In
algebra
Algebra () is one of the areas of mathematics, broad areas of mathematics. Roughly speaking, algebra is the study of mathematical symbols and the rules for manipulating these symbols in formulas; it is a unifying thread of almost all of mathem ...
, a triple system (or ternar) is a
vector space
In mathematics and physics, a vector space (also called a linear space) is a set whose elements, often called '' vectors'', may be added together and multiplied ("scaled") by numbers called '' scalars''. Scalars are often real numbers, but ...
''V'' over a field F together with a
F-trilinear map
:
The most important examples are Lie triple systems and Jordan triple systems. They were introduced by
Nathan Jacobson
Nathan Jacobson (October 5, 1910 – December 5, 1999) was an American mathematician.
Biography
Born Nachman Arbiser in Warsaw, Jacobson emigrated to America with his family in 1918. He graduated from the University of Alabama in 1930 and was awar ...
in 1949 to study subspaces of
associative algebras closed under triple commutators
''u'', ''v'' ''w''] and triple
Commutator, anticommutators . In particular, any
Lie algebra
In mathematics, a Lie algebra (pronounced ) is a vector space \mathfrak g together with an operation called the Lie bracket, an alternating bilinear map \mathfrak g \times \mathfrak g \rightarrow \mathfrak g, that satisfies the Jacobi iden ...
defines a Lie triple system and any
Jordan algebra
In abstract algebra, a Jordan algebra is a nonassociative algebra over a field whose multiplication satisfies the following axioms:
# xy = yx (commutative law)
# (xy)(xx) = x(y(xx)) ().
The product of two elements ''x'' and ''y'' in a Jordan al ...
defines a Jordan triple system. They are important in the theories of
symmetric space
In mathematics, a symmetric space is a Riemannian manifold (or more generally, a pseudo-Riemannian manifold) whose group of symmetries contains an inversion symmetry about every point. This can be studied with the tools of Riemannian geometry, ...
s, particularly
Hermitian symmetric space
In mathematics, a Hermitian symmetric space is a Hermitian manifold which at every point has an inversion symmetry preserving the Hermitian structure. First studied by Élie Cartan, they form a natural generalization of the notion of Riemannian ...
s and their generalizations (
symmetric R-spaces and their noncompact duals).
Lie triple systems
A triple system is said to be a ''Lie triple system'' if the trilinear map, denoted
, satisfies the following identities:
:
:
:
The first two identities abstract the skew symmetry and Jacobi identity for the triple commutator, while the third identity means that the linear map L
''u'',''v'': ''V'' → ''V'', defined by L
''u'',''v''(''w'') =
'u'', ''v'', ''w'' is a
derivation of the triple product. The identity also shows that the space k = span is closed under commutator bracket, hence a Lie algebra.
Writing m in place of ''V'', it follows that
:
can be made into a
-graded Lie algebra, the ''standard embedding'' of m, with bracket
:
The decomposition of g is clearly a
symmetric decomposition for this Lie bracket, and hence if ''G'' is a connected Lie group with Lie algebra g and ''K'' is a subgroup with Lie algebra k, then ''G''/''K'' is a
symmetric space
In mathematics, a symmetric space is a Riemannian manifold (or more generally, a pseudo-Riemannian manifold) whose group of symmetries contains an inversion symmetry about every point. This can be studied with the tools of Riemannian geometry, ...
.
Conversely, given a Lie algebra g with such a symmetric decomposition (i.e., it is the Lie algebra of a symmetric space), the triple bracket
''u'', ''v'' ''w''] makes m into a Lie triple system.
Jordan triple systems
A triple system is said to be a Jordan triple system if the trilinear map, denoted , satisfies the following identities:
:
:
The first identity abstracts the symmetry of the triple anticommutator, while the second identity means that if L
''u'',''v'':''V''→''V'' is defined by L
''u'',''v''(''y'') = then
:
so that the space of linear maps span is closed under commutator bracket, and hence is a Lie algebra g
0.
Any Jordan triple system is a Lie triple system with respect to the product
:
A Jordan triple system is said to be positive definite (resp. nondegenerate) if the bilinear form on ''V'' defined by the trace of L
''u'',''v'' is positive definite (resp. nondegenerate). In either case, there is an identification of ''V'' with its dual space, and a corresponding involution on g
0. They induce an involution of
:
which in the positive definite case is a Cartan involution. The corresponding
symmetric space
In mathematics, a symmetric space is a Riemannian manifold (or more generally, a pseudo-Riemannian manifold) whose group of symmetries contains an inversion symmetry about every point. This can be studied with the tools of Riemannian geometry, ...
is a
symmetric R-space. It has a noncompact dual given by replacing the Cartan involution by its composite with the involution equal to +1 on g
0 and −1 on ''V'' and ''V''
*. A special case of this construction arises when g
0 preserves a complex structure on ''V''. In this case we obtain dual
Hermitian symmetric space
In mathematics, a Hermitian symmetric space is a Hermitian manifold which at every point has an inversion symmetry preserving the Hermitian structure. First studied by Élie Cartan, they form a natural generalization of the notion of Riemannian ...
s of compact and noncompact type (the latter being
bounded symmetric domains).
Jordan pair
A Jordan pair is a generalization of a Jordan triple system involving two vector spaces ''V''
+ and ''V''
−. The trilinear map is then replaced by a pair of trilinear maps
:
:
which are often viewed as quadratic maps ''V''
+ → Hom(''V''
−, ''V''
+) and ''V''
− → Hom(''V''
+, ''V''
−). The other Jordan axiom (apart from symmetry) is likewise replaced by two axioms, one being
:
and the other being the analogue with + and − subscripts exchanged.
As in the case of Jordan triple systems, one can define, for ''u'' in ''V''
− and ''v'' in ''V''
+, a linear map
:
and similarly L
−. The Jordan axioms (apart from symmetry) may then be written
:
which imply that the images of L
+ and L
− are closed under commutator brackets in End(''V''
+) and End(''V''
−). Together they determine a linear map
:
whose image is a Lie subalgebra
, and the Jordan identities become Jacobi identities for a graded Lie bracket on
:
so that conversely, if
:
is a graded Lie algebra, then the pair
is a Jordan pair, with brackets
:
Jordan triple systems are Jordan pairs with ''V''
+ = ''V''
− and equal trilinear maps. Another important case occurs when ''V''
+ and ''V''
− are dual to one another, with dual trilinear maps determined by an element of
:
These arise in particular when
above is semisimple, when the Killing form provides a duality between
and
.
See also
*
Associator
*
Quadratic Jordan algebra In mathematics, quadratic Jordan algebras are a generalization of Jordan algebras introduced by . The fundamental identities of the quadratic representation of a linear Jordan algebra are used as axioms to define a quadratic Jordan algebra over a fi ...
References
*
*
*
* .
* .
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
* {{citation, last=Tevelev, first= E. , year=2002, url=http://www.emis.de/journals/JLT/vol.12_no.2/9.html, title=Moore-Penrose inverse, parabolic subgroups, and Jordan pairs, journal= Journal of Lie Theory, volume=12, pages=461–481, bibcode= 2001math......1107T , arxiv= math/0101107
Representation theory