Demonstration representation and tensor products of Clifford algebras (Q902059): Difference between revisions

Let \(F\) denote either the real or complex field, and let \(\mathrm{Cl}^{F}(p,q)\) denote the Clifford algebra (associative with unit element \(e\)) of dimension \(2^{p+q}\) over \(F\) which is generated by elements \(e_{i}\) (\(i=1,\dots,p+q\)) with the relations \(e_{i}e_{j}=-e_{j}e_{i}\) for \(i\neq j\), \(e_{i}^{2}=e\) for \(1\leq i\leq p\) and \(e_{i}^{2}=-e\) for \(p<i\leq p+q\). Put \(p+q=n\), \(p-q=m\) and write \(\mathrm{Cl}^{F}(p,q)^{r}\) to denote the \(r\)th tensor power of \(\mathrm{Cl}^{F}(p,q)\). The main theorem of the paper is the following: \(\mathrm{Cl} ^{F}(p,q)\cong\) \(\mathrm{Cl}^{F}(1,1)^{n/2}\) if \(m \bmod 8 \equiv 0\) or \(2\); \(\mathrm{Cl}^{F}(1,1)^{(n-1)/2}\otimes\mathrm{Cl}^{F}(1,0)\) if \(m \bmod 8 \equiv 1\); \(\mathrm{Cl}^{F}(1,1)^{(n-1)/2}\otimes\mathrm{Cl} ^{F}(0,1)\) if \(m \bmod 8 \equiv 3\) or \(7\); \(\mathrm{Cl}^{F}(1,1)^{(n-1)/2} \otimes\mathrm{Cl}^{F}(0,2)\) if \(m \bmod 8 \equiv 4\) or \(6\); and \(\mathrm{Cl}^{F}(1,1)^{(n-3)/2}\otimes\mathrm{Cl}^{F}(0,2)\otimes\mathrm{Cl} ^{F}(1,0)\) if \(m \bmod 8 \equiv 5\). The author gives two interesting consequences of this theorem. First, using well-known isomorphisms for small-dimensional Clifford algebras, the theorem provides Cartan's classification of real Clifford algebras as direct sums of matrix algebras over \(\mathbb{R}\), \(\mathbb{C}\) and \(\mathbb{H}\). Secondly, it is known that \(\mathrm{Cl} ^{F}(1,1)^{2}\cong\mathrm{Cl}^{F}(0,2)^{2}\). Therefore, if \(p_{i}+q_{i}\) is even for \(i=1,\dots,k\), then there exists \(r\) such that \(\mathrm{Cl}^{F}(p_{1} ,q_{1})\otimes\dots\otimes\mathrm{Cl}^{F}(p_{k},q_{k})\cong\mathrm{Cl}^{F}(1,1)^{r}\) or \(\mathrm{Cl}^{F}(1,1)^{r}\otimes\mathrm{Cl}^{F}(0,2)\).