Symplectic group

In mathematics, the name symplectic group can refer to two different, but closely related, collections of mathematical groups, denoted and for positive integer "n" and field F (usually C or R). The latter is called the compact symplectic group. Many authors prefer slightly different notations, usually differing by factors of . The notation used here is consistent with the size of the most common matrices which represent the groups. In Cartan's classification of the simple Lie algebras, the Lie algebra of the complex group is denoted , and is the compact real form of . Note that when we refer to "the" (compact) symplectic group it is implied that we are talking about the collection of (compact) symplectic groups, indexed by their dimension .
The name "symplectic group" is due to Hermann Weyl as a replacement for the previous confusing names (line) complex group and Abelian linear group, and is the Greek analog of "complex".
The metaplectic group is a double cover of the symplectic group over R; it has analogues over other local fields, finite fields, and adele rings.
The symplectic group is a classical group defined as the set of linear transformations of a -dimensional vector space over the field which preserve a non-degenerate skew-symmetric bilinear form. Such a vector space is called a symplectic vector space, and the symplectic group of an abstract symplectic vector space is denoted . Upon fixing a basis for , the symplectic group becomes the group of symplectic matrices, with entries in , under the operation of matrix multiplication. This group is denoted either or . If the bilinear form is represented by the nonsingular skew-symmetric matrix Ω, then
where "M"T is the transpose of "M". Often Ω is defined to be
where "In" is the identity matrix. In this case, can be expressed as those block matrices formula_3, where formula_4, satisfying the equations:
Since all symplectic matrices have determinant , the symplectic group is a subgroup of the special linear group . When , the symplectic condition on a matrix is satisfied if and only if the determinant is one, so that . For , there are additional conditions, i.e. is then a proper subgroup of .
Typically, the field is the field of real numbers or complex numbers . In these cases is a real/complex Lie group of real/complex dimension . These groups are connected but non-compact.
The center of consists of the matrices and as long as the characteristic of the field is not . Since the center of is discrete and its quotient modulo the center is a simple group, is considered a simple Lie group.
The real rank of the corresponding Lie algebra, and hence of the Lie group , is .
The Lie algebra of is the set
equipped with the commutator as its Lie bracket. For the standard skew-symmetric bilinear form formula_7, this Lie algebra is the set of all block matrices formula_3 subject to the conditions
The symplectic group over the field of complex numbers is a non-compact, simply connected, simple Lie group.
 is the complexification of the real group . is a real, non-compact, connected, simple Lie group. It has a fundamental group isomorphic to the group of integers under addition. As the real form of a simple Lie group its Lie algebra is a splittable Lie algebra.
Some further properties of :
Infinitesimal generators.
The members of the symplectic Lie algebra are the Hamiltonian matrices.
These are matrices, formula_12 such thatformula_13where and are symmetric matrices. See classical group for a derivation.
Example of symplectic matrices.
For , the group of matrices with determinant , the three symplectic -matrices are:formula_14
Sp(2n, R).
It turns out that formula_15 can have a fairly explicit description using generators. If we let formula_16 denote the symmetric formula_17 matrices, then formula_15 is generated by formula_19 whereformula_20are subgroups of formula_15pg 173pg 2.
Relationship with symplectic geometry.
Symplectic geometry is the study of symplectic manifolds. The tangent space at any point on a symplectic manifold is a symplectic vector space. As noted earlier, structure preserving transformations of a symplectic vector space form a group and this group is , depending on the dimension of the space and the field over which it is defined.
A symplectic vector space is itself a symplectic manifold. A transformation under an action of the symplectic group is thus, in a sense, a linearised version of a symplectomorphism which is a more general structure preserving transformation on a symplectic manifold.
The compact symplectic group is the intersection of with the formula_22 unitary group:
It is sometimes written as . Alternatively, can be described as the subgroup of (invertible quaternionic matrices) that preserves the standard hermitian form on :
That is, is just the quaternionic unitary group, . Indeed, it is sometimes called the hyperunitary group. Also Sp(1) is the group of quaternions of norm , equivalent to and topologically a -sphere .
Note that is "not" a symplectic group in the sense of the previous section—it does not preserve a non-degenerate skew-symmetric -bilinear form on : there is no such form except the zero form. Rather, it is isomorphic to a subgroup of , and so does preserve a complex symplectic form in a vector space of dimension twice as high. As explained below, the Lie algebra of is the compact real form of the complex symplectic Lie algebra .
 is a real Lie group with (real) dimension . It is compact, connected, and simply connected.
The Lie algebra of is given by the quaternionic skew-Hermitian matrices, the set of quaternionic matrices that satisfy
where is the conjugate transpose of (here one takes the quaternionic conjugate). The Lie bracket is given by the commutator.
Important subgroups.
Some main subgroups are:
Conversely it is itself a subgroup of some other groups:
There are also the isomorphisms of the Lie algebras and .
Relationship between the symplectic groups.
Every complex, semisimple Lie algebra has a split real form and a compact real form; the former is called a complexification of the latter two.
The Lie algebra of is semisimple and is denoted . Its split real form is and its compact real form is . These correspond to the Lie groups and respectively.
The algebras, , which are the Lie algebras of , are the indefinite signature equivalent to the compact form.
Physical significance.
Classical mechanics.
The compact symplectic group comes up in classical physics as the symmetries of canonical coordinates preserving the Poisson bracket.
Consider a system of particles, evolving under Hamilton's equations whose position in phase space at a given time is denoted by the vector of canonical coordinates,
The elements of the group are, in a certain sense, canonical transformations on this vector, i.e. they preserve the form of Hamilton's equations. If
are new canonical coordinates, then, with a dot denoting time derivative,
where
for all and all in phase space.
For the special case of a Riemannian manifold, Hamilton's equations describe the geodesics on that manifold. The coordinates formula_36 live in the tangent bundle to the manifold, and the momenta formula_37 live in the cotangent bundle. This is the reason why these are conventionally written with upper and lower indexes; it is to distinguish their locations. The corresponding Hamiltonian consists purely of the kinetic energy: it is formula_38 where formula_39 is the inverse of the metric tensor formula_40 on the Riemannian manifold. The cotangent bundle of any Riemanninan manifold is a special case of a symplectic manifold.
Quantum mechanics.
Consider a system of particles whose quantum state encodes its position and momentum. These coordinates are continuous variables and hence the Hilbert space, in which the state lives, is infinite-dimensional. This often makes the analysis of this situation tricky. An alternative approach is to consider the evolution of the position and momentum operators under the Heisenberg equation in phase space.
Construct a vector of canonical coordinates,
The canonical commutation relation can be expressed simply as
where
and is the identity matrix.
Many physical situations only require quadratic Hamiltonians, i.e. Hamiltonians of the form
where is a real, symmetric matrix. This turns out to be a useful restriction and allows us to rewrite the Heisenberg equation as
The solution to this equation must preserve the canonical commutation relation. It can be shown that the time evolution of this system is equivalent to an action of the real symplectic group, on the phase space.