Restricted Root Systems and Spin Representations

Abstract

Let \(\mathfrak{g}_{0}\) be a real semisimple Lie algebra. Let \(\mathfrak{g}_{0} = \mathfrak{k}_{0} \oplus \mathfrak{p}_{0}\) be the corresponding Cartan decomposition and \(\mathfrak{h}_{0} = \mathfrak{t}_{0} \oplus \mathfrak{a}_{0}\) be a maximally compact Cartan subalgebra of \(\mathfrak{g}_{0}\). Let \(\mathfrak{g} = \mathfrak{k} \oplus \mathfrak{p}\) and \(\mathfrak{h} = \mathfrak{t} \oplus \mathfrak{a}\) be the corresponding complexifications. The set \(\Delta {\left( {\mathfrak{g},\mathfrak{t}} \right)}\) consists of all the linear forms on \(\mathfrak{t}\) which are the restriction to \(\mathfrak{t}\) of the roots in the root system \(\Delta {\left( {\mathfrak{g},\mathfrak{h}} \right)}\) of \(\mathfrak{g}\) with respect to \(\mathfrak{h}\). The main result of the paper is to prove that \(\Delta {\left( {\mathfrak{g},\mathfrak{t}} \right)}\) is also a (maybe non-reduced) root system and its Weyl group can be identified with a subgroup of the Weyl group of \(\Delta {\left( {\mathfrak{g},\mathfrak{h}} \right)}\). Let \(Spin\,\nu :\mathfrak{k} \to End\,S\) be the composition of the isotropy representation \(\nu :\mathfrak{k} \to \mathfrak{s}\mathfrak{o}{\left( \mathfrak{p} \right)}\) with the spin representation \(Spin:\mathfrak{s}\mathfrak{o}{\left( \mathfrak{p} \right)} \to End\,S\). Finally as an application, we give a nice description of the \(\mathfrak{k}\)-module structure on S in terms of the restricted root system \(\Delta {\left( {\mathfrak{g},\mathfrak{t}} \right)}\) and its Weyl group.