Vvedensky D.-Group Theory, Problems and Solutions (2005)

Group Theory
Problem Set 1 October 12, 2001

Note: Problems marked with an asterisk are for Rapid Feedback; problems marked with a
double asterisk are optional.
1. Show that the wave equation for the propagation of an impulse at the speed of light c,
1
c
2
2
u
t
2
=

2
u
x
2
+

2
u
y
2
+

2
u
z
2
,
is covariant under the Lorentz transformation
x
= (x vt), y
= y, z
= z, t
t
v
c
2
x
,
where = (1 v
2
/c
2
)
1/2
.
2.
The Schrodinger equation for a free particle of mass m is

ih
t
=
h
2
2m
x
2
.
Show that this equation is invariant to the global change of phase of the wavefunction:

= e
i
,
where is any real number. This is an example of an internal symmetry transformation,
since it does not involve the space-time coordinates.
According to Noethers theorem, this symmetry implies the existence of a conservation
law. Show that the quantity
|(x, t)|
2
dx is independent of time for solutions of the
free-particle Schrodinger equation.
3.
Consider the following sets of elements and composition laws. Determine whether they
are groups and, if not, identify which group property is violated.
(a) The rational numbers, excluding zero, under multiplication.
(b) The non-negative integers under addition.
(c) The even integers under addition.
(d) The nth roots of unity, i.e., e
2mi/n
, for m = 0, 1, . . . , n 1, under multiplication.
(e) The set of integers under ordinary subtraction.
4.
The general form of the Liouville equation is

d
dx
p(x)
dy
dx
+

q(x) + r(x)
y = 0
where p, q and r are real-valued functions of x with p and r taking only positive values.
The quantity is called the eigenvalue and the function y, called the eigenfunction, is
assumed to be dened over an interval [a, b]. We take the boundary conditions to be
y(a) = y(b) = 0
but the result derived below is also valid for more general boundary conditions. No-
tice that the Liouville equations contains the one-dimensional Schr odinger equation as a
special case.
Let u(x; ) and v(x; ) be the fundamental solutions of the Liouville equation, i.e. u
and v are two linearly-independent solutions in terms of which all other solutions may
be expressed (for a given value ). Then there are constants A and B which allow any
solution y to be expressed as a linear combination of this fundamental set:
y(x; ) = Au(x; ) + Bv(x; )
These constants are determined by requiring y(x; ) to satisfy the boundary conditions:
y(a; ) = Au(a; ) + Bv(a; ) = 0
y(b; ) = Au(b; ) + Bv(b; ) = 0
Use this to show that the solution y(x; ) is unique, i.e., that there is one and only one
solution corresponding to an eigenvalue of the Liouville equation.
Group Theory
Solutions to Problem Set 1 October 6, 2000
1. To express the the wave equation for the propagation of an im-
pulse at the speed of light c,
1
c
2
2
u
t
2
=

2
u
x
2
+

2
u
y
2
+

2
u
z
2
, (1)
under the Lorentz transformation
x
= (x vt), y
= y, z
= z, t
=
_
t
v
c
2
x
_
, (2)
where = (1 v
2
/c
2
)
1/2
, we need to obtain expressions for the
second derivatives in the primed variables. With u
(x
, y
, z
) =
u(x, y, t), we have
u
x
=
u
x
+
u
x
=
u

v
c
2
u
, (3)
2
u
x
2
=
2
2
u
x
2
+
2
v
2
c
4
2
u
t
2
, (4)
2
u
y
2
=

2
u
y
2
, (5)
2
u
z
2
=

2
u
z
2
, (6)
u
t
=
u
t
+
u
t
=
u
v
u
, (7)
2
u
t
2
=
2
2
u
t
2
+
2
v
2
2
u
x
2
. (8)
Substituting these expressions into the wave equation yields
2
c
2
2
u
t
2
+

2
v
2
c
2
2
u
x
2
=
2
2
u
x
2
+
2
v
2
c
4
2
u
t
2
+

2
u
y
2
+

2
u
z
2
, (9)
2
which, upon rearrangement, becomes
2
c
2
_
1
v
2
c
2
_
2
u
t
2
=
2
_
1
v
2
c
2
_
2
u
x
2
+

2
u
y
2
+

2
u
z
2
. (10)
Invoking the denition of , we obtain
1
c
2
2
u
t
2
=

2
u
x
2
+

2
u
y
2
+

2
u
z
2
, (11)
which conrms the covariance of the wave equation under the
Lorentz transformation.
2. We begin with the Schr odinger equation for a free particle of mass
m:
i h
t
=
h
2
2m
x
2
. (12)
Performing the transformation

= e
i
, (13)
where is any real number, we nd
i he
i
t
=
h
2
2m
e
i
x
2
, (14)
or, upon cancelling the common factor e
i
,
i h
t
=
h
2
2m
x
2
, (15)
which establishes the covariance of the Schr odinger equation un-
der this transformation.
We can derive the corresponding quantity multiplying Eq. (12)
by the complex conjugate
and subtracting the product of

and the complex conjugate of Eq. (12):
i h
_
t
+
t
_
=
h
2
2m
_
x
2

x
2
_
. (16)
3
The left-hand side of this equation can be written as
i h
_
t
+
t
_
= i h

t
(
) = i h

t
||
2
, (17)
and the right-hand side can be written as
h
2
2m
_
x
2

x
2
_
=
h
2
2m
x
_
x
_
. (18)
We now consider the solution to Eq. (12) corresponding to a wave
packet, whereby by and its derivatives vanish as x .
Then, integrating Eq. (16) over the real line, and using Eqns. (17)
and (18), we obtain
i h

t
_

|(x, t)|
2
dx =
h
2
2m
_

_

x
_
x
__
dx
=
h
2
2m
_
x
_
= 0 . (19)
Thus, the quantity
_
|(x, t)|
2
dx is independent of time for so-
lutions of the free-particle Schr odinger equation which correspond
to wave packets.
3. (a) The multiplication of two rational numbers, m/n and p/q,
where m, n, p and q are integers, yields another rational number,
mp/nq, so closure is obeyed. The unit is 1, multiplication is an
associative operation, and the inverse of m/n is n/m, which is a
rational number. The set excludes zero, so the problem of nding
the inverse of zero does not arise. Hence, the rational numbers,
excluding zero, under multiplication form a group.
(b) The sum of two non-negative integers is a non-negative in-
teger, thus ensuring closure, addition is associative, the unit is
zero, but the inverse under addition of a negative integer n is n,
4
which is a negative integer and, therefore, excluded from the set.
Hence, the non-negative integers under addition do not form a
group.
(c) The sum of two even integers 2m and 2n, where m and n are
any two integers, is 2(m+n), which is an even integer, so closure
is obeyed. Addition is associative, the unit is zero, which is an
even integer, and the inverse of 2n is 2n, which is also an even
integer. Hence, the even integers under addition form a group.
(d) The multiplication of two elements amounts to the addition of
the integers 0, 1, . . . , n1, modulo n, i.e., the addition of any two
elements and, if the sum lies out side of this range, subtract n to
bring it into the range. Thus, the multiplication of two nth roots
of unity is again an nth root of unity, multiplication is associative,
and the unit is 1. The inverse of e
2mi/n
is therefore
e
2mi/n
= e
2i(nm)/n
(20)
Thus, the nth roots of unity form a group for any value of n.
(e) For the set of integers under ordinary subtraction, the dier-
ence between two integers n and m is another integer p, nm = p,
the identity is 0, since, n 0 = 0, and every integer is its own
inverse, since n n = 0. However, subtraction is not associative
because
(n m) p = n (mp) = n m + p
Hence, the integers under ordinary subtraction do not form a
group.
4. Let u(x; ) and v(x; ) be the fundamental solutions of the Li-
ouville equation with the boundary conditions y(a) = y(b) = 0.
Then there are constants A and B which allow any solution y to
be expressed as a linear combination of this fundamental set:
y(x; ) = Au(x; ) + Bv(x; ) (21)
5
These constants are determined by requiring y(x; ) to satisfy the
boundary conditions given above. Applying these boundary con-
ditions to the expression in (21) leads to the following equations:
y(a; ) = Au(a; ) + Bv(a; ) = 0
y(b; ) = Au(b; ) + Bv(b; ) = 0
(22)
Equations (22) are two simultaneous equations for the unknown
quantities A and B. To determine the conditions which guarantee
that this system of equations has a nontrivial solution, we write
these equations in matrix form:
_
u(a; ) v(a; )
u(b; ) v(b; )
__
A
B
_
=
_
0
0
_
(23)
Thus, we see that Equations (22) can be solved for nonzero values
of A and B only if the determinant of the matrix of coecients in
(23) vanishes. Otherwise, the only solution is A = B = 0, which
yields the trivial solution y = 0. The condition for a nontrivial
solution of (22) is, therefore, given by
u(a; ) v(a; )
u(b; ) v(b; )
= u(a; )v(b; ) u(b; )v(a; ) = 0 (24)

This guarantees that the solution for A and B is unique. Hence,
the eigenvalues are non-degenerate.
Group Theory
Note: Problems marked with an asterisk are for Rapid Feedback.
1.
Show that, by requiring the existence of an identity in a group G, it is sucient to require

only a left identity, ea = a, or only a right identity ae = a, for every element a in G,
since these two quantities must be equal.
2.
Similarly, show that it is sucient to require only a left inverse, a

1
a = e, or only a right
inverse aa
1
= e, for every element a in G, since these two quantities must also be equal.
3. Show that for any group G, (ab)
1
= b
1
a
1
.
4.
For the elements g

1
, g
2
, . . . , g
n
of a group, determine the inverse of the n-fold product
g
1
g
2
g
n
.
5.
Show that a group is Abelian if and only if (ab)

1
= a
1
b
1
. You need to show that
this condition is both necessary and sucient for the group to be Abelian.
6. By explicit construction of multiplication tables, show that there are two distinct struc-
tures for groups of order 4. Are either of these groups Abelian?
7.
Consider the group of order 3 discussed in Section 2.4. Suppose we regard the rows of
the multiplication table as individual permutations of the elements {e, a, b} of this group.
We label the permutations
g
by the group element corresponding to that row:
e
=
e a b
e a b
,
a
=
e a b
a b e
,
b
=
e a b
b e a
(a) Show that, under the composition law for permutations discussed in Section 2.3,
the multiplication table of the 3-element group is preserved by this association, e.g.,
b
=
e
.
(b) Show that for every element g in {e, a, b},
g
=
e a b
g ga gb
Hence, show that the

g
have the same multiplication table as the 3-element group.
(c) Determine the relationship between this group and S
3
. This is an example of Cayleys
theorem.
(d) To which of the operations on an equilateral triangle in Fig. 2.1 do these group
elements correspond?
Group Theory
Solutions to Problem Set 2 October 26, 2001
1. Suppose that e is the right identity of a group G,
ge = g (1)
for all g in G, and that e
is the left identity,

e
g = g (2)
for all g in G. The choice g = e
in the rst of these equations

and g = e in the second, yields
e
e = e
(3)
and
e
e = e (4)
respectively. These equations imply that
e
= e (5)
so the left and right identities are equal. Hence, we need specify
only the left or right identity in a group in the knowledge that
this is the identity of the group.
2. Suppose that a is the right inverse of any element g in a group G,
ga = e (6)
and a
is the left inverse of g,

a
g = e (7)
Multiplying the rst of these equations from the left by a
and
invoking the second equation yields
a
= a
(ga) = (a
g)a = a (8)
2
so the left and right inverses of an element are equal. The same
result could have been obtained by multiplying the second equa-
tion from the right by a and invoking the rst equation.
3. To show that for any group G, (ab)
1
= b
1
a
1
, we begin with
the properties of the inverse. We must have that
(ab)(ab)
1
= e
Left-multiplying both sides of this equation rst by a
1
and then
by b
1
yields
(ab)
1
= b
1
a
1
4. For elements g
1
, g
2
, . . . , g
n
of a group G, we require the inverse of
the n-fold product g
1
g
2
g
n
. We proceed as in Problem 2 using
the denition of the inverse to write
(g
1
g
2
g
n
)(g
1
g
2
g
n
)
1
= e
We now follow the same procedure as in Problem 2 and left-
multiply both sides of this equation in turn by g
1
1
, g
1
2
, . . . , g
1
n
to obtain
(g
1
g
2
g
n
)
1
= g
1
n
g
1
2
g
1
1
5. We must prove two statements here: that for an Abelian group
G, (ab)
1
= a
1
b
1
, for all a and b in G, and that this equality
implies that G is Abelian. If G is Abelian, then using the result
3
of Problem 3 and the commutativity of the composition law, we
nd
(ab)
1
= b
1
a
1
= a
1
b
1
Now, suppose that there is a group G (which we must not assume
is Abelian, such that
(ab)
1
= a
1
b
1
for all a and b in G. We now right multiply both sides of this
equation rst by b and then by a to obtain
(ab)
1
ba = e
Then, left-multiplying both sides of this equation by (ab) yields
ba = ab
so G is Abelian. Hence, we have shown that G is an Abelian
group if and only if, for elements a and b in G, (ab)
1
= a
1
b
1
.
6. To construct the multiplication table of a four-element group
{e, a, b, c} we proceed as in Section 2.4 of the course notes. The
properties of the unit of the group enable us to make the following
entries into the multiplication table:
e a b c
e e a b c
a a
b b
c c
We now consider the product aa. This cannot equal a, since that
would imply that a = e, but it can equal any of the other el-
ements, including the identity. However, this leads only to two
distinct choices for the product, since the apparent dierence be-
tween aa = b and aa = c disappears under the interchange of the
4
e a b c
e e a b c
a a e
b b
c c
e a b c
e e a b c
a a b
b b
c c
(1)
labelling of b and c. Thus, at this stage, we have two distinct
structures for the multiplication table:
We now determine the remaining entries for these two groups.
For the table on the left, we consider the product ab. From the
Rearrangement Theorem, this cannot equal a or or e, nor can it
equal b (since that would imply a = e). Therefore, ab = c, from
which it follows that ac = b. According to the Rearrangement
Theorem, the multiplication table becomes
e a b c
e e a b c
a a e c b
b b c
c c b
(2)
For the remaining entries of this table, we observe that b
2
= a
and b
2
= e are equally valid assignments. These leads to two
multiplication tables:
e a b c
e e a b c
a a e c b
b b c e a
c c b a e
e a b c
e e a b c
a a e c b
b b c a e
c c b e a
(3)
Note that these tables are distinct in that there is no relabelling
of the elements which transforms one into the other.
We now return to the other multiplication table on the right in
(1). The Rearrangement Theorem requires that the second row
must be completed as follows:
5
e a b c
e e a b c
a a b c e
b b c
c c e
(4)
Again invoking the Rearrangement Theorem, we must have that
this multiplication table can be completed only as:
e a b c
e e a b c
a a b c e
b b c e a
c c e a b
(5)
Notice that all of the multiplication tables in (3) and (5) are
Abelian and that the table in (5) is cyclic, i.e., all of the group
elements can be obtained by taking successive products of any
non-unit element.
We now appear to have three distinct multiplication tables for
groups of order 4: the two tables in (3) and the one in (5). How-
ever, if we reorder the elements in the second table in (3) to
{e, b, a, c} and reassemble the multiplication table (using the same
products), we obtain
e b a c
e e b a c
c b a c e
b a c e b
a c e b a
(6)
which, under the relabelling a b and b a, is identical to (5).
Hence, there are only two distinct structures of groups with four
elements:
6
e a b c
e e a b c
a a e c b
b b c e a
c c b a e
e a b c
e e a b c
a a b c e
b b c e a
c c e a b
(7)
7. (a) All of the products involving the identity are self-evident. The
only products that must be calculated explicitly are a
2
, ab, ba,
and b
2
. These are given by
a
=
e a b
a b e
e a b
a b e
e a b
b e a
=
b
b
=
e a b
a b e
e a b
b e a
e a b
e a b
=
e
a
=
e a b
b e a
e a b
a b e
e a b
e a b
=
e
b
=
e a b
b e a
e a b
b e a
e a b
a b e
=
a
Thus, the association g
g
, for g = e, a, b preserves the prod-
ucts of the three-element group.
(b) With the construction
g
=
e a b
g ga gb
(9)
for g = e, a, b, we can use the rows of the multiplication table on
p. 19 to obtain
e
=
e a b
ee ea eb
e a b
e a b
a
=
e a b
ae aa ab
e a b
a b e
b
=
e a b
be ba bb
e a b
b e a
(10)
Thus, the association g
g
is one-to-one and preserves the
products of the 3-element group. Hence, these groups are equiv-
alent.
(c) The elements of the three-element group correspond to the
cyclic permutations of S
3
. In other words, given a reference order
{a, b, c}, the cyclic permutations are a b, b c, and c a,
yielding {b, c, a}, and then b c, c a, and a b, yielding
{c, a, b}.
(d) These elements correspond to the rotations of an equilateral
triangle, i.e., the elements {e, d, f} in Fig. 2.1.
Group Theory
1.
List all of the subgroups of any group whose order is a prime number.
2.
Show that a group whose order is a prime number is necessarily cyclic, i.e., all of the
elements can be generated from the powers of any non-unit element.
3. Suppose that, for a group G, |G| = pq, where p and q are both prime. Show that every
proper subgroup of G is cyclic.
4.
Let g be an element of a nite group G. Show that g

|G|
= e.
5. In a quotient group G/H, which set always corresponds to the unit element?
6. Show that, for an Abelian group, every element is in a class by itself.
7. Show that every subgroup with index 2 is self-conjugate.
Hint: The conjugating element is either in the subgroup or not. Consider the two cases
separately.
8.
Consider the following cyclic group of order 4, G = {a, a

2
, a
3
, a
4
= e} (cf. Problem 6,
Problem Set 2). Show, by direct multiplication or otherwise, that the subgroup H =
{e, a
2
} is self-conjugate and identify the elements in the factor group G/H.
9.
Suppose that there is an isomorphism from a group G onto a group G
. Show that the

identity e of G is mapped onto the identity e
of G
: e
= (e).
Hint: Use the fact that e = ee must be preserved by and that (g) = e
(g) for all g

in G.
Group Theory
Solutions to Problem Set 3 November 2, 2001
1. According to Lagranges theorem, the order of a subgroup H of
a group G must be a divisor of |G|. Since the divisors of a prime
number are only the number itself and unity, the subgroups of
a group of prime order must be either the unit element alone,
H = {e}, or the group G itself, H = G, both of which are im-
proper subgroups. Therefore, a group of prime order has no proper
subgroups.
2. From a group G of prime order, select any element g, which is
not the unit element, and form its period:
g, g
2
, g
3
, . . . , g
n
= e ,
where n is the order of g (Sec. 2.4). The period must include
every element in G, because otherwise we would have constructed
a subgroup whose order is neither unity nor |G|. This contradicts
the conclusion of Problem 1. Hence, a group of prime order is
necessarily cyclic (but a cyclic group need not necessarily be of
prime order).
3. For a group G with |G| = pq, where p and q are both prime, we
know from Lagranges theorem that the only proper subgroups
have order p and q. Since these subgroups are of prime order, the
conclusion of Problem 2 requires these subgroups to be cyclic.
4. Since the period of an element g of a group G forms a subgroup of
G (this is straightforward to verify), Lagranges theorem requires
that |g| must be a divisor of |G|, i.e., G = k|g| for some integer
k. Hence,
g
|G|
= g
k|g|
= (g
|g|
)
k
= e
k
= e .
2
5. The identity e of a group G has the property that for every el-
ement g in G, ag = ge = g. We also have that dierent cosets
either have no common elements or have only common elements.
Thus, in the factor group G/H of G generated by a subgroup H,
the set which contains the unit element corresponds to the unit
element of the factor group, since
{e, h
1
, h
2
, . . .}{a, b, c, . . .} = {a, b, c, . . .} .
6. The class of an element a in a group G is dened as the set of
elements gag
1
for all elements g in G. If G is Abelian, then we
have
gag
1
= gg
1
a = a
for all g in G. Hence, in an Abelian group, every element is in a
class by itself.
7. Let H be a subgroup of a group of G of index 2, i.e., H has
two left cosets and two right cosets. If H is self-conjugate, then
gHg
1
= H for any g in G. Therefore, to show that H is self-
conjugate, we must show that gH = Hg for any g in G, i.e., that
the left and right cosets are the same. Since H has index 2, and
H is itself a right coset, all of the elements in Hg must either be
in H or in the other coset of H, which we will call A. There two
possibilities: either g is in H or g is not in H. If g is an element
of H, then, according to the Rearrangement Theorem,
Hg = gH = H .
If g is not in H, then it is in A, which is a right coset of H. Two
(left or right) cosets of a subgroup have either all elements in
common or no elements in common. Thus, since the unit element
3
must be contained in H, the set Hg will contain g which, by
hypothesis, is in A. We conclude that
Hg = gH = A.
Therefore,
Hg = gH
for all g in G and H is, therefore, a self-conjugate subgroup.
8. The subgroup H = {e, a
2
} of the group G = {e, a, a
2
, a
3
, a
4
= e}
has index 2. Therefore, according to Problem 7, H must be self-
conjugate. Therefore, the elements of the factor group G/H are
the subgroup H, which corresponds to the unit element, so we call
it E, and the set consisting of the elements A = {a, a
3
}: G/H =
{E, A}.
9. Let be an isomorphism between a group G and a group G
,
i.e. is a one-to-one mapping between all the elements g of G
and g
of G
. From the group properties we have that the identity

e of G must obey the relation
e = ee .
Since preserves all products, this relation must in particular be
preserved by :
(e) = (e)(e) .
The group properties require that, for any element g of G,
(g) = e
(g) ,
where e
is the identity of G
. Setting g = e and comparing with

the preceding equation yields the equality
(e)(e) = e
(e) ,
4
which, by cancellation, implies
e
= (e) .
Thus, an isomorphism maps the identity in G onto the identity
in G
.
Group Theory
1.
Given a set of matrices D(g) that form a representation a group G, show that the matrices
which are obtainable by a similarity transformation UD(g)U
1
are also a representation
of G.
2.
Show that the trace of three matrices A, B, and C satises the following relation:
tr(ABC) = tr(CAB) = tr(BCA)
3. Generalize the result in Problem 4 to show that the trace of an n-fold product of matrices
is invariant under cyclic permutations of the product.
4.
Show that the trace of an arbitrary matrix A is invariant under a similarity transformation
UAU
1
.
5. Consider the following representation of S
3
:
e =
1 0
0 1
, a =
1
2
3 1
, b =
1
2
1

3
3 1
c =
1 0
0 1
, d =
1
2
3 1
, f =
1
2
1

3
3 1
How can these matrices be permuted to provide an equally faithful representation of S

3
?
Relate your result to the class identied with each element.
6.
Consider the planar symmetry operations of an equilateral triangle. Using the matrices
in Example 3.2 determined from transformations of the coordinates in Fig. 3.1, construct
a three-dimensional representation of S
3
in the (x, y, z) coordinate system, where the z-
axis emanates from the geometric center of the triangle. Is this representation reducible
or irreducible? If it is reducible determine the irreducible representations which form the
direct sum of this representation.
7. Show that two matrices are simultaneously diagonalizable if and only if they commute.
Hint: Two matrices A and B are simultaneously diagonalizable if the same similarity
transformation brings both matrices into a form where they have only diagonal entries.
Proving that simultaneous diagonalizability implies commutativity is straightforward. To
prove the converse, suppose that there is a similarity transformation which brings one
of the matrices into diagonal form. By writing out the matrix elements of the products
and using the fact that A and B commute, show that the same similarity transformation
must also diagonalize the other matrix.
8.
What does the result of Problem 7 imply about the dimensionalities of the irreducible
representations of Abelian groups?
9.
Verify that the matrices

e =
1 0
0 1
, a =
1
2
1

3
3 1
form a representation for the two-element group {e, a}. Is this representation reducible
or irreducible? If it is reducible determine the one-dimensional representations which
form the direct sum of this representation.
10.
Prove the relations in Eqns (3.9) and (3.11).

Group Theory
1. Let D
(g) = UD(g)U
1
, where D(g) is a representation of a group
G with elements g. To show that D
(g) is also a representation of

G, it is sucient to show that this representation preserves the
multiplication table of G. Thus, let a and b be any two elements
of G with matrix representations D(a) and D(b). The product ab
is represented by
D(ab) = D(a)D(b) .
Therefore,
D
(ab) = UD(ab)U
1
= UD(a)D(b)U
1
= UD(a)U
1
UD(b)U
= D
(a)D
(b) ,
so multiplication is preserved and D
(g) is therefore also a repre-

sentation of G.
2. The trace of a matrix is the sum of its diagonal elements. There-
fore, the trace of the product of three matrices A, B, and C is
given by
tr(ABC) =
ijk
A
ij
B
jk
C
ki
.
By using the fact that i, j, and k are dummy summation indices
with the same range, this sum can be written in the equivalent
forms
ijk
A
ij
B
jk
C
ki
=
ijk
C
ki
A
ij
B
jk
=
ijk
B
jk
C
ki
A
ij
.
2
But the second and third of these are
ijk
C
ki
A
ij
B
jk
= tr(CAB)
and
ijk
B
jk
C
ki
A
ij
= tr(BCA) ,
respectively. Thus, we obtain the relation
tr(ABC) = tr(CAB) = tr(BCA) .
3. The trace of an n-fold product, A
1
A
2
A
n
is
tr(A
1
A
2
A
n
) =
i
1
,i
2
,...i
n
(A
1
)
i
1
i
2
(A
2
)
i
2
i
3
(A
n
)
i
n
i
1
.
Proceeding as in Problem 2, we observe that the i
k
(k = 1, . . . , n)
are dummy summation indices all of which have the same range.
Thus, any cyclic permutation of the matrices in the product leaves
the sum and, hence, the trace invariant.
4. From Problem 2, we have that
tr(UAU
1
) = tr(U
1
UA) = tr(A) ,
so a similarity transformation leaves the trace of a matrix invari-
ant.
3
5. Given a faithful representation of a group, similarity transfor-
mations of the matrices provide equally faithful representations.
Since we wish to obtain permutations of a particular matrix repre-
sentation, we base our similarity transformations on the non-unit
elements in the group. Thus, consider the following similarity
transformations:
a{e, a, b, c, d, f}a
1
= {e, a, c, b, f, d} ,
b{e, a, b, c, d, f}b
1
= {e, c, b, a, f, d} ,
c{e, a, b, c, d, f}c
1
= {e, b, a, c, f, d} , (1)
d{e, a, b, c, d, f}d
1
= {e, b, c, a, d, f} ,
e{e, a, b, c, d, f}e
1
= {e, c, a, b, d, f} .
Thus, the following permutations of the elements {e, a, b, c, d, f}
provide equally faithful representations:
{e, a, c, b, f, d} , {e, c, b, a, f, d} ,
{e, b, a, c, f, d} , {e, b, c, a, d, f} ,
{e, c, a, b, d, f} .
Notice that only elements within the same class can be permuted.
For S
3
, the classes are {e}, {a, b, c}, {d, f}.
6. In the basis (x, y, z) where x and y are given in Fig. 3.1 and the
z-axis emanates from the origin of this coordinate system (the
geometric center of the triangle), all of the symmetry operations of
the equilateral triangle leave the z-axis invariant. This is because
the z-axis is either an axis of rotation (for operations d and f) or
lies within the reection plane (for operations a, b, and c). Hence,
4
the matrices of these operations are given by
e =
1 0 0
0 1 0
0 0 1
, a =
1
2
3 0
3 1 0
0 0 2
,
b =
1
2
3 0
3 1 0
0 0 2
, c =
1 0 0
0 1 0
0 0 1
,
d =
1
2
3 0
3 1 0
0 0 2
, f =
1
2
3 0
3 1 0
0 0 2
.
This representation is seen to be reducible and that it is the direct
sum of the representation in Example 3.2 (which, as discussed in
Example 3.4, is irreducible) and the identical representation.
7. We must show (i) that two matrices which are simultaneously di-
agonalizable commute and (ii) that two matrices which commute
are simultaneously diagonalizable. Showing (i) is straightforward.
For two d d matrices A and B which are simultaneously diago-
nalizable, there is a matrix U such that
UAU
1
= D
A
and UBU
1
= D
B
,
where D
A
and D
B
are diagonal forms of these matrices. Clearly,
therefore, we have that
D
A
D
B
= D
B
D
A
.
Hence, transforming back to the original basis,
(U
1
D
A
U)

A
(U
1
D
B
U)

B
= (U
1
D
B
U)

B
(U
1
D
A
U)

A
,
5
so A and B commute.
Now suppose that A and B commute and there is a transforma-
tion that brings one of these matrices, say A, into the diagonal
form D
A
:
UAU
1
= D
A
.
Then, with
UBU
1
= B
,
the commutation relation AB = BA transforms to
D
A
B
= B
D
A
.
The (i, j)th matrix element of these products is
(D
A
B
)
ij
=
k
(D
A
)
ik
(B
)
kj
= (D
A
)
ii
(B
)
ij
= (B
D
A
)
ij
=
k
(B
)
ik
(D
A
)
kj
= (B
)
ij
(D
A
)
jj
.
After a simple rearrangement, we have
(B
)
ij
[(D
A
)
ii
(D
A
)
jj
] = 0 .
There are three cases to consider:
Case I. All of the diagonal entries of D
A
are distinct. Then,
(D
A
)
ii
(D
A
)
jj
= 0 if i = j ,
so all of the o-diagonal matrix elements of B
vanish, i.e., B
is a
diagonal matrix. Thus, the same similarity transformation which
diagonalizes A also diagonalizes B.
Case II. All of the diagonal entries of D
A
are the same. In this
case D
A
is proportional to the unit matrix, D
A
= cI, for some
complex constant c. Hence, this matrix is always diagonal,
U(cI)U
1
= cI
6
and, in particular, it is diagonal when B is diagonal.
Case III. Some of the diagonal entries are the same and some
are distinct. If we arrange the elements of D
A
such that the rst
p elements are the same, (D
A
)
11
= (D
A
)
22
= = (D
A
)
pp
, then
D
A
has the general form
D
A
=
cI
p
0
0 D
,
where I
p
is the p p unit matrix and c is a complex constant.
From Cases I and II, we deduce that B must be of the form
B =
B
p
0
0 D
,
where B
p
is some p p matrix and D
B
is a diagonal matrix. Let
V
p
be the matrix which diagonalizes B:
V
p
B
p
V
1
p
= D
B
.
Then the matrix
V =
V
p
0
0 I
dp
diagonalizes B while leaving D

A
unchanged. Here, I
dp
is the
(d p) (d p) unit matrix.
Hence, in all three cases, we have shown that the same transfor-
mation which diagonalizes A also diagonalizes B.
8. The matrices of any representation {A
1
, A
2
, . . . , A
n
} of an Abelian
group G commute:
A
i
A
j
= A
j
A
i
7
for all i and j. Hence, according to Problem 7, these matrices can
all be simultaneously diagonalized. Since this is true of all repre-
sentations of G, we conclude that all irreducible representations of
Abelian groups are one-dimensional, i.e., they are numbers with
ordinary multiplication as the composition law.
9. To verify that the matrices
e =
1 0
0 1
, a =
1
2
3 1
(2)
form a representation for the two-element group {e, a}, we need
to demonstrate that the multiplication table for this group,
e a
e e a
a a e
is fullled by these matrices. The products e
2
= e, ea = a, and
ae = a can be veried by inspection. The product a
2
is
a
2
=
1
4
3 1
3 1
1 0
0 1
= e ,
so the matrices in (2) form a representation of the two-element
group.
Since these matrices commute, they can be diagonalized simulta-
neously (Problem 7). Since the matrix is the unit matrix, we can
determine the diagonal form of a, simply by nding its eigenval-
ues. The characteristic equation of a is
det(a I) =
1
2

1
2
3
1
2
3
1
2

= (
1
2
)(
1
2
+ )
3
4
=
2
1 .
8
which yields = 1. Therefore, diagonal form of a is
a =
1 0
0 1
, (3)
so this representation is the direct sum of the identical represen-
tation {1, 1}, and the parity representation {1, 1}. Note that,
according to Problem 8, every representation of the two-element
group with dimensionality greater than two must be reducible.
10. The relations in (3.9) and (3.11) can be proven simultaneously,
since they dier only by complex conjugation, which preserves the
order of matrices. The (i, j)th matrix element of n-fold product
of matrices A
1
, A
2
, . . . , A
n
is
(A
1
A
2
A
n
)
ij
=
k
1
,k
2
,...,k
n1
(A
1
)
ik
1
(A
2
)
k
1
k
2
(A
n
)
k
n1
j
.
The corresponding matrix element of the transpose of this prod-
uct is
[(A
1
A
2
A
n
)
t
]
ij
= (A
1
A
2
A
n
)
ji
.
Thus, since the k
i
are dummy indices,
[(A
1
A
2
A
n
)
t
]
ij
=
k
1
,k
2
,...,k
n1
(A
1
)
jk
1
(A
2
)
k
1
k
2
(A
n
)
k
n1
i
=
k
1
,k
2
,...,k
n1
(A
t
1
)
k
1
j
(A
t
2
)
k
2
k
1
(A
t
n
)
ik
n1
=
k
1
,k
2
,...,k
n1
(A
t
n
)
ik
n1
(A
t
n1
)
k
n1
k
n2
(A
t
2
)
k
2
k
1
(A
t
1
)
k
1
j
We conclude that
(A
1
A
2
A
n
)
t
= A
t
n
A
t
n1
A
t
1
9
and, similarly, that
(A
1
A
2
A
n
)
= A
n
A
n1
A
1
Group Theory
Problem Set 5 November 6, 2001
1. In proving Theorem 3.2, we established the relation B
i
B
i
= I. Using the denitions in
that proof, show that this result implies that B
i
B
i
= I as well.
Hint: Show that B
i
B
i
= I implies that

A
i
D

A
i
= D.
2.
Consider the three-element group G = {e, a, b} (Sec. 2.4).

(a) Show that this group is Abelian and cyclic (cf. Problem 2, Problem Set 3).
(b) Consider a one-dimensional representation based on choosing a = z, where z is a
complex number. Show that for this to produce a representation of G, we must
require that z
3
= 1.
(c) Use the result of (b) to obtain three representations of G. Given what you know
about the irreducible representations of Abelian groups (Problem 8, Problem Set
4), are there any other irreducible representations of G?
3.
Generalize the result of Problem 2 to any cylic group of order n.

4.
Use Schurs First Lemma to prove that all the irreducible representations of an Abelian
group are one-dimensional.
5.
Consider the following matrices:

e =
1 0
0 1
, a =
1
2
3 1
, b =
1
2
3 1
c =
1
2
3 1
, d =
1 0
0 1
, f =
1 0
0 1
Verify that these matrices form a representation of S

3
. Use Schurs rst Lemma to
determine if this representation reducible or irreducible. If reducible, determine the
irreducible representations that are obtained from the diagonal form of these matrices.
Group Theory
1. In proving Theorem 3.2, we established that B
i
B
i
= I, where
B
i
= D
1/2

A
i
D
1/2
To show that this result implies that B
i
B
i
= I, we rst use the
denitions of B
i
and B
i
to write
B
i
B
i
= D
1/2

A
i
D
1

A
i
D
1/2
We can nd an expression for D
1
by rst rearranging
B
i
B
i
= D
1/2

A
i
D

A
i
D
1/2
= I
as
A
i
D

A
i
= D
Then, taking the inverse of both sides of this equation yields
D
1
=

A
1
i
D
1

A
1
i
Therefore,
B
i
B
i
= D
1/2

A
i
D
1

A
i
D
1/2
= D
1/2

A
i
(

A
1
i
D
1

A
1
i
)

A
i
D
1/2
= I
2. (a) The multiplication table for the three-element group is shown
below (Sec. 2.4):
2
e a b
e e a b
a a b e
b b e a
We can see immediately that a
2
= b and that ab = ba = a
3
= e,
Thus, the three-element group can be written as {a, a
2
, a
3
= e},
i.e., it is a cyclic group (and, therefore, Abelian).
(b) By choosing a one-dimensional representation a = z, for some
complex number z, the multiplication table requires that a
3
= e,
which means that z
3
= 1.
(c) There are three solutions to z
3
= 1: z = 1, e
2i/3
, ande
4i/3
.
The three irreducible representations are obtained by choosing
a = 1, a = e
2i/3
, and a = e
4i/3
. Denoting these representations
by
1
,
2
, and
3
, we obtain
e a b
1
1 1 1
2
1 e
2i/3
e
4i/3
2
1 e
4i/3
e
2i/3
3. The preceding Problem can be generalized to any cyclic group
of order n. The elements of this group are {g, g
2
, . . . , g
n
= e}.
By writing g = z, we require that z
n
= 1. The solutions to this
equation are the nth roots of unity:
z = e
2mi/n
, m = 0, 1, 2, . . . , n 1
Accordingly, there are n irreducible representations based on the
n choices z = e
2mi/n
together with the requirements of the group
multiplication table.
3
4. Suppose that we have a representation of an Abelian group of
dimensionality d is greater than one. Suppose furthermore that
these matrices are not all unit matrices (for, if they were, the rep-
resentation would already be reducible to the d-fold direct sum of
the identical representation.) Then, since the group is Abelian,
and the representation must reect this fact, any non-unit ma-
trix in the representation commutes with all the other matrices
in the representation. According to Schurs First Lemma, this
renders the representation reducible. Hence, all the irreducible
representations of an Abelian group are one-dimensional.
5. For the following matrices,
e = d = f =
1 0
0 1
, a = b = c =
1
2
3 1
to be a representation of S
3
, their products must preserve the
multiplication table of this group, which was discussed in Sec. 2.4
and is displayed below:
e a b c d f
e e a b c d f
a a e d f b c
b b f e d c a
c c d f e a b
d d c a b f e
f f b c a e d
To determine the multiplication table of this representation, we
use the notation E for the unit matrix, corresponding to the el-
ements e, d, and f, and A for the matrix corresponding to the
elements a, b, and c. Then, by observing that A
2
= E (as is
required by the group multiplication table) the multiplication ta-
ble of this representation is straightforward to calculate, and is
shown below:
4
e a b c d f
e E A A A E E
a A E E E A A
b A E E E A A
c A E E E A A
d E A A A E E
f E A A A E E
If we now take the multiplication table of S
3
and perform the
mapping {e, d, f} E and {a, b, c} A, we get the same table
as that just obtained by calculating the matrix products directly.
Hence, these matrices form a representation of S
3
.
From Schurs First Lemma, we see that the matrix
1
2
3 1
commutes with all the matrices of the representation. Since this

is not a unit matrix, the representation must be reducible.
The diagonal form of these matrices must have entries of one-
dimensional irreducible representations. Two one-dimensional ir-
reducible representations of S
3
(we will see later that these are
the only irreducible representations of S
3
) are (Example 3.2) the
identical representation,
A
e
= 1, A
a
= 1, A
b
= 1,
A
c
= 1, A
d
= 1, A
f
= 1
and the parity representation,
A
e
= 1, A
a
= 1, A
b
= 1,
A
c
= 1, A
d
= 1, A
f
= 1
Since the diagonal forms of the matrices are obtained by perform-
ing a similarity transformation on the original matrices, which
5
preserves the trace, they must take the form
e = d = f =
1 0
0 1
, a = b = c =
1 0
0 1
i.e., this reducible representation contains both the identical and

parity representations.
Group Theory
1.
Verify the Great Orthogonality Theorem for the following irreducible representation of
S
3
:
e =
1 0
0 1
, a =
1
2
3 1
, b =
1
2
1

3
3 1
c =
1 0
0 1
, d =
1
2
1

3
3 1
, f =
1
2
3 1
2.
Does the following representation of the three-element group {e, a, b}:

e =
1 0
0 1
, a =
1
2
1

3
3 1
, b =
1
2
3 1
satisfy the Great Orthogonality Theorem? Explain your answer.

3.
Specialize the Great Orthogonality Theorem to Abelian groups. When viewed as the
components of a vector in a |G|-dimensional space, what does the Great Orthogonal-
ity Theorem state about the relationship between dierent irreducible representations?
What bound does this place on the number of irreducible representations of an Abelian
group?
4.
Consider the irreducible representations of the three-element calculated in Problem 2 of

Problem Set 5.
(a) Verify that the Great Orthogonality Theorem, in the reduced form obtained in
Problem 3, is satised for these representations.
(b) In view of the discussion in Sec. 4.4, would you expect to nd any other irreducible
representations of this group?
(c) Would you expect your answer in (b) to apply to cyclic groups of any order?
5.
Consider any Abelian group. By using the notion of the order of an element (Sec. 2.4),
determine the magnitude of every element in a representation. Is this consistent with the
Great Orthogonality Theorem?
Group Theory
1. The Great Orthogonality Theorem states that, for the matrix
elements of the same irreducible representation {A
1
, A
2
, . . . , A
|G|
}
of a group G,
(A
)
ij
(A
j
=
|G|
d

i,i

j,j
.
Thus, we rst form the vectors V
ij
whose components are the
(i, j)th elements taken from each matrix in the representation in
some xed order. The Great Orthogonality Theorem can then be
expressed more concisely as
V
ij
V
j
=
|G|
d

i,i

j,j
.
For the given representation of S
3
,
e =
1 0
0 1
, a =
1
2
3 1
, b =
1
2
3 1
,
c =
1 0
0 1
, d =
1
2
3 1
, f =
1
2
3 1
,
these vectors are:
V
11
=
1,
1
2
,
1
2
, 1,
1
2
,
1
2
,
V
12
=
0,
1
2
3,
1
2
3, 0,
1
2
3,
1
2
,
V
21
=
0,
1
2
3,
1
2
3, 0,
1
2
3,
1
2
,
V
22
=
1,
1
2
,
1
2
, 1,
1
2
,
1
2
.
2
Note that, since all of the entries are real, complex conjugation is
not required for substitution into the Great Orthogonality Theo-
rem. For i = j and i
= j
, with |G| = 6 and d = 2, we have

V
11
V
11
= 1 +
1
4
+
1
4
+ 1 +
1
4
+
1
4
= 3 ,
V
12
V
12
= 0 +
3
4
+
3
4
+ 0 +
3
4
+
3
4
= 3 ,
V
21
V
21
= 0 +
3
4
+
3
4
+ 0 +
3
4
+
3
4
= 3 .
V
22
V
22
= 1 +
1
4
+
1
4
+ 1 +
1
4
+
1
4
= 3 ,
all of which are in accord with the Great Orthogonality Theorem.
For i = j and/or i
= j
, we have
V
11
V
12
= 0
1
4
3 +
1
4
3 + 0
1
4
3 +
1
4
3 = 0 ,
V
11
V
21
= 0
1
4
3 +
1
4
3 + 0 +
1
4
3
1
4
3 = 0 ,
V
11
V
22
= 1
1
4

1
4
1 +
1
4
+
1
4
= 0 ,
V
12
V
21
= 0 +
3
4
+
3
4
+ 0
3
4

3
4
= 0 ,
V
12
V
22
= 0 +
1
4
3
1
4
3 + 0
1
4
3 +
1
4
3 = 0 ,
V
21
V
22
= 0 +
1
4
3
1
4
3 + 0 +
1
4
3
1
4
3 = 0 ,
which is also in accord with the Great Orthogonality Theorem.
2. For the following two-dimensional representation of the three-
element group,
e =
1 0
0 1
, a =
1
2
3 1
, b =
1
2
3 1
,
we again form the vectors V
ij
whose components are the (i, j)th
elements of each matrix in the representation:
V
11
=
1,
1
2
,
1
2
,
3
V
12
=
0,
1
2
3,
1
2
,
V
21
=
0,
1
2
3,
1
2
,
V
22
=
1,
1
2
,
1
2
.
Calculating the summation in the Great Orthogonality Theorem,
rst with i = j and i
= j
, we have
V
11
V
11
= 1 +
1
4
+
1
4
=
3
2
,
V
12
V
12
= 0 +
3
4
+
3
4
=
3
2
,
V
21
V
12
= 0 +
3
4
+
3
4
=
3
2
,
V
11
V
11
= 1 +
1
4
+
1
4
=
3
2
,
all of which are in accord with the Great Orthogonality Theorem
with |G| = 3 and d = 2. Performing the analogous summations
with i = j and/or i
= j
, yields
V
11
V
12
= 0
1
4
3 +
1
4
3 = 0 ,
V
11
V
21
= 0 +
1
4
3
1
4
3 = 0 ,
V
11
V
22
= 1 +
1
4
+
1
4
=
3
2
,
V
12
V
21
= 0
3
4

3
4
=
3
2
,
V
12
V
22
= 0
1
4
3 +
1
4
3 = 0 ,
V
21
V
22
= 0 +
1
4
3
1
4
3 = 0 ,
which is not consistent with the Great Orthogonality Theorem,
since all of these quantities must vanish. If there is even a single
violation of the Great Orthogonality Theorem, as is the case here,
the representation is necessarily reducible.
4
3. All of the irreducible representations of an Abelian group are one-
dimensional (e.g., Problem 4, Problem Set 5). Hence, for Abelian
groups, the Great Orthogonality Theorem reduces to
A
k
A
k
= |G|
k,k
.
If we view the irreducible representations as |G|-dimensional vec-
tors A
k
with entries A
k
,
A
k
= (A
k
1
, A
k
2
, . . . A
k
|G|
) ,
then the Great Orthogonality Theorem can be written as a dot
product:
A
k
A
k
= |G|
k,k
.
This states that the irreducible representations of an Abelian
group are orthogonal vectors in this |G|-dimensional space. Since
there can be at most |G| such vectors, the number of irreducible
representations of an Abelian group is less than or equal to the
order of the group.
4. (a) From Problem 2 of Problem Set 5, the irreducible representa-
tions of the three element group are:
e a b
1
1 1 1
2
1 e
2i/3
e
4i/3
2
1 e
4i/3
e
2i/3
In the notation of Problem 3, we have
A
1
= (1, 1, 1), A
2
= (1, e
2i/3
, e
4i/3
), A
3
= (1, e
4i/3
, e
2i/3
) .
Note that some of these entries are complex. Thus, the distinct
inner products between these vectors are
A
1
A
1
= 1 + 1 + 1 = 3 ,
5
A
2
A
2
= 1 + 1 + 1 = 3 ,
A
3
A
3
= 1 + 1 + 1 = 3 ,
A
1
A
2
= 1 + e
2i/3
+ e
4i/3
= 0 ,
A
1
A
3
= 1 + e
4i/3
+ e
2i/3
= 0 ,
A
2
A
3
= 1 + e
2i/3
+ e
2i/3
= 0 ,
all of which are consistent with the Great Orthogonality Theorem.
(b) In view of the fact that there are 3 mutually orthogonal vec-
tors, there can be no additional irreducible representations of this
group.
(c) For cyclic groups of order |G|, we determined that the irre-
ducible representations were based on the |G|th roots of unity
(Problem 3, Problem Set 5). Since this produces |G| distinct irre-
ducible representations, our procedure yields all of the irreducible
representations of any cyclic group.
5. Every irreducible representation of an Abelian group is one-dimen-
sional. Moreover, since every one of these representations is either
a homomorphism or isomorphism of the group, with the operation
in the representation being ordinary multiplication, the identity
always corresponds to unity (Problem 9, Problem Set 3). Now,
the order n of a group element g is the smallest integer for which
g
n
= e .
For every element in any group 1 n |G|. This relationship
must be preserved by the irreducible representation. Thus, if A
k
g
is the entry corresponding to the element g in the kth irreducible
representation, then
(A
k
g
)
n
= 1 ,
6
i.e., A
k
g
is the nth root of unity:
A
k
g
= e
2mi/n
, m = 0, 1, . . . , n 1 .
The modulus of each of these quantities is clearly unity, so the
modulus of every entry in the irreducible representations of an
Abelian group is unity.
This is consistent with the Great Orthogonality Theorem when
applied to a given representation (cf. Problem 3):
A
k
A
k
A
k
2
= |G| . (1)
Group Theory
1.
Identify the 12 symmetry operations of a regular hexagon.

2. Show that elements in the same class of a group must have the same order.
3.
Identify the 6 classes of this group.

Hint: You do not need to compute the conjugacy classes explicitly. Refer to the discus-
sion for the group S
3
in Example 2.9 and use the fact that elements in the same class
have the same order.
4.
How many irreducible representations are there and what are their dimensions?
5.
Construct the character table of this group by following the procedure outlined below:
(a) Enter the characters for the identical and parity representations. As in the case
of S
3
, the characters for the parity representation are either +1 or 1, depending
on whether or not the the operation preserves the handedness of the coordinate
system.
(b) Enter the characters for the coordinate representation obtained from the action
on (x, y) for each group operation. Note that the character is the same for elements
in the same class.
(c) Use the products C
3
C
2
3
= E and C
3
3
= E to identify the characters for all one-
dimensional irreducible representations for the appropriate classes. The meaning
of the notation C
m
n
for rotations is discussed in Section 5.4.
(d) Use the result of (c) and the products C
6
C
3
= C
2
to deduce that the characters
for the class of C
6
and those for the class of C
2
are the same. Then, use the
orthogonality of the columns of the character table to compute these characters.
(e) Use the appropriate orthogonality relations for characters to compute the remaining
entries of the character table.
Group Theory
1. A regular hexagon is shown below:
1
2
3 4
5
6
The following notation will be used for the symmetry operations
of this hexagon:
1 2 3 4 5 6
a
1
a
2
a
3
a
4
a
5
a
6
,
where the rst row corresponds to the reference order of the ver-
tices shown in the diagram and the a
i
denote the number at the
ith vertex after the transformation of the hexagon.
The symmetry operations of this hexagon consist of the identity,
rotations by angles of
1
3
n radians, where n = 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, three
mirror planes which pass through opposite faces of the hexagon,
and three mirror planes which pass through opposite vertices of
the hexagon. For the identity and the rotations, the eect on the
hexagon is
2
4
5
6 1
2
3 5
6
1 2
3
4 6
1
2 3
4
5
1
2
3 4
5
6 2
3
4 5
6
1 3
4
5 6
1
2
These operations correspond to
E =
1 2 3 4 5 6
1 2 3 4 5 6
,
C
6
=
1 2 3 4 5 6
2 3 4 5 6 1
,
C
2
6
= C
3
=
1 2 3 4 5 6
3 4 5 6 1 2
,
C
3
6
= C
2
=
1 2 3 4 5 6
4 5 6 1 2 3
,
C
4
6
= C
2
3
=
1 2 3 4 5 6
5 6 1 2 3 4
,
C
5
6
=
1 2 3 4 5 6
6 1 2 3 4 5
.
The three mirror planes which pass through opposite faces of the
hexagon are
3
6
5
4 3
2
1 2
1
6 5
4
3 4
3
2 1
6
5
which correspond to
v,1
=
1 2 3 4 5 6
6 5 4 3 2 1
v,2
=
1 2 3 4 5 6
2 1 6 5 4 3
v,3
=
1 2 3 4 5 6
4 3 2 1 6 5
.
Finally, the three mirror planes which pass through opposite ver-
tices of the hexagon are
1
6
5 4
3
2 3
2
1 6
5
4 5
4
3 2
1
6
d,1
=
1 2 3 4 5 6
1 6 5 4 3 2
d,2
=
1 2 3 4 5 6
3 2 1 6 5 4
,
4
d,3
=
1 2 3 4 5 6
5 4 3 2 1 6
.
That these 12 elements do, in fact, form a group is straightforward
to verify. The standard notation for this group is C
6v
.
2. The order n of an element a of a group is dened as the smallest
integer such that a
n
= e. If group elements a and b are in the
same class, then there is an element g in the group such that
b = g
1
ag .
The m-fold product of b is then given by
b
m
= (g
1
ag)(g
1
ag) (g
1
ag)

mfactors
= g
1
a
m
g .
If this is equal to the unit element e, we must have
g
1
a
m
g = e ,
or,
a
m
= e .
The smallest value of m for which this equality can be satised
is, by denition, n, the order of a. Hence, two elements in the
same class have the same order.
3. For two elements a and b of a group to be in the same class,
there must be another group element such that b = g
1
ag. If the
group elements are coordinate transformations, then elements in
the same class correspond to the same type of operation, but in
coordinate systems related by symmetry operations. This fact,
together with the result of Problem 2, allows us to determine the
classes of the group of the hexagon.
5
The identity, as always, is in a class by itself. Although all of the
rotations are the same type of operation, not all of these rotations
have the same orders: C
6
and C
5
6
have order 6, C
3
and C
2
3
have
order 3, and C
2
has order 2. Thus, the 5 rotations belong to three
dierent classes.
The two types of mirror planes,
v,i
and
d,i
, must belong to dier-
ent classes since there is no group operation which will transform
any of the
v,i
to any of the
d,i
. To do so would require a rotation
by an odd multiple of
1
6
, which is not a group element. All of
the
v,i
are in the same class and all of the
d,i
are in the same
class, since each is the same type of operation, but in coordinate
systems related by symmetry operations (one of the rotations)
and, of course, they all have order 2, since each reection plane
is its own inverse.
Hence, there are six classes in this group are
E {E} ,
2C
6
{C
6
, C
5
6
} ,
2C
3
{C
3
, C
2
3
} ,
C
2
{C
2
} ,
3
v
{
v,1
,
v,2
,
v,3
} ,
3
d
{
d,1
,
d,2
,
d,3
} .
4. As there are 6 classes, there are 6 irreducible representations, the
dimensions of which must satisfy the sum rule
6
k=1
d
2
k
= 12 ,
6
since |C
6v
| = 12. The only positive integer solutions of this equa-
tion are
d
1
= 1, d
2
= 1, d
3
= 1, d
4
= 1, d
5
= 2, d
6
= 2 ,
i.e., there are 4 one-dimensional irreducible representations and 2
two-dimensional irreducible representations.
5. (a) For the identical representation, all of the characters are 1.
For the parity representation, the character is 1 for operations
which preserve the parity of the coordinate system (proper ro-
tations) and 1 for operations which change the parity of the
coordinate system (improper rotations). Additionally, we can
enter immediately the column of characters for the class of the
unit element. These are equal to the dimensionality of each ir-
reducible representation, since the unit element is the identity
matrix with that dimensionality. Thus, we have the following
entries for the character table of C
6v
:
C
6v
E 2C
6
2C
3
C
2
3
v
3
d
1
1 1 1 1 1 1
1
1 1 1 1 1 1
1
1
1
1
2
2
2
2
(b) The characters for one of the two-dimensional representations
of C
6v
can be obtained by constructing matrices for operations
in analogy with the procedure discussed in Section 3.2 for the
equilateral triangle. One important dierence here is that we
require such a construction only for one element in each class
(since the all matrices in a given class have the same trace). We
will determine the representations of operations in each class in
an (x, y) coordinate system shown below:
7
x
y
Thus, a rotation by an angle , denoted by R(), is given by the
two-dimensional rotational matrix:
R() =
cos sin
sin cos
.
The corresponding character () is, therefore, simply the sum
of the diagonal elements of this matrix:
() = 2 cos .
We can now calculate the characters for each of the classes com-
posed of rotations:
(2C
6
) = (
1
3
) = 1 ,
(2C
3
) = (
2
3
) = 1 ,
(C
2
) = () = 2 .
For the two classes of mirror planes, we need only determine the
character of one element in each class, which may be chosen at
our convenience. Thus, for example, since the representation of
8
v,1
can be determined directly by inspection:
1 0
0 1
,
we can obtain the character of the corresponding class as
(3
v
) = 0 .
Similarly, the representation of
d,2
can also be determined di-
rectly by inspection:
1 0
0 1
,
which yields the character
(3
d
) = 0 .
We can now add the entries for this two-dimensional irreducible
representations to the character table of C
6v
:
C
6v
E 2C
6
2C
3
C
2
3
v
3
d
1
1 1 1 1 1 1
1
1 1 1 1 1 1
1
1
1
1
2
2 1 1 2 0 0
2
2
(c) The one-dimensional irreducible representations must obey
the multiplication table, since they themselves are representations
of the group. In particular, given the products
C
3
C
2
3
= E, C
3
3
= E ,
if we denote by the character of the class 2C
3
= {C
3
, C
2
3
}, then
these products require that
2
= 1,
3
= 1 ,
9
respectively. Thus, we deduce that = 1 for all of the one-
dimensional irreducible representations. With these additions to
the character table, we have
C
6v
E 2C
6
2C
3
C
2
3
v
3
d
1
1 1 1 1 1 1
1
1 1 1 1 1 1
1
1 1
1
1 1
2
2 1 1 2 0 0
2
2
(d) Since the character for all one-dimensional irreducible rep-
resentations for the class 2C
3
= {C
3
, C
2
3
} is unity, the product
C
6
C
3
= C
2
requires that the characters for the classes of C
6
and
C
2
are the same in these representations. Since C
2
2
= E, this char-
acter must be 1 or 1. Suppose we choose (2C
6
) = (C
2
) = 1.
Then, the orthogonality of the columns of the character table
requires that the character for the classes E and 2C
6
are orthog-
onal. If we denote by the character for the class 2C
6
of the
representation
2
, we require
(1 1) + (1 1) + (1 1) + (1 1) + (2 1) + (2 ) = 0 ,
i.e., = 3. But this value violates the requirement that
|
2
= |G| . (1)
Thus, we must choose (2C
6
) = (C
2
) = 1, and our character
table becomes
C
6v
E 2C
6
2C
3
C
2
3
v
3
d
1
1 1 1 1 1 1
1
1 1 1 1 1 1
1
1 1 1 1
1
1 1 1 1
2
2 1 1 2 0 0
2
2
10
(e) The characters for the classes 2C
6
, 2C
3
, and C
2
of the
2
representation can now be determined by requiring the columns
corresponding to these classes to be orthogonal to the column
corresponding to the class of the identity. When this is done, we
nd that the values obtained saturate the sum rule in (1), so the
characters corresponding to both classes of mirror planes in this
representation must vanish. This enables to complete the entries
for the
2
representation:
C
6v
E 2C
6
2C
3
C
2
3
v
3
d
1
1 1 1 1 1 1
1
1 1 1 1 1 1
1
1 1 1 1
1
1 1 1 1
2
2 1 1 2 0 0
2
2 1 1 2 0 0
The remaining entries are straightforward to calculate. The fact
that each mirror reection has order 2 means that these entries
must be either +1 or 1. The requirement of orthogonality of
columns leaves only one choice:
C
6v
E 2C
6
2C
3
C
2
3
v
3
d
1
1 1 1 1 1 1
1
1 1 1 1 1 1
1
1 1 1 1 1 1
1
1 1 1 1 1 1
2
2 1 1 2 0 0
2
2 1 1 2 0 0
which completes the character table for C
6v
.
Group Theory
1. Show that if two matrices A and B are orthogonal, then their direct product AB is
also an orthogonal matrix.
2. Show that the trace of the direct product of two matrices A and B is the product of
the traces of A and B:
tr(AB) = tr(A) tr(B)
3.
Show that the direct product of groups G

a
and G
b
with elements G
a
= {e, a
2
, . . . , a
|G
a
|
}
and G
b
= {e, b
2
, . . . , b
|G
b
|
}, such that a
i
b
j
= b
j
a
i
for all i and j, is a group. What is
the order of this group?
4.
Use the Great Orthogonality Theorem to show that the direct product of irreducible
representations of two groups is an irreducible representation of the direct product of
those groups.
5.
For an n-fold degenerate set of eigenfunctions

i
, i, 1, 2, . . . , n, we showed show that
the matrices (R
) generated by the group of the Hamiltonian,

R
i
=
n
j=1
ji
(R
)
form a representation of that group. Show that if the
j
are chosen to be an orthonormal
set of functions, then this representation is unitary.
6.
The set of distinct functions obtained from a given function

i
by operations in the
group of the Hamiltonian,
j
= R
i
, are called partners. Use the Great Orthogonality
Theorem to show that two functions which belong to dierent irreducible representa-
tions or are dierent partners in the same unitary representation are orthogonal.
7. Consider a particle of mass m conned to a square in two dimensions whose vertices
are located at (1, 1), (1, 1), (1, 1), and (1, 1). The potential is taken to be zero
within the square and innite at the edges of the square. The eigenfunctions are of
the form
p,q
(x, y)
cos(k
p
x)
sin(k
p
x)
cos(k
q
y)
sin(k
q
y)
where k
p
=
1
2
p, k
q
=
1
2
q, and p and q are positive integers. The notation above
means that cos(k
p
x) is taken if p is odd, sin(k
p
x) is taken if p is even, and similarly for
the other factor. The corresponding eigenvalues are
E
p,q
=
h
2
2
8m
(p
2
+ q
2
)
(a) Determine the eight planar symmetry operations of a square. These operations form
the group of the Hamiltonian for this problem. Assemble the symmetry operations
into equivalence classes.
(b) Determine the number of irreducible representations and their dimensions for this
group. Do these dimensions appear to be broadly consistent with the degeneracies
of the energy eigenvalues?
(c) Determine the action of each group operation on (x, y).
Hint: This can be done by inspection.
(d) Determine the characters corresponding to the identical, parity, and coordinate
representations. Using appropriate orthogonality relations, complete the character
table for this group.
(e) For which irreducible representations do the eigenfunctions
1,1
(x, y) and
2,2
(x, y)
form bases?
(f) For which irreducible transformation do the eigenfunctions
1,2
(x, y) and
2,1
(x, y)
form a basis?
(g) What is the degeneracy corresponding to (p = 6, q = 7) and (p = 2, q = 9)? Is this
a normal or accidental degeneracy?
(h) Are there eigenfunctions which form a basis for each of the irreducible representa-
tions of this group?
8.
Consider the regular hexagon in Problem Set 7. Suppose there is a vector perturbation,
i.e., a perturbation that transforms as (x, y, z). Determine the selection rule associated
with an initial state that transforms according to the parity representation.
Hint: The reasoning for determining the irreducible representations associated with
(x, y, z) is analogous to that used in Section 6.6.2 for the equilateral triangle.
Group Theory
Solutions to Problem Set 8 December 7, 2001
1. A matrix A is said to be orthogonal if its matrix elements a
ij
satisfy the following relations:
i
a
ij
a
ik
=
j,k
,
j
a
ij
a
kj
=
ij
, (1)
i.e., the rows and columns are orthogonal vectors. This ensures
that A
t
A = AA
t
= I.
The direct product C of two matrices A and B, denoted by C =
A B, is given in terms of matrix elements by
c
ik;jl
= a
ij
a
kl
.
If A and B are orthogonal matrices, then we can show that C is
also an orthogonal matrix by verifying the relations in Eq. (1).
The rst of these relations is
ik
c
ik;jl
c
ik;j
ik
a
ij
a
kl
a
ij
a
kl
=
_
i
a
ij
a
ij
__
k
a
kl
a
kl
_
=
j,j

l,l
,
where the last step follows from the rst of Eqs. (1). The second
orthogonality relation is
jl
c
ik;jl
c
i
;jl
=
jl
a
ij
a
kl
a
i
j
a
k
l
=
_
j
a
ij
a
i
j
__
l
a
kl
a
k
l
_
=
i,i

k,k
where the last step follows from the second of Eqs. (1). Thus, we
have shown that the direct product of two orthogonal matrices is
also an orthogonal matrix.
2
2. The direct product of two matrices A and B with matrix elements
a
ij
and b
ij
is
c
ik,jl
= a
ij
b
kl
.
The trace of the direct product AB is obtained by setting j = i
and l = k and summing over i and k:
tr(A B) =
ik
c
ik,ik
=
ik
a
ii
b
kk
=
i
a
ii
k
b
kk
= tr(A) tr(B) ,
which is the product of the traces of A and B.
3. We have two groups G
a
and G
b
with elements
G
a
= {e
a
, a
2
, a
3
, . . . , a
|G
a
|
}
and
G
b
= {e
b
, b
2
, b
3
, . . . , b
|G
b
|
} ,
such that a
i
b
j
= b
j
a
i
for all i and j. We are using a notation
where it is understood that a
1
= e
a
and b
1
= e
b
. The direct
product G
a
G
b
of these groups is the set obtained by forming
the product of every element of G
a
with every element of G
b
:
G
a
G
b
= {e, a
2
, a
3
, . . . , a
n
a
, b
2
, b
3
, . . . , b
n
b
, . . . , a
i
b
j
, . . .} .
To show that G
a
G
b
is a group, we must demonstrate that these
elements fulll each of the four requirements in Sec. 2.1.
Closure. The product of two elements a
i
b
j
and a
i
b
j
is given by
(a
i
b
j
)(a
i
b
j
) = (a
i
a
i
)(b
j
b
j
) = a
k
b
l
,
where the rst step follows from the commutativity of elements
between the two groups and the second step from the group prop-
erty of G
a
and G
b
.
3
Associativity. The associativity of the composition law follows
from
(a
i
b
i
a
j
b
j
)a
k
b
k
=
_
(a
i
a
j
)a
k
__
(b
i
b
j
)b
k
_
=
_
a
i
(a
j
a
k
)
__
b
i
(b
j
b
k
)
_
= a
i
b
i
(a
j
b
j
a
k
b
k
) ,
since associativity holds for G
a
and G
b
separately.
Unit Element. The unit element e for the direct product group is
e
a
e
b
= e
b
e
a
, since
(a
i
b
j
)(e
a
e
b
) = (a
i
e
a
)(b
j
e
b
) = (e
a
a
i
)(e
b
b
j
) = (e
a
e
b
)(a
i
b
j
) .
Inverse. Finally, the inverse of each element a
i
b
j
is a
1
i
b
1
j
because
(a
i
b
j
)(a
1
i
b
1
j
) = (a
i
a
1
i
)(b
j
b
1
j
) = e
a
e
b
and
(a
1
i
b
1
j
)(a
i
b
j
) = (a
1
i
a
i
)(b
1
j
b
j
) = e
a
e
b
.
Thus, we have shown that the direct product of two groups is
itself a group. Since the elements of this group are obtained by
taking all products of elements from G
a
and G
b
, the order of this
group is |G
a
||G
b
|.
4. Suppose we have an irreducible representation for each of two
groups G
a
and G
b
. We denote these representations, which may
be of dierent dimensions, by A(a
i
) and A(b
j
), and their matrix
elements by A(a
i
)
ij
and A(b
j
)
ij
. Since these representations are
irreducible, they satisfy the Great Orthogonality Theorem:
a
i
A(a
i
)
ij
A(a
i
)
i
j
=
|G
a
|
d
a
i,i

j,j
,
b
j
A(b
j
)
ij
A(b
j
)
i
j
=
|G
b
|
d
b
i,i

j,j
,
4
where d
a
and d
b
are the dimensions of the irreducible representa-
tions of G
a
and G
b
, respectively. A representation of the direct
product of two groups, denoted by A(a
i
b
j
), is obtained from the
direct product of representations of each group:
A(a
i
b
j
)
ik;jl
= A(a
i
)
ij
A(b
j
)
kl
.
The sum in the Great Orthogonality Theorem for the direct prod-
uct representation is
a
i
b
j
A(a
i
b
j
)
ik;jl
A(a
i
b
j
)
i
;j
a
i
b
j
A(a
i
)
ij
A(b
j
)
kl
A(a
i
)
i
j
A(b
j
)
k
=
_
a
i
A(a
i
)
ij
A(a
i
)
i
_
. .
|G
a
|
d
a
i,i

j,j
b
j
A(b
j
)
kl
A(b
j
)
k
_
. .
|G
b
|
d
b
k,k

l,l
=
_
|G
a
||G
b
|
d
a
d
b
_
i,i

k,k

j,j

l,l
.
This shows that this direct product representation is, in fact,
irreducible. It has dimensionality d
a
d
b
and the order of the direct
product is, of course, |G
a
| |G
b
|.
5. If the
i
are orthonormal, and if this property is required to be
preserved by the group of the Hamiltonian (as it must, to conserve
probability), then, in Dirac notation, we have
(i, j)
_

i
(x)
j
(x) dx =
_
[R
i
(x)]
R
j
(x) dx
= (i|R
R|j) =
i,j
.
5
Therefore,
(i|R
R|j) =
k,l
(k, l)(R)
ki
(R)
lj
=
k
(R)
ki
(R)
kj
=
k
_
(R)
_
ik
(R)
kj
=
_
(R)
(R)
_
ij
,
i.e., when written in matrix notation,
(R)
(R) = I .
Thus, the matrix representation is unitary.
6. We again use Dirac notation to signify basis functions
i
and
j
corresponding to irreducible representations n and n
, respec-
tively: |n, i) and |n
, j). Then, the operations R in the group of

the Hamiltonian applied to these functions yield
R|n, i) =
(n)
(R)
ki
|n, k) ,
R|n
, j) =
(n
)
(R)
lj
|n
, l) .
Since the operators and their representations are unitary,
(n
, j|R
= (n
, j|R
1
=
(n
)
(R)
lj
(n
, l| ,
we have
(n
, j|R
1
R|n, i) = (n
, j|n, i)
=
kl
(n
)
(R)
kj
(n)
(R)
li
(n
, k|n, l) .
6
If we now sum both sides of this equation over the elements of
the group of the Hamiltonian, and invoke the Great Orthogonality
Theorem, we obtain
R
(n
, j|n, i) = |G|(n
, j|n, i)
=
kl
_
(n
)
(R)
kj
(n)
(R)
li
_
. .
|G|
d
n
n,n

k,l
i,j
(n
, k|n, l)
= |G|
n,n

i,j
(n
, k|n, k) ,
where |G| is the order of the group of the Hamiltonian and d
n
is
the dimension of the nth irreducible representation. Therefore,
(n
, j|n, i) =
n,n

i,j
,
since (n, k|n, k) = 1.
7. (a) A square is shown below:
1
2 3
4
In analogy with the procedure described in Problem Set 7, we
will use the following notation for the symmetry operations of
7
this hexagon:
_
1 2 3 4
a
1
a
2
a
3
a
4
_
,
where the a
i
denote the number at the ith vertex after the trans-
formation of the hexagon given in the indicated reference order.
Thus, the identity operation, which identies the reference order
of the vertices, corresponds to
_
1 2 3 4
1 2 3 4
_
.
The symmetry operations on this square consist of the identity,
rotations by angles of
1
2
n radians, for n = 1, 2, 3, two mirror
planes which pass through opposite faces of the square, and two
mirror planes which pass through opposite vertices of the square.
For the rotations, the eect on the square is
4
1 2
3 3
4 1
2 2
3 4
1
C
4
=
_
1 2 3 4
4 1 2 3
_
,
C
2
4
= C
2
=
_
1 2 3 4
3 4 1 2
_
,
C
3
4
=
_
1 2 3 4
2 3 4 1
_
.
8
The two mirror planes which pass through opposite faces of the
square are
4
3 2
1 2
1 4
3
which correspond to
v,1
=
_
1 2 3 4
4 3 2 1
_
,
v,2
=
_
1 2 3 4
2 1 4 3
_
.
Finally, the two mirror planes which pass through opposite ver-
tices of the square are
1
4 3
2 3
2 1
4
v,1
=
_
1 2 3 4
1 4 3 2
_
,
v,2
=
_
1 2 3 4
3 2 1 4
_
.
9
Elements in the same equivalence class must have the same order
and correspond to the same type of operation. Thus, there are
ve equivalence classes of this group:
{E}, {C
2
= C
2
4
}, {2C
4
}, {2
v
}, {2
v
} .
Note that, as in the case of the regular hexagon (Problem Set
7), all of the rotations need not belong to the same class, despite
being the same type of operation because they must also have
the same order.
(b) The order of this group is 8 and there are 5 equivalence classes.
Thus, there must be ve irreducible representations whose dimen-
sionalities must satisfy
d
2
1
+ d
2
2
+ d
2
3
+ d
2
4
+ d
2
5
= 8 .
The only solution of this equation (with positive integer values
for the d
k
) is
d
1
= 1, d
2
= 1, d
3
= 1, d
4
= 1, d
5
= 2 .
These dimensionalities imply that the energy levels for a Hamilto-
nian with this symmetry are either nondegenerate or are two-fold
degenerate. From the expression given for the energy eigenval-
ues, we see immediately that the energy eigenvalues with p = q
are non-degenerate, and those with p = q are two-fold degen-
erate (but see below). Thus, the dimensions of the irreducible
representations are consistent with these degeneracies.
(c) The simplest way to obtain a two-dimensional representation
of this group is to consider the action of each group element on
some generic point (x, y). Then the action on this point of each
of the operations given above can be determined by inspection.
We begin with the gure below:
10
From the diagrammatic representation of each symmetry opera-
tion, we will be able to determine the corresponding representa-
tion, simply by inspection. The action on this point by the three
rotations acn be represented as
These rotations are thus seen to transform the point (x, y) into
(y, x), (x, y), and (y, x), respectively. The two reections
that pass through the center of faces are
so they transform the (x, y) into (x, y) and (x, y), respectively.
Finally, for the two reection planes which pass through vertices,
11
which transform the point (x, y) into (y, x) and (y, x), respec-
tively. These transformations enable us to construct the char-
acters corresponding to the coordinate representation. Then,
together with the identical and parity representations, we have
the following entries of the character table for this group:
E C
2
2C
4
2
v
2
1
1 1 1 1 1
1
1 1 1 1 1
1
1
1
1
2
2 2 0 0 0
The group multiplication table and the orthogonality of columns
allows us to immediately complete the entries for the classes {C
2
}
and {2C
4
}:
E C
2
2C
4
2
v
2
1
1 1 1 1 1
1
1 1 1 1 1
1
1 1 1
1
1 1 1
2
2 2 0 0 0
The remaining four entries can be determined from the orthog-
onality of either rows or columns and again invoking the group
multiplication table:
12
E C
2
2C
4
2
v
2
1
1 1 1 1 1
1
1 1 1 1 1
1
1 1 1 1 1
1
1 1 1 1 1
2
2 2 0 0 0
(e) The eigenfunctions
1,1
(x, y) and
2,2
(x, y) are given by
1,1
(x, y) cos(
1
2
x) cos(
1
2
y)
and
2,2
(x, y) sin(x) sin(y) .
Since
1,1
(x, y) is invariant under the interchange of x and y and
under changes in their signs, it transforms according to the iden-
tical representation. However, although
2,2
(x, y) is invariant un-
der the interchange of x and y, each sine factor changes sign if
their argument changes sign. Thus, this eigenfunction transforms
according to the parity representation.
(f) The (degenerate) eigenfunctions
1,2
(x, y) and
2,1
(x, y) are
_
1,2
2,1
_
_
cos(
1
2
x) sin(y)
sin(x) cos(
1
2
y)
_
.
The transformation properties of these eigenfunctions can be de-
termined from the results of part (c). This yields the following
matrix representation of each symmetry operation:
E =
_
1 0
0 1
_
, C
4
=
_
0 1
1 0
_
, C
2
4
=
_
1 0
0 1
_
,
C
3
4
=
_
0 1
1 0
_
,
v,1
=
_
1 0
0 1
_
,
v,2
=
_
1 0
0 1
_
,
v,1
=
_
0 1
1 0
_
,
v,2
=
_
0 1
1 0
_
.
13
This produces the following characters:
{E} = 2, {C
2
} = 2, {2C
4
} = 0, {2
v
} = 0, {2
v
} = 0 ,
which are the characters of the two-dimensional irreducible repre-
sentation
2
, which is the coordinate irreducible representation.
(g) We have that the energies E
6,7
and E
2,9
are given by
E
6,7
= E
7,6
=
h
2
2
8m
(6
2
+ 7
2
) = 85
h
2
2
8m
and
E
2,9
= E
9,2
=
h
2
2
8m
(2
2
+ 9
2
) = 85
h
2
2
8m
,
so this energy is fourfold degenerate. However, since the group
operations have the eect of interchanging x and y with possible
changes of sign, the eigenfunctions
6,7
and
7,6
are transformed
only between one another, and the eigenfunctions
2,9
and
9,2
are transformed only between one another. In other words, this
fourfold degeneracy is accidental, resulting only from the numer-
ical coincidence of the energies of two twofold-degenerate states.
(h) We have already determined that
p,p
with p even transforms
according to the identical representation, while if p is odd,
p,p
transforms according to the parity representation. Moreover, the
pair of eigenfunctions
p,q
where p is even and q is odd transforms
according to the coordinate representation.
Consider now the case where the eigenfunctions are of the form
p,q
where both p and q are even. The matrices corresponding to
14
the symmetry operations are
E =
_
1 0
0 1
_
, C
4
=
_
0 1
1 0
_
, C
2
4
=
_
1 0
0 1
_
,
C
3
4
=
_
0 1
1 0
_
,
v,1
=
_
1 0
0 1
_
,
v,2
=
_
1 0
0 1
_
,
v,1
=
_
0 1
1 0
_
,
v,2
=
_
0 1
1 0
_
.
The corresponding characters are
{E} = 2, {C
2
} = 2, {2C
4
} = 0, {2
v
} = 2, {2
v
} = 0 .
This representation must be reducible, since its characters do not
correspond to those of any of the irreducible representations in
the table determined in Part (d). A straightforward application
of the Decomposition Theorem (or simple inspection) shows that
this representation is the direct sum of the
1
and
1
irreducible
representations. This means that there is a linear combination of
these eigenfunctions that diagonalizes the matrices corresponding
to each symmetry operation of this group.
For the eigenfunctions of the form
p,q
where both p and q are
odd, the matrices corresponding to the symmetry operations are
E =
_
1 0
0 1
_
, C
4
=
_
0 1
1 0
_
, C
2
4
=
_
1 0
0 1
_
,
C
3
4
=
_
0 1
1 0
_
,
v,1
=
_
1 0
0 1
_
,
v,2
=
_
1 0
0 1
_
,
v,1
=
_
0 1
1 0
_
,
v,2
=
_
0 1
1 0
_
.
The characters are now
{E} = 2, {C
2
} = 2, {2C
4
} = 0, {2
v
} = 2, {2
v
} = 0 .
15
which correspond to a reducible representation composed of the
direct sum of the
1
and
1
irreducible representations. Thus,
all of the irreducible representations occur in the eigenfunctions
of the two-dimensional square well.
8. The character table of the regular hexagon is reproduced below:
C
6v
E 2C
6
2C
3
C
2
3
v
3
d
1
1 1 1 1 1 1
1
1 1 1 1 1 1
1
1 1 1 1 1 1
1
1 1 1 1 1 1
2
2 1 1 2 0 0
2
2 1 1 2 0 0
A transformation properties of a vector perturbation can be de-
duced in a manner analogous to that for the equilateral trian-
gle (Section 6.6.2). Applying each symmetry operation to r =
(x, y, z) produces a reducible representation because these oper-
ations are either rotations or reections through vertical planes.
Thus, the z axis is invariant under every symmetry operation of
this group which. Together with the fact that an (x, y) basis gen-
erates the two-dimensional irreducible representation
2
[Problem
5(b), Problem Set 7], yields
=
1
2
.
The corresponding characters are
C
6v
E 2C
6
2C
3
C
2
3
v
3
d
2
3 2 0 1 1 1
to determine the selection rule for an initial state that transforms
according to the parity representation (
1
, we must calculated
1
(
1
2
) .
The characters associated with this operation are
16
C
6v
E 2C
6
2C
3
C
2
3
v
3
d
1
(
1
2
) 3 2 0 1 1 1
Finally, either by inspection, or by applying the decomposition
theorem, we nd that
1
(
1
2
) =
2
,
so transitions between states that transform according to the par-
ity representation and any states other than those that transform
as the parity or coordinate representations are forbidden by sym-
metry.
Group Theory
Problem Set 9 December 4, 2001
1.
Consider the group O(n), the elements of which preserve the Euclidean length in n
dimensions:
x
2
1
+x
2
2
+ +x
2
n
= x
2
1
+x
2
2
+ +x
2
n
.
Show that these transformations have
1
2
n(n 1) free parameters.
2. The condition that the Euclidean length is preserved in two dimensions, x
2
+ y
2
=
x
2
+y
2
, was shown in lectures to require that
a
2
11
+a
2
21
= 1, a
11
a
12
+a
21
a
22
= 0, a
2
12
+a
2
22
= 1 .
Show that these requirements imply that
(a
11
a
22
a
12
a
21
)
2
= 1 .
3. Rotations in two dimensions can be parametrized by
R() =
cos sin
sin cos
.
Show that
R(
1
+
2
) = R(
1
)R(
2
)
and, hence, deduce that this group is Abelian.
4.
We showed in lectures that a rotation R() by an angle in two dimensions can be

written as
R() = e
X
,
where
X =
0 1
1 0
.
Verify that
e
X
= I cos +X sin,
where I is the two-dimensional unit matrix. This shows that e
X
is the rotation matrix
in two dimensions.
5.
Consider the two-parameter group

x
= ax +b
Determine the innitesimal operators of this group.
6.
Consider the group C

v
which contains, in addition to all two-dimensional rotations,
a reection plane, denoted by
v
in, say, the x-z plane. Is this group Abelian? What
are the equivalence classes of this group?
Hint: Denoting reection in the xz plane by S, show that SR()S
1
= R().
7. By extending the procedure used in lectures for SO(3), show that the innitesimal
generators of SO(4), the group of proper rotations in four dimensions which leave the
quantity x
2
+y
2
+z
2
+w
2
invariant, are
A
1
= z

y
y

z
, A
2
= x

z
z

x
, A
3
= y

x
x

y
B
1
= x

w
w

x
, B
2
= y

w
w

y
, B
3
= z

w
w

z
8. Show that the commutators of the generators obtained in Problem 7 are
[A
i
, A
j
] =
ijk
A
k
, [B
i
, B
j
] =
ijk
A
k
, [A
i
, B
j
] =
ijk
B
k
9. Show that by making the linear transformation of the generators in Problem 7 to
J
i
=
1
2
(A
i
+B
i
), K
i
=
1
2
(A
i
B
i
)
the commutators become
[J
i
, J
j
] =
ijk
J
k
, [K
i
, K
j
] =
ijk
K
k
, [J
i
, K
j
] = 0
This shows that locally SO(4)=SO(3)SO(3).
Group Theory
1. The Lie group GL(n,R) has n
2
parameters, because the transfor-
mations can be represented as n n matrices (with real entries).
The requirement that the Euclidean length dimensions be pre-
served by such a transformation leads to the requirement that,
x
2
1
+ x
2
2
+ + x
2
n
= x
2
1
+ x
2
2
+ + x
2
n
.
Proceeding as in Sec. 7.2, we note that there are n conditions
from the requirement that the coecients of x
i
, i = 1, 2, . . . , n
be equal to unity. Then, there are
1
2
n(n 1) conditions from the
requirement that the coecients of the unique products x
i
x
j
, i =
j vanish. Thus, beginning with n free parameters for GL(n,R),
there are
n
2
n
1
2
n(n 1) = n
2
n
1
2
n
2
+
1
2
n =
1
2
n(n 1)
free parameters for O(n).
2. Beginning with the three conditions
a
2
11
+ a
2
21
= 1, a
11
a
12
+ a
21
a
22
= 0, a
2
12
+ a
2
22
= 1 ,
we take the product of the rst by the third equations and sub-
tract the square of the second equation to obtain
(a
2
11
+ a
2
21
)(a
2
12
+ a
2
22
) (a
11
a
12
+ a
21
a
22
)
2
= a
2
11
a
2
12
+ a
2
11
a
2
22
+ a
2
21
a
2
12
+ a
2
21
a
2
22
a
2
11
a
2
12
2a
11
a
12
a
21
a
22
a
2
21
a
2
22
= a
2
11
a
2
22
+ a
2
21
a
2
12
2a
11
a
12
a
21
a
22
= (a
11
a
22
a
12
a
21
)
2
= 1 .
2
Thus, the three constraints for orthogonal groups in two dimen-
sions imply that the square of the determinant of such transfor-
mation must be equal to unity.
3. Forming the product of the the matrices corresponding to R(
1
)
and R(
2
) yields
_
cos
1
sin
1
sin
1
cos
1
__
cos
2
sin
2
sin
2
cos
2
_
=
_
cos
1
cos
2
sin
1
sin
2
cos
1
sin
2
sin
1
cos
2
sin
1
cos
2
+ cos
1
sin
2
sin
1
sin
2
+ cos
1
cos
2
_
.
By invoking the standard trigonometric identities for the sines
and cosines of the sum and dierence of two angles,
cos(x y) = cos x cos y sin x sin y ,
sin(x y) = sin x cos y cos x sin y ,
we can write
_
cos
1
sin
1
sin
1
cos
1
__
cos
2
sin
2
sin
2
cos
2
_
=
_
cos(
1
+
2
) sin(
1
+
2
)
sin(
1
+
2
) cos(
1
+
2
)
_
.
Thus,
R(
1
+
2
) = R(
1
)R(
2
) .
3
4. The expression
R() = e
X
,
where
X =
_
0 1
1 0
_
,
is dened by its Taylor series:
e
X
=
n=0
1
n!
(X)
n
. (1)
Successive powers of X yield
X =
_
0 1
1 0
_
, X
2
=
_
1 0
0 1
_
,
X
3
=
_
0 1
1 0
_
, X
4
=
_
1 0
0 1
_
,
whereupon this sequence is repeated. We can write this sequence
in matrix form as X
2
= I, X
3
= X, X
4
= I, . . ., where I is
the 2 2 unit matrix. The powers of X are therefore given by
X
2n
=
_
_
_
I, n even
I, n odd
for even powers and
X
2n+1
=
_
_
_
X, n even
X, n odd
for odd powers Thus, the Taylor series in (1) may be written as
e
X
=
n=0
(1)
n
(2n)!

2n
. .
cos
I +
n=0
(1)
n
(2n + 1)!
2n+1
. .
sin
X
4
= I cos + X sin
=
_
cos sin
sin cos
_
,
which is the rotation matrix in two dimensions.
5. The two parameter group
x
= ax + b
was discussed in Example 7.1. The identity was found to cor-
respond to the parameters a = 1 and b = 0. The innitesimal
transformations are therefore given by
x
= (1 + da)x + db = x + x da + db .
If we substitute this into some function f(x) and expand to rst
order in the parameters a and b, we obtain
f(x
) = f(x + x da + db) = f(x) + x

f
x
da +
f
x
db ,
from which we identify the innitesimal operators
X
1
= x

x
, X
2
=

x
.
6. The group C
v
contains all two-dimensional rotations and a ver-
tical reection plane, denoted by
v
, in the x-z plane. Since this
reection changes the parity of the coordinate system, it changes
the sense of the rotation angle . Thus, a rotation by in the
original coordinate system corresponds to a rotation by in the
5
transformed coordinate system. Denoting the reection operator
by S, we then must have that
SR()S
1
= R() . (2)
Since S = S
1
, we can see this explicitly for the two-dimensional
rotation matrix R():
_
1 0
0 1
__
cos sin
sin cos
__
1 0
0 1
_
=
_
cos sin
sin cos
_
,
where the matrix on the right-hand side of this equation is R().
Equation (2) shows that (i) the group is no longer Abelian, and
(ii) the equivalence classes correspond to rotations by and .
7. Proceeding as in Section 7.4, the innitesimal rotations in four
dimensions which leave the quantity x
2
+ y
2
+ z
2
+ w
2
invariant
are
_
_
_
_
_
_
_
_
_
x
_
_
_
_
_
_
_
_
_
=
_
_
_
_
_
_
_
_
_
1
1

2

3
1
1
4

5
2

4
1
6
3

5

6
1
_
_
_
_
_
_
_
_
_
_
_
_
_
_
_
_
_
_
x
y
z
w
_
_
_
_
_
_
_
_
_
.
Substituting this coordinate transformation into a dierentiable
function F(x, y, z, w),
F(x
, y
, z
, w
)
= F(x +
1
y +
2
z +
3
w, y
1
x
4
z +
5
w,
z
2
x +
4
y +
6
w, w
3
x
5
y
6
z) .
and expanding to rst order in the
i
, yields
F(x
, y
, z
, w
) = F(x, y, z, w) +
1
_
y
F
x
x
F
y
_
6
=
2
_
z
F
x
x
F
z
_
+
3
_
w
F
x
x
F
w
_
=
4
_
y
F
z
z
F
y
_
+
5
_
w
F
y
y
F
w
_
=
6
_
w
F
z
z
F
w
_
.
From these equations and, if necessary, a change in sign of the
corresponding
i
, we can identify the following dierential oper-
ators
A
1
= z

y
y

z
, A
2
= x

z
z

x
, A
3
= y

x
x

y
,
B
1
= x

t
t

x
, B
2
= y

t
t

y
, B
3
= z

t
t

z
.
8. With the innitesimal generators calculated in Problem 7, we de-
termine the commutators in the standard fashion. For the com-
mutators between the A
i
, we have
[A
1
, A
2
]f = A
1
(A
2
f) A
2
(A
1
f)
=
_
z

y
y

z
__
x
f
z
z
f
x
_
_
x

z
z

x
__
z
f
y
y
f
z
_
= xz

2
f
yz
z
2

2
f
yx
xy
2
f
z
2
+ y
f
x
+ yz

2
f
zx
x
f
y
xz

2
f
zy
+ xy
2
f
z
2
+ z
2

2
f
xy
+ yz

2
f
xz
= y
f
x
x
f
y
= A
3
f ,
7
[A
1
, A
3
]f = A
1
(A
3
f) A
3
(A
1
f)
=
_
z

y
y

z
__
y
f
x
x
f
y
_
_
y

x
x

y
__
z
f
y
y
f
z
_
= z
f
x
+ yz

2
f
yz
xz
2
f
y
2
y
2

2
f
zx
+ xy

2
f
zy
yz

2
f
xy
+ y
2

2
f
xz
+ xz
2
f
y
2
x
f
z
xy

2
f
yz
= z
f
x
x
f
z
= A
2
f ,
[A
2
, A
3
]f = A
2
(A
3
f) A
3
(A
2
f)
=
_
x

z
z

x
__
y
f
x
x
f
y
_
_
y

x
x

y
__
x
f
z
z
f
x
_
= xy

2
f
zx
x
2

2
f
zy
yz
2
f
x
2
+ z
f
y
+ xz

2
f
xy
y
f
z
xy

2
f
xz
+ yz
2
f
x
2
+ x
2

2
f
yz
xz

2
f
yx
= z
f
y
y
f
z
= A
1
f .
Thus, we can summarize these results as
[A
i
, A
j
] =
ijk
A
k
.
Similarly, for the B
i
, we calculate the pertinent commutators as
[B
1
, B
2
]f = B
1
(B
2
f) B
2
(B
1
f)
8
=
_
x

w
w

x
__
y
f
w
w
f
y
_
_
y

w
w

y
__
x
f
w
w
f
x
_
= xy
2
f
w
2
x
f
y
xw

2
f
wy
yw

2
f
xw
+ w
2

2
f
xy
xy
2
f
w
2
+ y
f
x
+ yw

2
f
wx
+ xw

2
f
yt
w
2

2
f
yx
= y
f
x
x
f
y
= A
3
f ,
[B
1
, B
3
]f = B
1
(B
3
f) B
3
(B
1
f)
=
_
x

w
w

x
__
z
f
w
w
f
z
_
_
z

w
w

z
__
x
f
w
w
f
x
_
= xz
2
f
w
2
x
f
z
xw

2
f
wz
zw

2
f
xw
+ t
2

2
f
xz
xz
2
f
w
2
+ z
f
x
+ zw

2
f
wx
+ xt

2
f
zw
w
2

2
f
zx
= z
f
x
x
f
z
= A
2
f ,
[B
2
, B
3
]f = B
2
(B
3
f) B
3
(B
2
f)
=
_
y

w
w

y
__
z
f
w
w
f
z
_
_
z

w
w

z
__
y
f
w
w
f
y
_
= yz
2
f
w
2
y
f
z
yw

2
f
wz
zw

2
f
yw
+ w
2

2
f
yz
9
yz
2
f
w
2
+ z
f
y
+ zw

2
f
wy
+ yt

2
f
zw
w
2

2
f
zy
= z
f
y
y
f
z
= A
1
f .
These results can be summarized as
[B
i
, B
j
] =
ijk
A
k
.
Finally, for the commutators between the A
i
and B
j
, we note rst
by inspection that
[A
i
, B
i
] = 0 ,
for i = 1, 2, 3, since A
i
and B
i
involve mutually exclusive pairs of
variables. For the remaining commutator pairs, we have
[A
1
, B
2
] = A
1
(B
2
f) B
2
(A
1
f)
=
_
z

y
y

z
__
y
f
w
w
f
y
_
_
y

w
w

y
__
z
f
y
y
f
z
_
= z
f
w
+ yz

2
f
yw
zw
2
f
y
2
y
2

2
f
zw
+ yw

2
f
zy
yz

2
f
wy
+ y
2

2
f
wz
+ zw
2
f
y
2
w
f
z
yw

2
f
yz
= z
f
w
w
f
z
= B
3
f ,
[A
1
, B
3
] = A
1
(B
3
f) B
3
(A
1
f)
=
_
z

y
y

z
__
z
f
w
w
f
z
_
_
z

w
w

z
__
z
f
y
y
f
z
_
10
= z
2

2
f
yw
zw

2
f
yz
y
f
w
yz

2
f
zw
+ yw

2
z
2
z
2

2
f
wy
+ yz

2
f
wz
+ w
f
y
+ zw

2
f
zy
yw
2
f
z
2
= w
f
y
y
f
w
= B
2
f ,
[A
2
, B
3
] = A
2
(B
3
f) B
3
(A
2
f)
=
_
x

z
z

x
__
z
f
w
w
f
z
_
_
z

w
w

z
__
x
f
z
z
f
x
_
= x
f
w
+ xz

2
f
zw
xw
2
f
z
2
z
2

2
f
xw
+ zw

2
f
xz
xz

2
f
wz
+ z
2

2
f
wx
w
f
x
+ xw
2
f
z
2
zw

2
f
xz
= x
f
w
w
f
x
= B
1
f .
Thus,
[A
i
, B
j
] =
ijk
B
k
.
9. Consider the following linear combinations of the operators in
Problem 7:
J
i
=
1
2
(A
i
+ B
i
), K
i
=
1
2
(A
i
B
i
) . (3)
11
We can now use the commutation relations derived in Problem 8
to derive the commutation relations for the J
i
and K
j
. For the
J
i
, we have
[J
i
, J
j
] =
1
4
[A
i
+ B
i
, A
j
+ B
j
]
=
1
4
_
[A
i
, A
j
] + [A
i
, B
j
] + [B
i
, A
j
] + [B
i
, B
j
]
_
=
1
4
(
ijk
A
k
+
ijk
B
k
+
ijk
B
k
+
ijk
A
k
)
=
ijk
1
2
(A
k
+ B
k
)
=
ijk
J
k
,
[K
i
, K
j
] =
1
4
[A
i
B
i
, A
j
B
j
]
=
1
4
_
[A
i
, A
j
] [A
i
, B
j
] [B
i
, A
j
] + [B
i
, B
j
]
_
=
1
4
(
ijk
A
k
ijk
B
k
ijk
B
k
+
ijk
A
k
)
=
ijk
1
2
(A
k
B
k
)
=
ijk
K
k
,
[J
i
, K
j
] =
1
4
[A
i
+ B
i
, A
j
B
j
]
=
1
4
_
[A
i
, A
j
] [A
i
, B
j
] + [B
i
, A
j
] [B
i
, B
j
]
_
=
1
4
(
ijk
A
k
+
ijk
B
k
ijk
B
k
ijk
A
k
)
= 0 .
Group Theory
Problem Set 10 December 11, 2001
1.
Prove that a proper orthogonal transformation in an odd-dimensional space always

possesses an axis, i.e., a line whose point are left unchanged by the transformation.
2. Prove Eulers theorem: The general displacement of a rigid body with one xed point is
a rotation about an axis.
3.
The functions (x iy)

m
, where m is an integer generate irreducible representations
of SO(2). Suppose we now consider the group O(2), where we now allow improper
rotations. Use Schurs lemma to show that these functions generate irreducible two-
dimensional representations of O(2) for m = 0, but a reducible representation for m = 0.
Hint: The general improper rotation in two dimensions is
cos sin
sin cos
4. Consider the rotation matrix obtained by rotating an initial set of axes counterclockwise
by about the z-axis, then rotated about the new x-axis counterclockwise by , and
nally rotated about the new z-axis counterclockwise by . These are the Euler angles
and the corresponding rotation matrix is
cos cos cos sinsin cos sin + cos cos sin sin sin
sin cos cos sincos sin sin + cos cos cos cos sin
sin sin sin cos cos
Verify that the angle of rotation of this transformation is given by

cos
1
2
= cos
1
2
( + )
cos
1
2
5. Determine the axis of the transformation in Problem 4.

6.
Verify that the direct product of two irreducible representations of SO(3) has the fol-
lowing decomposition
(
1
)
()
(
2
)
() =
1
+
2
=|
1
2
|
()
()
This is called the ClebschGordan series and provides a group-theoretic statement of
the addition of angular momenta.
7.
Determine the corresponding Clebsch-Gordan series for SO(2).

8.
Show that the requirement that xx
+yy
is invariant under the complex transformation
a b
c d
x
y
together with the determinant of this transformation being unity means that the trans-
formation must have the form
a b
b
x
y
where aa
+ bb
= 1.
Group Theory
1. As shown in Section 8.3.1, the eigenvalues of an orthogonal ma-
trix have modulus unity. These eigenvalues are also the roots
of the polynomial equation det(A I) = 0, so the Fundamen-
tal Theorem of Algebra requires that, if these roots are com-
plex, they must occur in complex conjugate pairs. Thus, only in
an odd-dimensional space is there guaranteed to be a single real
eigenvalue of unity. The corresponding eigenvector is the axis of
rotation.
2. If the xed point is taken as the origin of the set of axes of the
body, then the displacement of the rigid body involves no trans-
lation, but only a change of orientation, i.e., a rotation. Since, in
three dimensions, every rotation can be expressed in an axis-angle
representation, Eulers theorem follows immediately.
3. The general improper transformation in two dimensions is
_
x
_
=
_
cos sin
sin cos
_
_
_
x
y
_
_
.
Thus, for the functions (x iy)
m
we have
(x
iy
)
m
=
_
x cos + y sin i(x sin y cos )
_
m
=
_
x( cos i sin ) iy( cos i sin )
_
m
= (x iy)
m
e
im
,
so they generate the representation
_
(x
+ iy
)
m
(x
iy
)
m
_
=
_
0 e
im
e
im
0
__
(x + iy)
m
(x iy)
m
_
.
2
To determine whether or not this representation is reducible, we
apply Schurs rst lemma. Suppose a matrix A commutes with
all of the matrices of our two dimensional representation. Then,
we have
_
a
11
a
12
a
21
a
22
__
0 e
im
e
im
0
_
. .
_
_
a
12
e
im
a
11
e
im
a
22
e
im
a
21
e
im
_
_
=
_
0 e
im
e
im
0
__
a
11
a
12
a
21
a
22
_
. .
_
_
a
21
e
im
a
22
e
im
a
11
e
im
a
12
e
im
_
_
.
Thus, if m = 0, we must require that a
12
= a
21
= 0 and that
a
11
= a
22
, i.e., A is multiple of the 22 unit matrix and, according
to Schurs rst lemma, this representation is irreducible. However,
of m = 0, we need only require that a
12
= a
21
and a
11
= a
22
, so
this is a reducible representation.
4. The rotation angle is calculated from the trace of the transfor-
mation matrix:
1 + 2 cos = cos cos cos sin sin sin sin
+cos cos cos + cos
= (1 + cos )( cos cos sin sin ) + cos
= (1 + cos ) cos( + ) + cos .
Using the triginometric identity
1 + 2 cos = 4 cos
2
(
1
2
) 1 ,
we obtain
4 cos
2
(
1
2
) = (1 + cos )[1 + cos( + )]
= 4 cos
2
(
1
2
) cos
2
[
1
2
( + )] ,
3
or,
cos (
1
2
) = cos (
1
2
) cos [
1
2
( + )] .
5. The axis of the transformation in Problem 4 is determined from
the equations derived in Section 8.3.2:
n
2
n
1
=
a
31
a
13
a
23
a
32
,
n
3
n
1
=
a
12
a
21
a
23
a
32
.
The denominator of these expressions is
a
23
a
32
= sin cos + sin cos = sin ( cos + cos ) .
We also have
a
31
a
13
= sin sin sin sin = sin (sin sin )
a
12
a
21
= cos sin + cos cos sin
+sin cos + cos sin cos
= (1 + cos )(cos sin + sin cos )
= (1 + cos ) sin( + ) .
Thus, the (unnormalized) direction of the rotation axis is
_
1,
sin sin
cos + cos
, 2
(1 + cos ) sin( + )
sin (cos + cos )
_
.
6. There are a number of ways of decomposing the direct product
of irreducible representations of SO(3). The books by Tinkham
4
and Jones give two very dierent approaches. Below, we provide
a third method. We rst calculate the direct product
()
()
(1)
() =
_

m=
e
im
__
1
m
1
=1
e
im
1
_
.
By expanding the second summation and multiplying the rst
summation with each of the exponentials, we obtain
_

m=
e
im
__
1
m
1
=1
e
im
1
_
=
m=
e
im
_
e
i
+ 1 + e
i
_
=
m=
e
i(m1)
+
m=
e
im
+
m=
e
i(m+1)
.
If, in the rst summation on the right-hand side of this equation,
we change the summation variable to m
= m1 and in the last

summation change the summation variable to m
= m + 1, we
have
m=
e
i(m1)
+
m=
e
i(m+1)
=
1
=1
e
im
+
+1
=+1
e
im
=
+1
=(+1)
e
im
+
1
=(1)
e
im
.
In fact, for any positive integer k, we have
m=
e
i(mk)
+
m=
e
i(m+k)
=
k
=k
e
im
+
+k
=+k
e
im
=
+k
=(+k)
e
im
+
k
=(k)
e
im
. (1)
5
Thus, we conclude that
()
()
(1)
() =
(1)
() +
()
() +
(+1)
() .
Then, by using (1), we have, in the general case
()
()
(
)
() =
m=
e
im
_
e
i
+ e
i(
1)
+ + e
i
_
=
(+
)
() +
(+
1)
() + +
(
)
.
Therefore,
()
()
() =
+
m=
(m)
() ,
where, from our procedure, it is clear that
.
7. The corresponding ClebschGordan series for SO(2) is very simple
because the group is Abelian. Since
(m)
() = e
im
,
then
(m
1
)
()
(m
2
)
() =
(m
1
+m
2
)
() .
8. Given the complex transformation
_
x
_
=
_
a b
c d
__
x
y
_
, (2)
6
then the invariance of the quantity xx
+ yy
yields
x
+ y
= (ax + by)(a
+ b
) + (cx + dy)(c
+ d
)
= (aa
+ cc
)xx
+ (ab
+ cd
)xy
+ (a
b + c
d)x
y
+ (cc
+ dd
)yy
.
Maintaining equality for all independent variations of x and y
requires that
aa
+ cc
= 1, ab
+ cd
= 0, cc
+ dd
= 1 . (3)
A fourth condition is that the determinant of the transformation
in (2) is unity:
ad bc = 1 (4)
If we take the second of equations (3), multiply by a
, and then
use the rst of these equations and Equation (4), we obtain
a
(ab
+ cd
) = aa
+ a
cd
= (1 cc
)b
+ (1 + b
)c
= b
+ c = 0
which yields
c = b
The second of equations (4) then immediately yields

a = d
(5)
Thus, the transformation (2) must have the form
_
x
_
=
_
a b
b
__
x
y
_
where aa
+ bb
= 1.

Vvedensky D.-Group Theory, Problems and Solutions (2005)

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Group Theory

Problem Set 1 October 12, 2001

The Schrodinger equation for a free particle of mass m is

The general form of the Liouville equation is

and subtracting the product of

= u(a; )v(b; ) u(b; )v(a; ) = 0 (24)

Show that, by requiring the existence of an identity in a group G, it is sucient to require

Similarly, show that it is sucient to require only a left inverse, a

For the elements g

Show that a group is Abelian if and only if (ab)

Hence, show that the

is the left identity,

in the rst of these equations

is the left inverse of g,

Let g be an element of a nite group G. Show that g

Consider the following cyclic group of order 4, G = {a, a

Suppose that there is an isomorphism from a group G onto a group G

. Show that the

(g) for all g

. From the group properties we have that the identity

. Setting g = e and comparing with

How can these matrices be permuted to provide an equally faithful representation of S

Verify that the matrices

Prove the relations in Eqns (3.9) and (3.11).

(g) is also a representation of

(g) is therefore also a repre-

diagonalizes B while leaving D

Consider the three-element group G = {e, a, b} (Sec. 2.4).

Generalize the result of Problem 2 to any cylic group of order n.

Consider the following matrices:

Verify that these matrices form a representation of S

commutes with all the matrices of the representation. Since this

i.e., this reducible representation contains both the identical and

Does the following representation of the three-element group {e, a, b}:

satisfy the Great Orthogonality Theorem? Explain your answer.

Consider the irreducible representations of the three-element calculated in Problem 2 of

, with |G| = 6 and d = 2, we have

Identify the 12 symmetry operations of a regular hexagon.

Identify the 6 classes of this group.

Show that the direct product of groups G

For an n-fold degenerate set of eigenfunctions

) generated by the group of the Hamiltonian,

The set of distinct functions obtained from a given function

, j). Then, the operations R in the group of

We showed in lectures that a rotation R() by an angle in two dimensions can be

Consider the two-parameter group

Consider the group C

) = f(x + x da + db) = f(x) + x

Prove that a proper orthogonal transformation in an odd-dimensional space always

The functions (x iy)

Verify that the angle of rotation of this transformation is given by

5. Determine the axis of the transformation in Problem 4.

Determine the corresponding Clebsch-Gordan series for SO(2).

Show that the requirement that xx

is invariant under the complex transformation

= m1 and in the last

The second of equations (4) then immediately yields

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