In the mathematical field of representation theory, a weight of an algebra A over a field F is an algebra homomorphism from A to F, or equivalently, a one-dimensional representation of A over F. It is the algebra analogue of a multiplicative character of a group. The importance of the concept, however, stems from its application to representations of Lie algebras and hence also to representations of algebraic and Lie groups. In this context, a weight of a representation is a generalization of the notion of an eigenvalue, and the corresponding eigenspace is called a weight space.
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Weights
Given a set S of matrices, each of which is diagonalizable, and any two of which commute, it is always possible to simultaneously diagonalize all of the elements of S. Equivalently, for any set S of mutually commuting semisimple linear transformations of a finite-dimensional vector space V there exists a basis of V consisting of simultaneous eigenvectors of all elements of S. Each of these common eigenvectors v ∈ V defines a linear functional on the subalgebra U of End(V) generated by the set of endomorphisms S; this functional is defined as the map which associates to each element of U its eigenvalue on the eigenvector v. This map is also multiplicative, and sends the identity to 1; thus it is an algebra homomorphism from U to the base field. This "generalized eigenvalue" is a prototype for the notion of a weight.
The notion is closely related to the idea of a multiplicative character in group theory, which is a homomorphism χ from a group G to the multiplicative group of a field F. Thus χ: G → F× satisfies χ(e) = 1 (where e is the identity element of G) and
Indeed, if G acts on a vector space V over F, each simultaneous eigenspace for every element of G, if such exists, determines a multiplicative character on G: the eigenvalue on this common eigenspace of each element of the group.
The notion of multiplicative character can be extended to any algebra A over F, by replacing χ: G → F× by a linear map χ: A → F with:
for all a, b in A. If an algebra A acts on a vector space V over F to any simultaneous eigenspace, this corresponds an algebra homomorphism from A to F assigning to each element of A its eigenvalue.
If A is a Lie algebra (which is generally not an associative algebra), then instead of requiring multiplicativity of a character, one requires that it maps any Lie bracket to the corresponding commutator; but since F is commutative this simply means that this map must vanish on Lie brackets: χ([a,b])=0. A weight on a Lie algebra g over a field F is a linear map λ: g → F with λ([x, y])=0 for all x, y in g. Any weight on a Lie algebra g vanishes on the derived algebra [g,g] and hence descends to a weight on the abelian Lie algebra g/[g,g]. Thus weights are primarily of interest for abelian Lie algebras, where they reduce to the simple notion of a generalized eigenvalue for space of commuting linear transformations.
If G is a Lie group or an algebraic group, then a multiplicative character θ: G → F× induces a weight χ = dθ: g → F on its Lie algebra by differentiation. (For Lie groups, this is differentiation at the identity element of G, and the algebraic group case is an abstraction using the notion of a derivation.)
Weight space of a representation of a Lie algebra
Among the set of weights, some are related to the data of a representation. Let V be a representation of a Lie algebra g over a field F and let λ be a weight of g. Then the weight space of V with weight λ: ħ → F (ħ is the Cartan subalgebra of g.) is the subspace
(where
If V is the direct sum of its weight spaces
then it is called a weight module; this corresponds to there being a common eigenbasis (a basis of simultaneous eigenvectors) for all the represented elements of the algebra, i.e., to their being simultaneously diagonalizable matrices (see diagonalizable matrix).
Similarly, we can define a weight space Vλ for any representation of a Lie group or an associative algebra.
Semisimple Lie algebras
Let g be a Lie algebra, h a maximal commutative Lie subalgebra consisting of semi-simple elements (sometimes called Cartan subalgebra) and let V be a finite dimensional representation of g. If g is semisimple, then [g, g] = g and so all weights on g are trivial. However, V is, by restriction, a representation of h, and it is well known that V is a weight module for h, i.e., equal to the direct sum of its weight spaces. By an abuse of language, the weights of V as a representation of h are often called weights of V as a representation of g.
Similar definitions apply to a Lie group G, a maximal commutative Lie subgroup H and any representation V of G. Clearly, if λ is a weight of the representation V of G, it is also a weight of V as a representation of the Lie algebra g of G.
If V is the adjoint representation of g, its weights are called roots, the weight spaces are called root spaces, and weight vectors are sometimes called root vectors.
We now assume that g is semisimple, with a chosen Cartan subalgebra h and corresponding root system. Let us suppose also that a choice of positive roots Φ+ has been fixed. This is equivalent to the choice of a set of simple roots.
Ordering on the space of weights
Let h*0 be the real subspace of h* (if it is complex) generated by the roots of g.
There are two concepts how to define an ordering of h*0.
The first one is
μ ≤ λ if and only if λ − μ is nonnegative linear combination of simple roots.The second concept is given by an element f in h0 and
μ ≤ λ if and only if μ(f) ≤ λ(f).Usually, f is chosen so that β(f) > 0 for each positive root β.
Integral weight
A weight λ ∈ h* is integral (or g-integral), if λ(Hγ) ∈ Z for each coroot Hγ such that γ is a positive root.
The fundamental weights
Hence λ is integral if it is an integral combination of the fundamental weights. The set of all g-integral weights is a lattice in h* called weight lattice for g, denoted by P(g).
A weight λ of the Lie group G is called integral, if for each t in h such that
Dominant weight
A weight λ is dominant if
The convex hull of the dominant weights is sometimes called the fundamental Weyl chamber.
Sometimes, the term dominant weight is used to denote a dominant (in the above sense) and integral weight.
Highest weight
A weight λ of a representation V is called a highest weight if no other weight of V is larger than λ in the partial order given above. Sometimes, one imposes the stronger condition that all other weights of V are strictly smaller than λ in the partial order. The term highest weight often suggests (or denotes) the highest weight of a "highest-weight module".
One defines a lowest weight similarly.
The space of all possible weights is a vector space. Let's fix a total ordering of this vector space such that a nonnegative linear combination of positive vectors with at least one nonzero coefficient is another positive vector.
Then, a representation is said to have highest weight λ if λ is a weight and all its other weights are less than λ.
Similarly, it is said to have lowest weight λ if λ is a weight and all its other weights are greater than it.
A weight vector
Highest-weight module
A representation V of g is called highest-weight module if it is generated by a weight vector v ∈ V that is annihilated by the action of all positive root spaces in g. Every finite-dimensional, irreducible representation of a semisimple Lie algebra g is a highest-weight module, and the representations can be classified by their highest weights ("theorem of the highest weight").
This is something more special than a g-module with a highest weight.
Similarly we can define a highest-weight module for representation of a Lie group.
Verma module
For each dominant weight λ ∈ h*, there exists a unique (up to isomorphism) simple highest-weight g-module with highest weight λ, which is denoted L(λ).
It can be shown that each highest weight module with highest weight λ is a quotient of the Verma module M(λ). This is just a restatement of universality property in the definition of a Verma module.
A highest-weight module is a weight module. The weight spaces in a highest-weight module are always finite dimensional.