Dualities And Representations Of Lie Superalgebras

This book gives a systematic account of the structure and representation theory of finite-dimensional complex Lie superalgebras of classical type and serves as a good introduction to representation theory of Lie superalgebras. Several folklore results are rigorously proved (and occasionally corrected in detail), sometimes with new proofs. Three important dualities are presented in the book, with the unifying theme of determining irreducible characters of Lie superalgebras. In order of increasing sophistication, they are Schur duality, Howe duality, and super duality. The combinatorics of symmetric functions is developed as needed in connections to Harish-Chandra homomorphism as well as irreducible characters for Lie superalgebras. Schur-Sergeev duality for the queer Lie superalgebra is presented from scratch with complete detail. Howe duality for Lie superalgebras is presented in book form for the first time. Super duality is a new approach developed in the past few years toward understanding the Bernstein-Gelfand-Gelfand category of modules for classical Lie superalgebras. Super duality relates the representation theory of classical Lie superalgebras directly to the representation theory of classical Lie algebras and thus gives a solution to the irreducible character problem of Lie superalgebras via the Kazhdan-Lusztig polynomials of classical Lie algebras.

Lie superalgebras are a natural generalization of Lie algebras, having applications in geometry, number theory, gauge field theory, and string theory. This book develops the theory of Lie superalgebras, their enveloping algebras, and their representations. The book begins with five chapters on the basic properties of Lie superalgebras, including explicit constructions for all the classical simple Lie superalgebras. Borel subalgebras, which are more subtle in this setting, are studied and described. Contragredient Lie superalgebras are introduced, allowing a unified approach to several results, in particular to the existence of an invariant bilinear form on $\mathfrak{g}$. The enveloping algebra of a finite dimensional Lie superalgebra is studied as an extension of the enveloping algebra of the even part of the superalgebra. By developing general methods for studying such extensions, important information on the algebraic structure is obtained, particularly with regard to primitive ideals. Fundamental results, such as the Poincare-Birkhoff-Witt Theorem, are established. Representations of Lie superalgebras provide valuable tools for understanding the algebras themselves, as well as being of primary interest in applications to other fields. Two important classes of representations are the Verma modules and the finite dimensional representations. The fundamental results here include the Jantzen filtration, the Harish-Chandra homomorphism, the Sapovalov determinant, supersymmetric polynomials, and Schur-Weyl duality. Using these tools, the center can be explicitly described in the general linear and orthosymplectic cases. In an effort to make the presentation as self-contained as possible, some background material is included on Lie theory, ring theory, Hopf algebras, and combinatorics.

The volume is the outcome of the conference "Lie superalgebras," which was held at the Istituto Nazionale di Alta Matematica, in 2012. The conference gathered many specialists in the subject, and the talks held provided comprehensive insights into the newest trends in research on Lie superalgebras (and related topics like vertex algebras, representation theory and supergeometry). The book contains contributions of many leading esperts in the field and provides a complete account of the newest trends in research on Lie Superalgebras.

This volume contains the proceedings of the AMS Special Session on Representations of Lie Algebras, Quantum Groups and Related Topics, held from November 12–13, 2016, at North Carolina State University, Raleigh, North Carolina. The articles cover various aspects of representations of Kac–Moody Lie algebras and their applications, structure of Leibniz algebras and Krichever–Novikov algebras, representations of quantum groups, and related topics.

The Lie Theory Workshop, founded by Joe Wolf (UC, Berkeley), has been running for over two decades. These workshops have been sponsored by the NSF, noting the talks have been seminal in describing new perspectives in the field covering broad areas of current research. At the beginning, the top universities in California and Utah hosted the meetings which continue to run on a quarterly basis. Experts in representation theory/Lie theory from various parts of the US, Europe, Asia (China, Japan, Singapore, Russia), Canada, and South and Central America were routinely invited to give talks at these meetings. Nowadays, the workshops are also hosted at universities in Louisiana, Virginia, and Oklahoma. The contributors to this volume have all participated in these Lie theory workshops and include in this volume expository articles which cover representation theory from the algebraic, geometric, analytic, and topological perspectives with also important connections to math physics. These survey articles, review and update the prominent seminal series of workshops in representation/Lie theory mentioned-above, and reflects the widespread influence of those workshops in such areas as harmonic analysis, representation theory, differential geometry, algebraic geometry, number theory, and mathematical physics. Many of the contributors have had prominent roles in both the classical and modern developments of Lie theory and its applications.

This book contains the proceedings of the 2012–2014 Southeastern Lie Theory Workshop Series held at North Carolina State University in April 2012, at College of Charleston in December 2012, at Louisiana State University in May 2013, and at University of Georgia in May 2014. Some of the articles by experts in the field survey recent developments while others include new results in representations of Lie algebras, and quantum groups, vertex (operator) algebras and Lie superalgebras.