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745 Introduction to Lie Algebras September 30, 2010

Lecture 7 - Zariski Topology and Regular Elements

Prof. Victor Kac Scribe: Daniel Ketover

Definition 7.1. A topological space is a set 𝑋 with a collection of subsets 𝐹 (the closed sets)
satisfying the following axioms:

1) 𝑋 ∈ 𝐹 and ∅ ∈ 𝐹

2) The union of a finite collection of closed sets is closed

3) The intersection of arbitrary collection of closed sets is closed

4) (weak separation axiom) For any two points 𝑥, 𝑦 ∈ 𝑋 there exists an 𝑆 ∈ 𝐹 such that 𝑥 ∈ 𝑆
but 𝑦 ∕∈ 𝑆

A subset 𝑂 ⊂ 𝑋 which is the complement in 𝑋 of a set in 𝐹 is called open. The axioms for a
topological space can also be phrased in terms of open sets.

Definition 7.2. Let X = 𝔽𝑛 where 𝔽 is a field. We define the Zariski topology on 𝑋 as follows. A
set in 𝑋 is closed if and only if if is the set of common zeroes of a collection (possibly infinite) of
polynomials 𝑃𝛼 (𝑥) on 𝔽𝑛

Exercise 7.1. Prove that the Zariski topology is indeed a topology.

Proof. We check the axioms. For 1), let 𝑝(𝑥) = 1, so that 𝕍(𝑝) = ∅, so ∅ ∈ 𝐹 . If 𝑝(𝑥) = 0, then
𝕍(𝑝) = 𝔽𝑛 , so 𝔽𝑛 ∈ 𝐹 . For 2), first take two closed sets 𝕍(𝑝𝛼 ) with 𝛼 ∈ 𝐼 and 𝕍(𝑞𝛽 ) with 𝛽 ∈ 𝐽 ,
and consider the family of polynomials 𝑓𝛼𝛽 = {𝑝𝛼 𝑞𝛽 ∣ 𝛼 ∈ 𝐼, 𝛽 ∈ 𝐽}. Then 𝕍(𝑓𝛼𝛽 ) = 𝕍(𝑝𝛼 ) ∪ 𝕍(𝑞𝛽 ).
Therefore 𝕍(𝑝𝛼 ) ∪ 𝕍(𝑞𝛽 ) is closed. This can be iterated for any n-fold union. For 3) closure
under arbitrary intersections is obvious. For 4), suppose 𝑥 ∕= 𝑦 ∈ 𝔽𝑛 and 𝑥 = (𝑥1 , 𝑥2 , ..., 𝑥𝑛 ). Set
𝑋 = 𝕍(𝑝1 , 𝑝2 , ..., 𝑝𝑛 ) where 𝑝𝑖 (𝑧) = 𝑧𝑖 − 𝑥𝑖 . So 𝑥 ∈ 𝑋 but y is not.

Example 7.1. If 𝑋 = 𝔽 the closed sets in the Zariski topology are precisely the ∅, 𝔽 and finite
subsets of 𝔽.

Notation 7.1. Given a collection of polynomials 𝑆 on 𝔽𝑛 we denote by 𝕍(𝑆) ∈ 𝔽𝑛 the set of

common zeroes of all polynomials in 𝑆. By definition, 𝕍(𝑆) are all closed subsets in 𝔽𝑛 in the Zariski
topology. If 𝑆 contains precisely one non-constant polynomial, then 𝕍(𝑆) is called a hypersurface.

Proposition 7.1. Suppose the field 𝔽 is infinite and 𝑛 ≥ 1 then

1) The complement to a hypersurface in 𝔽𝑛 is an infinite set. Consequently, the complement of

𝕍(𝑆), where 𝑆 contains a nonzero polynomial, is an infinite set.

2) Every two non-empty Zariski open subsets of 𝔽𝑛 have a nonempty intersection

3) If a polynomial 𝑝(𝑥) vanishes on a nonempty Zariski open set then it is identically zero.

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 Example 7.2. The condition that 𝔽 be infinite is crucial. In 3), for instance, the polynomial
𝑝(𝑥) = 𝑥2 + 𝑥 on 𝔽2 vanishes at 1 and 0 but is not the zero polynomial.

Proof. For 1), We induct on 𝑛. When 𝑛 = 1, since any nonzero polynomial has at most deg
𝑃 roots, the complement of this set is infinite (since 𝔽 is). If 𝑛 ≥ 1 then any nonzero polyno-
mial 𝑝(𝑥1 , 𝑥2 , ..., 𝑥𝑛 ) can be written as a polynomial in one variable with coefficients polynomi-
als in the other variables. So we can write 𝑝(𝑥) = 𝑝𝑑 (𝑥2 , 𝑥3 , ..., 𝑥𝑛 )𝑥𝑑1 + 𝑝𝑑−1 (𝑥2 , 𝑥3 , ...𝑥𝑛 )𝑥𝑑−1 1 +
... + 𝑝0 (𝑥2 , 𝑥3 , ..., 𝑥𝑛 ) where 𝑝𝑑 (𝑥2 , 𝑥3 , ...𝑥𝑛 ) is a nonzero polynomial. By the inductive hypothesis,
we can find 𝑥𝑜2 , 𝑥𝑜3 , ..., 𝑥𝑜𝑛 ∈ 𝔽 such that 𝑝𝑑 (𝑥𝑜2 , 𝑥𝑜3 , ..., 𝑥𝑜𝑛 ) ∕= 0 Now fixing these values, 𝑝(𝑥) =
𝑝𝑑 (𝑥𝑜2 , 𝑥𝑜3 , ..., 𝑥𝑜𝑛 )𝑥𝑑1 + 𝑝𝑑−1 (𝑥𝑜2 , 𝑥𝑜3 , ...𝑥𝑜𝑛 )𝑥𝑑−1
1 + ... + 𝑝0 (𝑥𝑜2 , 𝑥𝑜3 , ..., 𝑥𝑜𝑛 ) we are back in the 𝑛 = 1
case. We can find an infinite number of values 𝑥𝑜1 such that 𝑝(𝑥) = 𝑝𝑑 (𝑥𝑜2 , 𝑥𝑜3 , ..., 𝑥𝑜𝑛 )(𝑥𝑜1 )𝑑 +
𝑝𝑑−1 (𝑥𝑜2 , 𝑥𝑜3 , ...𝑥𝑜𝑛 )(𝑥𝑜1 )𝑑−1 + ... + 𝑝0 (𝑥𝑜2 , 𝑥𝑜3 , ..., 𝑥𝑜𝑛 ) ∕= 0. Thus we have found an infinite number
of points in 𝔽𝑛 where 𝑝 does not vanish. To prove the second claim of 1), just observe if 𝑆 a
collection of polynomials containing the nonzero polynomial 𝑝(𝑥), we have 𝕍(𝑆)𝐶 ⊃ 𝕍(𝑝)𝐶 so by
the first claim, we have that 𝕍(𝑆)𝐶 contains an infinite set.
2) Consider 𝕍(𝑆1 ) and 𝕍(𝑆2 ) where 𝑆1 and 𝑆2 are nonzero sets of polynomials. It suffices to prove
that 𝕍(𝑝1 )𝐶 ∩ 𝕍(𝑝2 )𝐶 is nonempty for any fixed 𝑝1 ∈ 𝑆1 and 𝑝2 ∈ 𝑆2 nonzero polynomials. But
observe that 𝕍(𝑝1 𝑝2 ) = 𝕍(𝑝1 ) ∪ 𝕍(𝑝2 ), so 𝕍(𝑝1 𝑝2 )𝐶 = 𝕍(𝑝1 )𝐶 ∩ 𝕍(𝑝2 )𝐶 but by 1) we know that the
term on the left is infinite, hence nonempty.
3) If 𝑝 vanishes on 𝕍(𝑆)𝐶 for S containing a nonzero polynomial 𝑞 then 𝑝 vanishes on 𝕍(𝑞)𝐶 . If 𝑝
were nonzero, then by 2), 𝕍(𝑞)𝐶 ∩ 𝕍(𝑝)𝐶 is nonempty. This is a contradiction, so 𝑝 is identically
zero.

Let 𝔤 be a finite dimensional Lie algebra of dimension 𝑑 and consider the characteristic polynomial
of an endomorphism ad 𝑎 for some 𝑎 ∈ 𝔤: det𝔤 (ad 𝑎 − 𝜆) = (−𝜆)𝑑 + 𝑐𝑑−1 (−𝜆)𝑑−1 + ... + det(ad 𝑎).

This is a polynomial of degree 𝑑. Because (ad 𝑎)(𝑎) = [𝑎, 𝑎] = 0, we know det(ad 𝑎) = 0 and
the constant term in the polynomial vanishes.
Exercise 7.2. Show that 𝑐𝑗 is a homogeneous polynomial on 𝔤 of degree 𝑑 − 𝑗.

Proof. By ”polynomial
∑ in 𝔤” we mean that if we fix a basis 𝑋1 , 𝑋2 , ..., 𝑋𝑑 of 𝔤 and write a general
element 𝑎 = 𝑖 𝑎𝑖 𝑋𝑖 , then 𝑐𝑘 (𝑎) is a polynomial in the 𝑎𝑖 . Observe that ad 𝑎 is a 𝑑 by 𝑑 matrix
whose entries 𝑏𝑖𝑗 are linear combinations of the 𝑎𝑖 . Now consider det𝔤 (ad 𝑎 − 𝜆). This is a
polynomial in the entries of the matrix ad 𝑎 − 𝜆. A general element in the expansion of this
determinant is 𝑏∗∗ 𝑏∗∗ ...(𝑏𝑖𝑖 − 𝜆)...(𝑏𝑗𝑗 − 𝜆). In order to get a term with 𝜆𝑘 we have to chose 𝑘 𝜆’s
and 𝑑 − 𝑘 of the 𝑏∗∗ in the expansion of this product. Therefore the coefficient of the polynomial
𝜆𝑘 is homogeneous of degree 𝑑 − 𝑘 in the 𝑏∗∗ , so it is also homogeneous of degree 𝑑 − 𝑘 in the 𝑎𝑖
since the 𝑏𝑖𝑗 are linear in the 𝑎𝑖 .

Definition 7.3. The smallest positive integer such that 𝑐𝑟 (𝑎) is not the zero polynomial on 𝔤 is
called the rank of 𝔤. Note 1 ≤ 𝑟 ≤ 𝑛. An element 𝑎 ∈ 𝔤 is called regular if 𝑐𝑟 (𝑎) ∕= 0. The nonzero
polynomial 𝑐𝑟 (𝑎) of degree 𝑑 − 𝑟 is called the discriminant of 𝔤.
Proposition 7.2. Let 𝔤 be a Lie algebra of dimension 𝑑, rank 𝑟 over 𝔽

1) 𝑟 = 𝑑 if and only if 𝔤 is nilpotent.

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2) If 𝔤 is nilpotent, the set of regular elements is 𝔤.

3) If 𝔤 is not nilpotent, the set of regular elements is infinite if 𝔽 is.

Proof. 1) 𝑟 = 𝑑 means that det(ad 𝑎 − 𝜆) = (−𝜆)𝑑 for all 𝑎. This is true if and only if all the
eigenvalues of ad 𝑎 are 0, which happens if and only if ad 𝑎 is nilpotent for all 𝑎. By Engel’s
theorem, this is equivalent to 𝔤 being nilpotent.
2) If 𝔤 is nilpotent, we know det(ad 𝑎 − 𝜆) = (−𝜆)𝑑 and 𝑐𝑟 = 𝑐𝑑 = 1, which does not vanish
anywhere, so all elements are regular.
3) If 𝔤 is not nilpotent, the set of regular elements is by definition 𝕍(𝑐𝑟 )𝐶 , which is the complement
of a hypersurface, defined by a homogeneous polynomial of degree 𝑑 − 𝑟 > 0 by Ex 7.2. By part 1
of the previous theorem the complement of a hypersurface is an infinite set if 𝔽 is.

Example 7.3. For 𝔤 = 𝔤𝔩𝑛 (𝔽), the rank is 𝑛 and we will find its discriminant. Also, the set of
regular elements consists of all matrices with distinct eigenvalues.

Exercise 7.3. 1) Show that the Jordan decomposition of ad 𝑎 is given by ad 𝑎 = (ad 𝑎𝑠 )+(ad 𝑎𝑛 )
in 𝔤𝔩𝑛
2) If 𝜆1 , ..., 𝜆𝑛 are eigenvalues of 𝑎𝑠 then 𝜆𝑖 − 𝜆𝑗 are eigenvalues of ad 𝑎𝑠
3) ad 𝑎𝑠 has the same eigenvalues as ad 𝑎.

Proof. For 2), If 𝜆1 , ..., 𝜆𝑛 are eigenvalues of 𝑎𝑠 observe that if 𝐸𝑖𝑗 is the matrix with 1 in the
𝑖𝑗 slot and zero elsewhere, then [𝑎𝑠 , 𝐸𝑖𝑗 ] = (𝑎𝑠𝑖𝑖 − 𝑎𝑠𝑗𝑗 )𝐸𝑖𝑗 so ad 𝑎𝑠 is diagonalizable since the
𝐸𝑖𝑗 form a basis of 𝔤𝔩𝑛 (𝔽). The eigenvalues are thus 𝜆𝑖 − 𝜆𝑗 . As for 1), we already showed
that ad 𝑎𝑠 is diagonalizable, also ad 𝑎𝑛 is nilpotent because 𝑎𝑛 is. Finally, ad 𝑎𝑠 and ad 𝑎𝑛
commute: [ad 𝑎𝑠 , ad 𝑎𝑛 ]𝑣 = [𝑎𝑠 , [𝑎𝑛 , 𝑣]] − [𝑎𝑛 , [𝑎𝑠 , 𝑣]] = −[[𝑎𝑠 , 𝑎𝑛 ], 𝑣] = 0 (since [𝑎𝑠 , 𝑎𝑛 ] = 0). Thus
by uniqueness of Jordan form, ad 𝑎 = ad 𝑎𝑠 + ad 𝑎𝑛 . As for 3), we know from Jordan canonical
form that the semisimple part of an operator and the operator itself have the same eigenvalues –
and since ad 𝑎𝑠 is the semisimple part of the operator ad 𝑎, the claim follows.

Exercise 7.4. Deduce the statement∏ of example 1.3 by showing that the rank of 𝔤𝔩𝑛 is 𝑛 and that
the discriminant is given by 𝑐𝑛 (𝑎) = 𝑖∕=𝑗 (𝜆𝑖 − 𝜆𝑗 ). Also compute 𝑐2 (𝑎) for 𝔤𝔩2 (𝔽) in terms of the
matrix coefficients of 𝑎.
∏
Proof. We must compute det(ad 𝑎 − 𝜆). This is equal ∏ to det(ad 𝑎 𝑠 − 𝜆) = ∏ 𝑖,𝑗 (𝜆𝑖 − 𝜆𝑗 − 𝜆). Note
when 𝑖 = 𝑗, we can pull out the (−𝜆), so we have 𝑖,𝑗 (𝜆𝑖 − 𝜆𝑗 −∏ 𝜆) = (−𝜆) 𝑛
𝑖∕=𝑗 (𝜆𝑖 − 𝜆𝑗 − 𝜆). Thus
we see that the rank of 𝔤𝔩𝑛 (𝔽𝑛 ) = 𝑛, and the discriminant is 𝑖∕=𝑗 (𝜆𝑖 − 𝜆𝑗 ). An element in 𝔤𝔩𝑛 is
therefore regular
∏ if and only if all its eigenvalues are distinct. Finally we compute the discriminant
𝑐2 for 𝔤𝔩2 (𝔽): 2
( ) 𝑖∕=𝑗 (𝜆𝑖 − 𝜆𝑗 ) = (𝜆1 − 𝜆2 )(𝜆2 − 𝜆1 ) = −(𝜆1 + 𝜆2 ) + 4𝜆1 𝜆2 . If we write a matrix
𝑎 𝑏
, then the discriminant is −(𝑎 + 𝑑)2 + 4(𝑎𝑑 − 𝑏𝑐). This a clearly a homogeneous polynomial
𝑐 𝑑
of degree 𝑛2 − 𝑛 = 22 − 2 = 2.