Invariant symmetric bilinear forms for reflection groups (Q5954171)

The authors discuss several conditions for the existence of a symmetric or skew symmetric bilinear form \(\beta\) on a vector space \(V\) over a field \(K\) of characteristic not \(2\). A reflection is an involution in \(\text{GL}(V)\) that leaves every element in a hyperplane of \(V\) fixed. Let \(S\) be a set of reflections such that for \(s,t\in S\) also \(sts\in S\). Put \(\alpha_s(x_t)=\tfrac{2\beta(x_s,x_t)}{\beta(x_s,x_s)}\). A matrix \((a_{ij})\) is called combinatorially symmetric if \(a_{ij}\neq 0\) implies \(a_{ji}\neq 0\). The authors show, e.g., that there is a symmetric bilinear form \(\beta\) for \(V\) if and only if \(A_S=(\alpha_s(x_t))\) is combinatorially symmetric and \(\alpha_s(x_t)\alpha_t(x_u)\alpha_u(x_s)=\alpha_s(x_u)\alpha_u(x_t)\alpha_t(x_s)\) for all \(s,t,u\in S\). The last property is called \(\text{SYM}_3\). They also show that \(\text{SYM}_3\) implies \(\text{SYM}_n\) and conclude that every nonsymmetrizable Kac-Moody Lie algebra contains a nonsymmetrizable subalgebra of rank 3.