Cartan subalgebras #
Cartan subalgebras are one of the most important concepts in Lie theory. We define them here. The standard example is the set of diagonal matrices in the Lie algebra of matrices.
Main definitions #
Tags #
lie subalgebra, normalizer, idealizer, cartan subalgebra
The normalizer of a Lie subalgebra H
is the set of elements of the Lie algebra whose bracket
with any element of H
lies in H
. It is the Lie algebra equivalent of the group-theoretic
normalizer (see subgroup.normalizer
) and is an idealizer in the sense of abstract algebra.
A Lie subalgebra is an ideal of its normalizer.
A Lie subalgebra H
is an ideal of any Lie subalgebra K
containing H
and contained in the
normalizer of H
.
The normalizer of a Lie subalgebra H
is the maximal Lie subalgebra in which H
is a Lie
ideal.
- nilpotent : lie_algebra.is_nilpotent R ↥H
- self_normalizing : H.normalizer = H
A Cartan subalgebra is a nilpotent, self-normalizing subalgebra.
A nilpotent Lie algebra is its own Cartan subalgebra.