Signature characters for \(A_ 2\) and \(B_ 2\) (Q1182197)

Let \({\mathfrak g}\) be a complex semisimple Lie algebra of rank \(r\) with symmetrizable Cartan matrix, and let \(\mathfrak h\) be a Cartan subalgebra of \(\mathfrak g\). Let \(\{\alpha_ 1,\dots,\alpha_ r\}\) be a basis of simple roots with respect to \(\mathfrak h\), and let \(\Lambda_ -\) denote the negative root semilattice. For \(\Lambda=-\sum^ r_{i=1}\lambda^ i\alpha_ i\in{\mathfrak h}^*\) let \(V(\lambda)\) be the associated Verma module representation of \(\mathfrak g\). Let \(M_ \mu(\lambda)\) be the real symmetric matrix defining the inner product (Shapovalov form on \(V(\lambda)\)) restricted to \(V(\lambda)_ \mu\). The signature character of \(V(\lambda)\) is defined as \[ \chi^{\text{sig}}(V(\lambda))=(x_ 1)^{\lambda^ 1}\cdots(x_ r)^{\lambda_ r}\sum_{\mu\in\Lambda_ -}\text{sig}(M_ \mu(\lambda))(x_ 1)\mu^ 1\cdots(x_ r)^{\mu^ r} \] where \(\text{sig}(M)=\text{tr}(D)\) for \(M=SDS^ \top\) with \(S\) nonsingular and \(D=\text{diag}(1,\dots,1,0,\dots,0,-1,\dots,-1)\). The authors show that the signature characters of a finite-dimensional Lie algebra's highest weight representations satisfy simple difference equations that have a unique solution once appropriate boundary conditions are imposed. They use these results to derive the signature characters of all \(A_ 2\) and \(B_ 2\) highest weight representations.