Powers of the Euler product and commutative subalgebras of a complex simple Lie algebra (Q706152)

Let \(\mathfrak{g}\) be a complex simple Lie algebra. The main result of the paper shows that the \(k\)th coefficient of the \(\dim({\mathfrak{g}})\) power of the Euler product \(\prod_{n=1}^{\infty}(1-x^{n})\) equals the dimension of the subspace of \(\wedge^{k}(\mathfrak{g})\) spanned by all commutative subalgebras of dimension \(k\) of \(\mathfrak{g}\), provided that \(k\) is at most the dual Coxeter number of \(\mathfrak{g}\). Key ingredients of the proof include D. Peterson's \(2^{\text{ rank}}\) theorem on the number of abelian ideals in a Borel subalgebra of \(\mathfrak{g}\), the author's heat kernel formulation of Macdonald's \(\eta\)-function theorem, a set of special highest weights parametrized by all alcoves in a Weyl chamber, and the homology and cohomology of the nilradical of the standard maximal parabolic subalgebra of the affine Kac-Moody Lie algebra associated with \(\mathfrak{g}\). Taking \(\mathfrak{g}\) of type \(A_{4}\), the main theorem implies that the exterior powers of \(sl(5,{\mathbb{C}})\) ``see'' the first five nontrivial Ramanujan numbers. In fact, the main result of the paper yields an explicit formula for the polynomial \(f_{k}(s)\) of degree \(k\), which is the coefficient of \(x^{k}\) in the \(s\)th power of the Euler product, with \(s\) any complex number. In particular, when \(k = 2\), \(3\), and \(4\), a root of \(f_{k}(s)\) is the dimension of the Lie algebra of type \(A_{1}\), \(A_{2}\), and \(G_{2}\), respectively.