On covariants in exterior algebras for the even special orthogonal group (Q2629890)

Let \(G\) denote the even complex special orthogonal group \(\mathrm{SO}(2n,\mathbb{C})\) acting by conjugation on the space \(M\) of \((2n)\times (2n)\) matrices. The \(G\)-module \(M\) decomposes as the direct sum of the subspace \(M^+\) of symmetric matrices and the subspace \(M^-\) of skew-symmetric matrices. Consider \(B=(\bigwedge (M^+)^*\otimes M)^G\), the space of \(M\)-valued \(G\)-equivariant alternating multilinear maps from the spaces of tuples of symmetric matrices. It has a natural algebra structure, moreover, \(B=B^+\oplus B^-\), where \(B^+=(\bigwedge (M^+)^*\otimes M^-)^G\) and \(B^-=(\bigwedge (M^+)^*\otimes M^+)^G\). The main result of this paper is an explicit description of the space \(B^+\). More precisely, it is shown that \(B^+\) is a free module of rank \(2n\) (with explicitly given free module generators) over a subalgebra of \((\bigwedge M^+)^G\) generated by \(n\) explicitly given elements. Computer calculations are presented that show that an analogous result does not hold for \(B^-\). Some new trace polynomial identities on symmetric matrices are also proved.