Foundations of the Theory of Lie Groups With Real Parameters

Abstract

The material presented below amounts roughly to the so-called fundamental theorems of Lie and their implications concerning Lie algebras, Lie subgroups and subalgebras. By straightforward and fairly elementary steps, we shall extend the concept of Lie group to include groups admitting coordinate systems in which the functions defining ab, the group product of elements a, b, possess continuous first order derivatives in the coordinates of a and satisfy a Lipschitz condition in those of b. That such groups are equivalent to classical (i.e. analytical) Lie groups was announced in 1936 by van Kampen, although apparently van Kampen published nothing by way of proof beyond a certain decisive uniqueness theorem concerning systems of ordinary differential equations. (This is contained in our theorem (12.1); the proof given below is essentially that of van Kampen [3]). It is conceivable that the condition relative to coordinates of b could be weakened or dispensed with entirely. For, the only part the condition in question plays in our development is to make it certain that the inverse of a certain mapping-the mapping into canonical coordinates-is single-valued. In this connection mention should be made of the paper [1J of Garrett Birkhoff in which it is shown that the existence of continuous first order derivatives of ab with respect to the coordinates of both the a's and the b's is sufficient for defining a Lie group. We shall consider only groups with a finite number of real parameters (whereas the groups considered by Birkhoff are not necessarily finite dimensional). This makes it possible to use the standard existence theorems for systems of ordinary real differential equations. We make no use whatever of the theory of partial differential equations. We maintain throughout a purely local point of view in the sense that we consider only what happens in the neighborhood of the identity. Historical notes. The proof of the uniqueness of square roots (8.5) is due to Claude Chevalley (unpublished). The proof given below of Lie's theorem that a linear system of vector fields which is closed under commutation defines a Lie group is, we believe, due to van der Waerden [4]. We have supplied a number of preliminary lemmas which make the proof rigorously applicable to the case in which the vector fields are only assumed to possess continuous first order derivatives. The theorem in ?17 that every local subgroup of a Lie group is a Lie group is due essentially to E. Cartan [2]. 481