Representations of simple Lie groups (Q1322732)

It is known that the real homology \(H_ * (G)\) of a compact Lie group \(G\) is a Cartesian product of certain odd-dimensional spheres. In the author's interpretation, the group itself can be viewed as a ``twisted'' product of the same spheres: for instance, \(SU(3) \sim S^ 3 \times S^ 5\) is interpreted as the existence of the principal bundle \(SU(2) \to SU (3) \to S^ 5\). The following statements are shown to be equivalent: (1) \(G\) admits complex representations, (2) the center of \(G\) contains elements of order \(>2\), (2) \(G\) has odd Casimir invariants (invariant monomials of odd order in the enveloping algebra), (4) for the representation in terms of spheres \(S^ k\), there is at least one exponent of the form \(k = 4n + 1\). Any one of these conditions implies that \(G\) has outer automorphisms (but not vice versa). Quaternionic representations exist iff the center of \(G\) is nontrivial and consists of order-two elements only.