editor, postfix, [["$", "$"], ["\\(","\\)"]]);
    });
    });
    }, "mathjax-editing");

    StackExchange.ready(function() {
    var channelOptions = {
    tags: "".split(" "),
    id: "69"
    };
    initTagRenderer("".split(" "), "".split(" "), channelOptions);

    StackExchange.using("externalEditor", function() {
    // Have to fire editor after snippets, if snippets enabled
    if (StackExchange.settings.snippets.snippetsEnabled) {
    StackExchange.using("snippets", function() {
    createEditor();
    });
    }
    else {
    createEditor();
    }
    });

    function createEditor() {
    StackExchange.prepareEditor({
    heartbeatType: 'answer',
    autoActivateHeartbeat: false,
    convertImagesToLinks: true,
    noModals: true,
    showLowRepImageUploadWarning: true,
    reputationToPostImages: 10,
    bindNavPrevention: true,
    postfix: "",
    imageUploader: {
    brandingHtml: "Powered by u003ca class="icon-imgur-white" href="https://imgur.com/"u003eu003c/au003e",
    contentPolicyHtml: "User contributions licensed under u003ca href="https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/"u003ecc by-sa 3.0 with attribution requiredu003c/au003e u003ca href="https://stackoverflow.com/legal/content-policy"u003e(content policy)u003c/au003e",
    allowUrls: true
    },
    noCode: true, onDemand: true,
    discardSelector: ".discard-answer"
    ,immediatelyShowMarkdownHelp:true
    });


    }
    });














    draft saved

    draft discarded


















    StackExchange.ready(
    function () {
    StackExchange.openid.initPostLogin('.new-post-login', 'https%3a%2f%2fmath.stackexchange.com%2fquestions%2f3046398%2flie-algebra-generator-relation-ta-tb-propto-tc-valid-for-any-a-b%23new-answer', 'question_page');
    }
    );

    Post as a guest















    Required, but never shown

























    1 Answer
    1






    active

    oldest

    votes








    1 Answer
    1






    active

    oldest

    votes









    active

    oldest

    votes






    active

    oldest

    votes









    1












    $begingroup$

    The answer is a quick no. See this question. Your left-hand-side is in the universal enveloping algebra, not the Lie algebra itself.



    You could have spared yourself the question, if you had considered the (presumed) preamble of your text, that surely reminded you of the spin-1, so, adjoint, representation of su(2), namely 3×3 traceless Hermitian matrices, hence a trivial counterexample:
    $$
    S_z=operatorname {diag} ~ (1,0,-1), qquad Longrightarrow qquad S_z S_z = operatorname {diag} (1,0,1).
    $$

    Now, this square cannot be written as a linear combination of $S_z$, the identity, which you allowed, and of course $S_x,S_y$ with zero in their diagonals.






    share|cite|improve this answer











    $endgroup$


















      1












      $begingroup$

      The answer is a quick no. See this question. Your left-hand-side is in the universal enveloping algebra, not the Lie algebra itself.



      You could have spared yourself the question, if you had considered the (presumed) preamble of your text, that surely reminded you of the spin-1, so, adjoint, representation of su(2), namely 3×3 traceless Hermitian matrices, hence a trivial counterexample:
      $$
      S_z=operatorname {diag} ~ (1,0,-1), qquad Longrightarrow qquad S_z S_z = operatorname {diag} (1,0,1).
      $$

      Now, this square cannot be written as a linear combination of $S_z$, the identity, which you allowed, and of course $S_x,S_y$ with zero in their diagonals.






      share|cite|improve this answer











      $endgroup$
















        1












        1








        1





        $begingroup$

        The answer is a quick no. See this question. Your left-hand-side is in the universal enveloping algebra, not the Lie algebra itself.



        You could have spared yourself the question, if you had considered the (presumed) preamble of your text, that surely reminded you of the spin-1, so, adjoint, representation of su(2), namely 3×3 traceless Hermitian matrices, hence a trivial counterexample:
        $$
        S_z=operatorname {diag} ~ (1,0,-1), qquad Longrightarrow qquad S_z S_z = operatorname {diag} (1,0,1).
        $$

        Now, this square cannot be written as a linear combination of $S_z$, the identity, which you allowed, and of course $S_x,S_y$ with zero in their diagonals.






        share|cite|improve this answer











        $endgroup$



        The answer is a quick no. See this question. Your left-hand-side is in the universal enveloping algebra, not the Lie algebra itself.



        You could have spared yourself the question, if you had considered the (presumed) preamble of your text, that surely reminded you of the spin-1, so, adjoint, representation of su(2), namely 3×3 traceless Hermitian matrices, hence a trivial counterexample:
        $$
        S_z=operatorname {diag} ~ (1,0,-1), qquad Longrightarrow qquad S_z S_z = operatorname {diag} (1,0,1).
        $$

        Now, this square cannot be written as a linear combination of $S_z$, the identity, which you allowed, and of course $S_x,S_y$ with zero in their diagonals.







        share|cite|improve this answer














        share|cite|improve this answer



        share|cite|improve this answer








        edited Dec 20 '18 at 21:15

























        answered Dec 20 '18 at 15:14









        Cosmas ZachosCosmas Zachos

        1,810522




        1,810522






























            draft saved

            draft discarded




















































            Thanks for contributing an answer to Mathematics Stack Exchange!


            • Please be sure to answer the question. Provide details and share your research!

            But avoid



            • Asking for help, clarification, or responding to other answers.

            • Making statements based on opinion; back them up with references or personal experience.


            Use MathJax to format equations. MathJax reference.


            To learn more, see our tips on writing great answers.




            draft saved


            draft discarded














            StackExchange.ready(
            function () {
            StackExchange.openid.initPostLogin('.new-post-login', 'https%3a%2f%2fmath.stackexchange.com%2fquestions%2f3046398%2flie-algebra-generator-relation-ta-tb-propto-tc-valid-for-any-a-b%23new-answer', 'question_page');
            }
            );

            Post as a guest















            Required, but never shown





















































            Required, but never shown














            Required, but never shown












            Required, but never shown







            Required, but never shown

































            Required, but never shown














            Required, but never shown












            Required, but never shown







            Required, but never shown







            Popular posts from this blog

            Le Mesnil-Réaume

            Ida-Boy-Ed-Garten

            web3.py web3.isConnected() returns false always