The book begins with a simplified (and somewhat extended and corrected) exposition of the main results of F. Karpelevich's 1955 paper and relates them to the theory of Cartan-Iwahori. It concludes with some tables, where an involution of the Dynkin diagram that allows for finding self-conjugate representations is described and explicit formulas for the index are given. In a short addendum, written by J. V. Silhan, this involution is interpreted in terms of the Satake diagram.

In 1914, E. Cartan posed the problem to find all irreducible real linear Lie algebras. An updated exposition of his work was given by Iwahori (1959). This theory reduces the classification of irreducible real representations of a real Lie algebra to a description of the so-called self-conjugate irreducible complex representations of this algebra and to the calculation of an invariant of such a representation (with values +1 or -1) which is called the index. Moreover, these two problems were reduced to the case when the Lie algebra is simple and the highest weight of its irreducible complex representation is fundamental. A complete case-by-case classification for all simple real Lie algebras was given (without proof) in the tables of Tits (1967). But actually a general solution of these problems is contained in a paper of Karpelevich (1955) (written in Russian and not widely known), where inclusions between real forms induced by a complex representation were studied. We begin with a simplified (and somewhat extended and corrected) exposition of the main part of this paper and relate it to the theory of Cartan-Iwahori. We conclude with some tables, where an involution of the Dynkin diagram which allows us to find self-conjugate representations is described and explicit formulas for the index are given. In a short addendum, written by J. v. Silhan, this involution is interpreted in terms of the Satake diagram. The book is aimed at students in Lie groups, Lie algebras and their representations, as well as researchers in any field where these theories are used. The reader is supposed to know the classical theory of complex semisimple Lie algebras and their finite dimensional representation; the main facts are presented without proofs in Section 1. In the remaining sections the exposition is made with detailed proofs, including the correspondence between real forms and involutive automorphisms, the Cartan decompositions and the con ...

The main general theorems on Lie Algebras are covered, roughly the content of Bourbaki's Chapter I.I have added some results on free Lie algebras, which are useful, both for Lie's theory itself (Campbell-Hausdorff formula) and for applications to pro-Jrgroups. of time prevented me from including the more precise theory of Lack semisimple Lie algebras (roots, weights, etc.); but, at least, I have given, as a last Chapter, the typical case ofal, . This part has been written with the help of F. Raggi and J. Tate. I want to thank them, and also Sue Golan, who did the typing for both parts. Jean-Pierre Serre Harvard, Fall 1964 Chapter I. Lie Algebras: Definition and Examples Let Ie be a commutativering with unit element, and let A be a k-module, then A is said to be a Ie-algebra if there is given a k-bilinear map A x A~ A (i.e., a k-homomorphism A0" A -+ A). As usual we may define left, right and two-sided ideals and therefore quo tients. Definition 1. A Lie algebra over Ie isan algebrawith the following properties: 1). The map A0i A -+ A admits a factorization A ®i A -+ A2A -+ A i.e., ifwe denote the imageof(x, y) under this map by [x, y) then the condition becomes for all x e k. [x, x)=0 2). (lx, II], z]+ny, z), x) + ([z, xl, til = 0 (Jacobi's identity) The condition 1) implies [x,1/]=-[1/, x).

This book is an introduction to semisimple Lie algebras. It is concise and informal, with numerous exercises and examples.

This volume consists of nine lectures on selected topics of Lie group theory. We provide the readers a concise introduction as well as a comprehensive 'tour of revisiting' the remarkable achievements of S Lie, W Killing, É Cartan and H Weyl on structural and classification theory of semi-simple Lie groups, Lie algebras and their representations; and also the wonderful duet of Cartan's theory on Lie groups and symmetric spaces.With the benefit of retrospective hindsight, mainly inspired by the outstanding contribution of H Weyl in the special case of compact connected Lie groups, we develop the above theory via a route quite different from the original methods engaged by most other books.We begin our revisiting with the compact theory which is much simpler than that of the general semi-simple Lie theory; mainly due to the well fittings between the Frobenius-Schur character theory and the maximal tori theorem of É Cartan together with Weyl's reduction (cf. Lectures 1-4). It is a wonderful reality of the Lie theory that the clear-cut orbital geometry of the adjoint action of compact Lie groups on themselves (i.e. the geometry of conjugacy classes) is not only the key to understand the compact theory, but it actually already constitutes the central core of the entire semi-simple theory, as well as that of the symmetric spaces (cf. Lectures 5-9). This is the main reason that makes the succeeding generalizations to the semi-simple Lie theory, and then further to the Cartan theory on Lie groups and symmetric spaces, conceptually quite natural, and technically rather straightforward.

Introducing finite-dimensional representations of Lie groups and Lie algebras, this example-oriented book works from representation theory of finite groups, through Lie groups and Lie algrbras to the finite dimensional representations of the classical groups.

This book is designed to introduce the reader to the theory of semisimple Lie algebras over an algebraically closed field of characteristic 0, with emphasis on representations. A good knowledge of linear algebra (including eigenvalues, bilinear forms, euclidean spaces, and tensor products of vector spaces) is presupposed, as well as some acquaintance with the methods of abstract algebra. The first four chapters might well be read by a bright undergraduate; however, the remaining three chapters are admittedly a little more demanding. Besides being useful in many parts of mathematics and physics, the theory of semisimple Lie algebras is inherently attractive, combining as it does a certain amount of depth and a satisfying degree of completeness in its basic results. Since Jacobson's book appeared a decade ago, improvements have been made even in the classical parts of the theory. I have tried to incor porate some of them here and to provide easier access to the subject for non-specialists. For the specialist, the following features should be noted: (I) The Jordan-Chevalley decomposition of linear transformations is emphasized, with "toral" subalgebras replacing the more traditional Cartan subalgebras in the semisimple case. (2) The conjugacy theorem for Cartan subalgebras is proved (following D. J. Winter and G. D. Mostow) by elementary Lie algebra methods, avoiding the use of algebraic geometry.