An introduction to Kac-Moody groups over fields (Q1656710)

From the Publisher's description: ``The aims of this book are twofold: {\parindent=6mm \begin{itemize}\item[--] to offer an accessible, reader-friendly and self-contained introduction to Kac-Moody algebras and groups; \item[--] to clean the foundations and to provide a unified treatment of the theory. \end{itemize}} The book starts with an outline of the classical Lie theory, used to set the scene. Part II provides a self-contained introduction to Kac-Moody algebras. The heart of the book is Part III, which develops an intuitive approach to the construction and fundamental properties of Kac-Moody groups. It is complemented by two appendices, respectively offering introductions to affine group schemes and to the theory of buildings.'' Part II treats the Kac-Moody (Lie) algebra \({\mathfrak g}_A\) associated to a generalized Cartan matrix \(A\). We learn about positive roots, real roots, complex roots, the Weyl group, integrable modules, the \(\mathbb Z\)-form of \({\mathfrak g}_A\), simplicity. Part III is rather different. The problem is that there are many ways to associate a `Kac-Moody group' to our Cartan matrix, or to Kac-Moody root data, even over a field of characteristic zero. The author presents about a dozen inequivalent variants, ranging from a discrete group generated by a copy of \(\mathrm{SL}_2\) for each positive real root, to the ind-scheme of Mathieu and Rousseau. These ind-schemes go beyond the scope of the book, but the other versions are treated in detail, together with a big diagram of connections. The author is an excellent guide. All constructions are first motivated and then compared. The groups may be discrete or come with a Hausdorff topology. They may be defined in terms of presentations or in terms of integrable representations, or in terms of actions on buildings, or on twin buildings. Several variants have a BN-pair structure. The title of the book refers to fields, but the treatment is not restricted to them.