Algebra and Applications 1. Abdenacer Makhlouf
alt="image"/>, ∗, n) is defined as the following Lie subalgebra of
Note that the condition d0(x ∗ y) = d1(x) ∗ y + x ∗ d2(y) for any x,
for any x, y,
is an automorphism of the Lie algebra
THEOREM 2.8.– Let (
– Principle of local triality: the projection map:
is an isomorphism of Lie algebras.
– For any x, , the triple
belongs to
PROOF.– Let us first check that tx, y ∈
and hence
Also
Since the Lie algebra
Finally, the formula [ta, b, tx, y] = tσa, b(x), y + tx, σa, b(y) follows from the “same” formula for the σ’s and the fact that π0 is an isomorphism. □
Given two symmetric composition algebras (
where
– the Lie bracket in , which thus becomes a Lie subalgebra of ;
– [(d0, d1, d2), ιi(x ⊗ x′)] = ιi(di(x) ⊗ x′);
–
– [ιi(x ⊗ x′), ιi+1(y ⊗ y′)] = ιi+2((x ∗ y) ⊗ (x′ ★ y′)) (indices modulo 3);
–
THEOREM 2.9 (Elduque (2004)).– Assume char
Different versions of this result using Hurwitz algebras instead of symmetric composition algebras have appeared over the years (see Elduque (2004) and the references therein). The advantage of using symmetric composition algebras is that new constructions of the exceptional simple Lie algebras are obtained, and these constructions highlight interesting symmetries due to the different triality automorphisms.
A few changes are needed for characteristic 3. Also, quite interestingly, over fields of characteristic 3 there are non-trivial symmetric composition superalgebras, and these can be plugged into the previous construction to obtain an extended Freudenthal’s magic square that includes some new simple finite dimensional Lie superalgebras (see Cunha and Elduque (2007)).
2.6. Concluding remarks
It is impossible to give a thorough account of composition algebras in a few pages, so many things have had to be left out: Pfister forms and the problem of composition of quadratic