1

Continuous Groups

As evident from the name, Continuous groups are, (i) groups, of course, and (ii) continuous, in some sense. So let us rst recall the denition of a group.

1.1

Group
dened in such a way that the

A group is a set G, with a binary operation following are satised:

1. x, y G, xy G, i.e., the set G is closed under the binary operation. 2. The set G is associative w.r.t to the binary operation. 3. Identity in G exists. 4. Each element of G has an inverse.

1.2

Continuous Groups

A continuous group is a set of elements R such that each R depends on some nite number of real continuous parameters.

R(a) R(a1 , . . . ar ). (1) This is called an rparameter group. It satises all the properties needed to be a group. Now let us see how continuity gets incorporated. Since this is a group, it must be closed w.r.t to the binary operation. We now check the group condition on this set. Let us take three arbitrary elements from the set R(a), R(b), R(c), . . .. The product of any two, say R(a) and R(b) should yield a member within the group, say R(c). By denition, if R(c) = R(a) R(b) then there must be a continuous real function f (a, b) such that, c = f (a, b) (2)

If product of R(a), R(b), = R(a)(b) (R(b), R(c), = R(b)(c)) implies the existence of a function f (a, b) (f (b, c)), then from the associativity of group elements , we have R(a)[R(b)R(c)] = [R(a)R(b)]R(c) Or f (a, f (b, c)) = f (f (a, b), c) Existence of identity implies R(a)R(a0 ) = R(a) = R(a0 )R(a) which can be equivalently expressed as f (a, a0 ) = a = f ((a0 , a) 1 (4) (3)

 Each group element must have an inverse, such that R(a)R(a ) = R(a0 ) = R(a )R(a) or equivalently, f (a, a ) = a0 = f (a , a). If the function f , is analytic, viz., it has a convergent Taylor series (in the domain dened by the parameters), then this group is said to be rparameter Lie group. (5)

1.3

Application

It would not be inappropriate to say that the mathematics equivalent of the word application is transformation. Whenever we wish to apply math to solve some physical problem, we will have to use transformation of some kind or the other. The case of Lie groups is no dierent, and we will be interested in the tranformations of the ddimensional spaces. These will simply be transformations over, say, the Euclidean space for instance. In general they will be of the form, xi = f (x1 , . . . , xd ; a1 , . . . , ar ). (6) As said earlier, if f is analytic, then this denes rparameter Lie group of transformations. Example Let us illustrate the previous discussion with a simple example, wherein we consider the example of scaling transformation, viz., x = ax (7)

The primed coordinate is given by scaling the unprimed one by factor of a, where a belongs to set of scalars (except 0). Let us verify the group axioms and continuity. Suppose the binary operation is composition. Let x1 = a1 x, and x2 = a2 x. Then x1 x2 = a1 a2 x. We can write a1 a2 = a3 , so that x1 xn2 = a3 x, is same form as (7). Hence the group is closed w.r.t to the binary operation. Furthermore a3 = a1 a2 = f (a1 , a2 ) is continuous. Associativity condition, x1 (x2 x3 ) = (x1 x2 ) x3 is satised, either trust me or check yourselves. Identity element x0 = x is also there, such that xi xn0 = ai x.
1 For each xi , xi1 = ai x such that xi xi1 = x = x0 .

Hence this forms an 1parameter (abelian) Lie group.

1.4

Example

This example is a group of transformations dened by xi = ai x + bi . This forms a group can be veried, what is important is that one should notice that it is a 2parameter (non-Abelian) Lie group. 2

Linear Transformation Group

Matrices are a wonderful way to transform mathematical objects of any dimension. We can transform ddimensional objects using d d matrices. For example, x a11 a12 x = (8) y a21 a22 y Or x = Ax. This group of linear transformations is a group with composition dened by usual matrix multiplication. Provided the determinant is non-zero, the group of all 2 2 matrices form a 4-parameter Lie group. This is also denoted by GL(2, R). In general, we use the notation GL(n, R). If the entries of the matrix are complex, then the notation is, GL(n, C).

2.1

Orthogonal Transformations

Symmetries in Mathematics lead to conservation laws and hence reduce the variables/parameters, yielding the problem easier to handle. In our case, if we demand that the length of the vector is preserved after applying the linear transformation, then it will reduce the parameters. Let us see how. First of all, we impose the condition, x1 + . . . + xn = x1 + . . . + xn . For simplicity, we take n = 2, then (8) implies x1 + x2 = (a11 x1 + a12 x2 )2 + (a21 x1 + a22 x2 )2 Equation (10) breaks down to the following three conditions:
2 a2 11 + a21 = 1, 2 a2 12 + a22 = 1,

(9)

(10)

a11 a12 + a21 a22 = 0

(11)

Now if we multiply the rst two equations in (11), we get

2 2 2 (a2 11 + a21 )(a12 + a22 ) = 1

(12)

Using the third equation in (11), we get the following condition (a11 a22 a21 a12 )2 = 1 Or det A = 1, where A = (13)

a11 a12 Positive signature leads to rotations a21 a22 known as proper while negative one is called improper. If positive signature is chosen, which we will, then the group is denotes as SO(n), where S stands for special. In summary SO(n) O(n) GL(n, R).

2.2

Parameterisation
cos sin sin cos

We will use the following parametrisation for the matrix A: R= (14)

Notice there is only single parameter in use, viz., . 3

Generators

Our Norwegian fellow Mathematician Sophus Lie, put emphasis on generators of groups, so that instead of caring about the whole group, you just have to care for the generator, and everything else can be generated by the generator. So we will also spend considerable time on studying generators of the Lie groups we have discussed. These generators are called innitesimal generators for the simple reason that rotation is a continuous operation; the parameter can take innite values, thus the generator of such transformation is also called innitesimal generator.

3.1

Matrix Exponential form of generators

Firstly observe from (14) that R(1 )R(2 ) = R(1 + 2 ) = R(2 + 1 ) = R(2 )R(1 ), that is, the group is Abelian. Secondly we will also need the Taylor expansion of R about 0: R() = R(0) + 1 d2 R dR |=0 + 2 2 |=0 + . . . d 2 d (15)

The coecients in (15) can be determined using (14), but let us search for some kind of recurrence relation. Start with the fact that R(1 + 2 ) = R(1 )R(2 ) and dierentiate the LHS w.r.t to 1 at 1 = 0, dR(1 + 2 ) |1 =0 d1 = = dR(1 + 2 d(1 + 2 ) |1 =0 d(1 + 2 ) d1 dR(2 ) .I d2 (17) (18) (16)

Now equating above result to the derivative of RHS of (16) gives us, dR(2 ) dR(1 ) = |1 =0 R(2 ) d2 d1
dR(1 ) d1

(19)

can be calculated from (14), which gives, sin 1 cos 1 cos 1 sin 1 |1 =0 = 0 1 1 0 X (20)

So nally we have nally obtained the useful relationship for determining the coecients in (15), dR() = XR() (21) d (where we have omitted the subscripts since s are arbitrary). 4