Killing formIn mathematics, the Killing form, named after Wilhelm Killing, is a symmetric bilinear form that plays a basic role in the theories of Lie groups and Lie algebras. Cartan's criteria (criterion of solvability and criterion of semisimplicity) show that Killing form has a close relationship to the semisimplicity of the Lie algebras. The Killing form was essentially introduced into Lie algebra theory by in his thesis.
Hopf fibrationIn the mathematical field of differential topology, the Hopf fibration (also known as the Hopf bundle or Hopf map) describes a 3-sphere (a hypersphere in four-dimensional space) in terms of circles and an ordinary sphere. Discovered by Heinz Hopf in 1931, it is an influential early example of a fiber bundle. Technically, Hopf found a many-to-one continuous function (or "map") from the 3-sphere onto the 2-sphere such that each distinct point of the 2-sphere is mapped from a distinct great circle of the 3-sphere .
Anomaly (physics)In quantum physics an anomaly or quantum anomaly is the failure of a symmetry of a theory's classical action to be a symmetry of any regularization of the full quantum theory. In classical physics, a classical anomaly is the failure of a symmetry to be restored in the limit in which the symmetry-breaking parameter goes to zero. Perhaps the first known anomaly was the dissipative anomaly in turbulence: time-reversibility remains broken (and energy dissipation rate finite) at the limit of vanishing viscosity.
Split-quaternionIn abstract algebra, the split-quaternions or coquaternions form an algebraic structure introduced by James Cockle in 1849 under the latter name. They form an associative algebra of dimension four over the real numbers. After introduction in the 20th century of coordinate-free definitions of rings and algebras, it was proved that the algebra of split-quaternions is isomorphic to the ring of the 2×2 real matrices.
Lie algebra representationIn the mathematical field of representation theory, a Lie algebra representation or representation of a Lie algebra is a way of writing a Lie algebra as a set of matrices (or endomorphisms of a vector space) in such a way that the Lie bracket is given by the commutator. In the language of physics, one looks for a vector space together with a collection of operators on satisfying some fixed set of commutation relations, such as the relations satisfied by the angular momentum operators.
Projective unitary groupIn mathematics, the projective unitary group PU(n) is the quotient of the unitary group U(n) by the right multiplication of its center, U(1), embedded as scalars. Abstractly, it is the holomorphic isometry group of complex projective space, just as the projective orthogonal group is the isometry group of real projective space. In terms of matrices, elements of U(n) are complex n×n unitary matrices, and elements of the center are diagonal matrices equal to eiθ multiplied by the identity matrix.
Structure constantsIn mathematics, the structure constants or structure coefficients of an algebra over a field are the coefficients of the basis expansion (into linear combination of basis vectors) of the products of basis vectors. Because the product operation in the algebra is bilinear, by linearity knowing the product of basis vectors allows to compute the product of any elements (just like a matrix allows to compute the action of the linear operator on any vector by providing the action of the operator on basis vectors).
Maximal torusIn the mathematical theory of compact Lie groups a special role is played by torus subgroups, in particular by the maximal torus subgroups. A torus in a compact Lie group G is a compact, connected, abelian Lie subgroup of G (and therefore isomorphic to the standard torus Tn). A maximal torus is one which is maximal among such subgroups. That is, T is a maximal torus if for any torus T′ containing T we have T = T′. Every torus is contained in a maximal torus simply by dimensional considerations.
Skew-Hermitian matrixNOTOC In linear algebra, a square matrix with complex entries is said to be skew-Hermitian or anti-Hermitian if its conjugate transpose is the negative of the original matrix. That is, the matrix is skew-Hermitian if it satisfies the relation where denotes the conjugate transpose of the matrix . In component form, this means that for all indices and , where is the element in the -th row and -th column of , and the overline denotes complex conjugation.
Plate trickIn mathematics and physics, the plate trick, also known as Dirac's string trick, the belt trick, or the Balinese cup trick, is any of several demonstrations of the idea that rotating an object with strings attached to it by 360 degrees does not return the system to its original state, while a second rotation of 360 degrees, a total rotation of 720 degrees, does. Mathematically, it is a demonstration of the theorem that SU(2) (which double-covers SO(3)) is simply connected.
