In mathematics, E8 is any of several closely related exceptional simple Lie groups, linear algebraic groups or Lie algebras of dimension 248; the same notation is used for the corresponding root lattice, which has rank 8. The designation E8 comes from the Cartan–Killing classification of the complex simple Lie algebras, which fall into four infinite series labeled An, Bn, Cn, Dn, and five exceptional cases labeled E6, E7, E8, F4, and G2. The E8 algebra is the largest and most complicated of these exceptional cases.

Basic description

The Lie group E8 has dimension 248. Its rank, which is the dimension of its maximal torus, is 8.

Therefore, the vectors of the root system are in eight-dimensional Euclidean space: they are described explicitly later in this article. The Weyl group of E8, which is the group of symmetries of the maximal torus which are induced by conjugations in the whole group, has order (2^14)(3^5)(5^2)7 = 696729600.

The compact group E8 is unique among simple compact Lie groups in that its non-trivial representation of smallest dimension is the adjoint representation (of dimension 248) acting on the Lie algebra E8 itself; it is also the unique one which has the following four properties: trivial center, compact, simply connected, and simply laced (all roots have the same length).

There is a Lie algebra Ek for every integer k ≥ 3, which is infinite dimensional if k is greater than 8.

Real and complex forms

There is a unique complex Lie algebra of type E8, corresponding to a complex group of complex dimension 248. The complex Lie group E8 of complex dimension 248 can be considered as a simple real Lie group of real dimension 496. This is simply connected, has maximal compact subgroup the compact form (see below) of E8, and has an outer automorphism group of order 2 generated by complex conjugation.

As well as the complex Lie group of type E8, there are three real forms of the Lie algebra, three real forms of the group with trivial center (two of which have non-algebraic double covers, giving two further real forms), all of real dimension 248, as follows:

The compact form (which is usually the one meant if no other information is given), which is simply connected and has trivial outer automorphism group.

The split form, EVIII (or E8(8)), which has maximal compact subgroup Spin(16)/(Z/2Z), fundamental group of order 2 (implying that it has a double cover, which is a simply connected Lie real group but is not algebraic, see below) and has trivial outer automorphism group.

EIX (or E8(-24)), which has maximal compact subgroup E7×SU(2)/(−1,−1), fundamental group of order 2 (again implying a double cover, which is not algebraic) and has trivial outer automorphism group.

For a complete list of real forms of simple Lie algebras, see the list of simple Lie groups.

E8 as an algebraic group

By means of a Chevalley basis for the Lie algebra, one can define E8 as a linear algebraic group over the integers and, consequently, over any commutative ring and in particular over any field: this defines the so-called split (sometimes also known as "untwisted") form of E8. Over an algebraically closed field, this is the only form; however, over other fields, there are often many other forms, or "twists" of E8, which are classified in the general framework of Galois cohomology (over a perfect fieldk) by the set H^1(k,Aut(E8)) which, because the Dynkin diagram of E8 (see below) has no automorphisms, coincides with H^1(k,E8).

Over R, the real connected component of the identity of these algebraically twisted forms of E8 coincide with the three real Lie groups mentioned above, but with a subtlety concerning the fundamental group: all forms of E8 are simply connected in the sense of algebraic geometry, meaning that they admit no non-trivial algebraic coverings; the non-compact and simply connected real Lie group forms of E8 are therefore not algebraic and admit no faithful finite-dimensional representations.

Over finite fields, the Lang–Steinberg theorem implies that H^1(k,E8)=0, meaning that E8 has no twisted forms: see below.

The characters of finite dimensional representations of the real and complex Lie algebras and Lie groups are all given by the Weyl character formula. The dimensions of the smallest irreducible representations are (sequence A121732 in the OEIS):

1, 248, 3875, 27000, 30380, 147250, 779247, 1763125, 2450240, 4096000, 4881384, 6696000, 26411008, 70680000, 76271625, 79143000, 146325270, 203205000, 281545875, 301694976, 344452500, 820260000, 1094951000, 2172667860, 2275896000, 2642777280, 2903770000, 3929713760, 4076399250, 4825673125, 6899079264, 8634368000 (twice), 12692520960...

The 248-dimensional representation is the adjoint representation. There are two non-isomorphic irreducible representations of dimension 8634368000 (it is not unique; however, the next integer with this property is 175898504162692612600853299200000 (sequence A181746 in the OEIS)). The fundamental representations are those with dimensions 3875, 6696000, 6899079264, 146325270, 2450240, 30380, 248 and 147250 (corresponding to the eight nodes in the Dynkin diagram in the order chosen for the Cartan matrix below, i.e., the nodes are read in the seven-node chain first, with the last node being connected to the third).

The coefficients of the character formulas for infinite dimensional irreducible representations of E8 depend on some large square matrices consisting of polynomials, the Lusztig–Vogan polynomials, an analogue of Kazhdan–Lusztig polynomials introduced for reductive groups in general by George Lusztig and David Kazhdan (1983). The values at 1 of the Lusztig–Vogan polynomials give the coefficients of the matrices relating the standard representations (whose characters are easy to describe) with the irreducible representations.

These matrices were computed after four years of collaboration by a group of 18 mathematicians and computer scientists, led by Jeffrey Adams, with much of the programming done by Fokko du Cloux. The most difficult case (for exceptional groups) is the split real form of E8 (see above), where the largest matrix is of size 453060×453060. The Lusztig–Vogan polynomials for all other exceptional simple groups have been known for some time; the calculation for the split form of E8 is far longer than any other case. The announcement of the result in March 2007 received extraordinary attention from the media (see the external links), to the surprise of the mathematicians working on it.

The representations of the E8 groups over finite fields are given by Deligne–Lusztig theory.

Geometry

The compact real form of E8 is the isometry group of the 128-dimensional exceptional compact Riemannian symmetric space EVIII (in Cartan's classification). It is known informally as the "octooctonionic projective plane" because it can be built using an algebra that is the tensor product of the octonions with themselves, and is also known as a Rosenfeld projective plane, though it does not obey the usual axioms of a projective plane. This can be seen systematically using a construction known as the magic square, due to Hans Freudenthal and Jacques Tits (Landsberg & Manivel 2001).

Dodecahedron and Icosahedron construction

Shown in 3D projection using the basis vectors [u,v,w] giving H3 symmetry:
u = (1, φ, 0, -1, φ, 0,0,0)
v = (φ, 0, 1, φ, 0, -1,0,0)
w = (0, 1, φ, 0, -1, φ,0,0)
The projected 421 polytope vertices are sorted and tallied by their 3D norm generating the increasingly transparent hulls of each set of tallied norms. These show:
1) 4 points at the origin
2) 2 icosahedrons
3) 2 dodecahedrons
4) 4 icosahedrons
5) 1 icosadodecahedron
6) 2 dodecahedrons
7) 2 icosahedrons
8) 1 icosadodecahedron
for a total of 240 vertices. This is, of course, 2 concentric sets of hulls from the H4 symmetry of the 600-cell scaled by the golden ratio.

Superstring theory

Superstring E8×E8

The E8 Lie group has applications in theoretical physics and especially in string theory and supergravity. E8×E8 is the gauge group of one of the two types of heterotic string and is one of two anomaly-free gauge groups that can be coupled to the N = 1 supergravity in ten dimensions. E8 is the U-duality group of supergravity on an eight-torus (in its split form).

One way to incorporate the standard model of particle physics into heterotic string theory is the symmetry breaking of E8 to its maximal subalgebra SU(3)×E6.

In 1982, Michael Freedman used the E8 lattice to construct an example of a topological 4-manifold, the E8 manifold, which has no smooth structure.

Antony Garrett Lisi's incomplete "An Exceptionally Simple Theory of Everything" attempts to describe all known fundamental interactions in physics as part of the E8 Lie algebra.

R. Coldea, D. A. Tennant, and E. M. Wheeler et al. (2010) reported an experiment where the electron spins of a cobalt-niobium crystal exhibited, under certain conditions, two of the eight peaks related to E8 that were predicted by Zamolodchikov (1989).

64 tetrahedron grid

The 3-dimensional version of E8 is constructed out of tetrahedron which makes a 64 tetrahedron grid.