Positive Systems of Kostant Roots

Abstract

Let \(\mathfrak {g}\) be a simple complex Lie algebra and let \(\mathfrak {t} \subset \mathfrak {g}\) be a toral subalgebra of \(\mathfrak {g}\). As a \(\mathfrak {t}\)-module \(\mathfrak {g}\) decomposes as $$\mathfrak{g} = \mathfrak{s} \oplus \left( \oplus_{\nu \in \mathcal{R}}~ \mathfrak{g}^{\nu}\right)$$ where \(\mathfrak {s} \subset \mathfrak {g}\) is the reductive part of a parabolic subalgebra of \(\mathfrak {g}\) and \(\mathcal {R}\) is the Kostant root system associated to \(\mathfrak {t}\). When \(\mathfrak {t}\) is a Cartan subalgebra of \(\mathfrak {g}\) the decomposition above is nothing but the root decomposition of \(\mathfrak {g}\) with respect to \(\mathfrak {t}\); in general the properties of \(\mathcal {R}\) resemble the properties of usual root systems. In this note we study the following problem: “Given a subset \(\mathcal {S} \subset \mathcal {R}\), is there a parabolic subalgebra \(\mathfrak {p}\) of \(\mathfrak {g}\) containing \(\mathcal {M} = \oplus _{\nu \in \mathcal {S}} \mathfrak {g}^{\nu }\) and whose reductive part equals \(\mathfrak {s}\)?”. Our main results is that, for a classical simple Lie algebra \(\mathfrak {g}\) and a saturated \(\mathcal {S} \subset \mathcal {R}\), the condition \((\text {Sym}^{\cdot }(\mathcal {M}))^{\mathfrak {s}} = \mathbb {C}\) is necessary and sufficient for the existence of such a \(\mathfrak {p}\). In contrast, we show that this statement is no longer true for the exceptional Lie algebras F4,E6,E7, and E8. Finally, we discuss the problem in the case when \(\mathcal {S}\) is not saturated.