Synopses & Reviews
This is a quite extraordinary book on Lie groups and algebraic groups. Created from hectographed notes in Russian from Moscow University, which for many Soviet mathematicians have been something akin to a "bible", the book has been substantially extended and organized to develop the material through the posing of problems and to illustrate it through a wealth of examples. Several tables have never before been published, such as decomposition of representations into irreducible components. This will be especially helpful for physicists. The authors have managed to present some vast topics: the correspondence between Lie groups and Lie algebras, elements of algebraic geometry and of algebraic group theory over fields of real and complex numbers, the main facts of the theory of semisimple Lie groups (real and complex, their local and global classification included) and their representations. The literature on Lie group theory has no competitors to this book in broadness of scope. The book is self-contained indeed: only the very basics of algebra, calculus and smooth manifold theory are really needed. This distinguishes it favorably from other books in the area. It is thus not only an indispensable reference work for researchers but also a good introduction for students.
Synopsis
Extraordinary book based on Moscow University hectographed notes from 1968. The book is substantially extended, with material developed through posing of problems and a wealth of examples. Several tables have never been published before, e.g. decomposition of representations into irreducible components. Especially interesting for physicists.
Synopsis
This book is based on the notes of the authors' seminar on algebraic and Lie groups held at the Department of Mechanics and Mathematics of Moscow University in 1967/68. Our guiding idea was to present in the most economic way the theory of semisimple Lie groups on the basis of the theory of algebraic groups. Our main sources were A. Borel's paper 34], C. ChevalIey's seminar 14], seminar "Sophus Lie" 15] and monographs by C. Chevalley 4], N. Jacobson 9] and J-P. Serre 16, 17]. In preparing this book we have completely rearranged these notes and added two new chapters: "Lie groups" and "Real semisimple Lie groups". Several traditional topics of Lie algebra theory, however, are left entirely disregarded, e.g. universal enveloping algebras, characters of linear representations and (co)homology of Lie algebras. A distinctive feature of this book is that almost all the material is presented as a sequence of problems, as it had been in the first draft of the seminar's notes. We believe that solving these problems may help the reader to feel the seminar's atmosphere and master the theory. Nevertheless, all the non-trivial ideas, and sometimes solutions, are contained in hints given at the end of each section. The proofs of certain theorems, which we consider more difficult, are given directly in the main text. The book also contains exercises, the majority of which are an essential complement to the main contents.