Simple Lie Group (Paperback)

High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles In mathematics, a simple Lie group is a connected non-abelian Lie group G which does not have nontrivial connected normal subgroups. A simple Lie algebra is a non-abelian Lie algebra whose only ideals are 0 and itself. A direct sum of simple Lie algebras is called a semisimple Lie algebra. An equivalent definition of a simple Lie group follows from the Lie correspondence: a connected Lie group is simple if its Lie algebra is simple. An important technical point is that a simple Lie group may contain discrete normal subgroups, hence being a simple Lie group is different from being simple as an abstract group. Simple Lie groups include many classical Lie groups, which provide a group-theoretic underpinning for spherical geometry, projective geometry and related geometries in the sense of Felix Klein's Erlangen programme. It emerged in the course of classification of simple Lie groups that there exist also several exceptional possibilities not corresponding to any familiar geometry. These exceptional groups account for many special examples and configurations in other branches of mathematics, as well as contemporary theoretical physics.