Isometries of Clifford algebras II

Publication date: 25 January 2017

Abstract: Let F be a field of characteristic different from 2, and let

F^{n}

denote the vector space of n-tuples of elements in F. Let

e_{1}, ..., e_{n}

denote the canonical basis of

F^{n}

. Let r and s be nonnegative integers such that r + s = n, and let Q denote the nondegenerate bilinear form on

F^{n}

such that

Q (e_{i}, e_{j}) = 0

if i,j are distinct,

Q (e_{i}, e_{i}) = 1

if

1 l e q i l e q r

and

Q (e_{r + j}, e_{r + j}) = - 1

if

1 l e q j l e q s

. Let

C e l l (r, s)

denote the Clifford algebra determined by Q and

F^{n}

. There is a canonical extension of Q to a nondegenerate, symmetric, bilinear form

on

C e l l (r, s)

. An element g of

C e l l (r, s)

will be called an isometry of

C e l l (r, s)

if left and right translations by g preserve

. Let

G_{r, s}

denote the group of all isometries of

C e l l (r, s)

. We construct a Lie algebra

L G_{r, s}

over F that equals the Lie algebra of

G_{r, s}

in the case that F = R or C. The Lie algebra

L G_{r, s}

admits an involutive automorphism whose +1 and -1 eigenspaces determine a Cartan decomposition

L G_{r, s} = K_{r, s} o p l u s P_{r, s}

. We compute the bracket relations for a natural system of generators of

L G_{r, s}

. Finally, we determine

L G_{r, s}

in the case that F = R.

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