English

A simple way to compute structure constants of semi-simple Lie algebras

Representation Theory 2021-07-05 v2

Abstract

The standard way to compute the structure constants of semi-simple Lie algebras involves the additive structure of the roots. In earlier work, I described how ideas of Jacques Tits could be applied to do this by using the structure of the Weyl group. In this work, I explain how to combine some of the earlier ideas with some suggestions of Kottwitz to present a very simple algorithm which comes close to constructing a canonical basis of the Lie algebra. Unfortunately, unlike previous methods, it does not work for arbitrary Kac-Moody algebra.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2011.08274,
  title  = {A simple way to compute structure constants of semi-simple Lie algebras},
  author = {Bill Casselman},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2011.08274},
  year   = {2021}
}