5.11 Irreducibility and the Representations of O(3, 1) and Its Double Covers 205
˜
P
M
i
−1
˜
P
=N
i
(5.100)
˜
P
N
i
−1
˜
P
=M
i
. (5.101)
Let us examine some consequences of this. Let W ⊂ V be an irreducible subspace
of (π, V ) equivalent to (j
1
, j
2
), spanned by our usual basis of the form
B ={v
k
1
,k
2
|0 ≤k
1
≤2j
1
, 0 ≤k
2
≤2j
2
}.
We then have
iM
z
˜
P
v
0,0
=i
˜
P
N
z
v
0,0
=j
2
˜
P
v
0,0
iN
z
˜
P
v
0,0
=i
˜
P
M
z
v
0,0
=j
1
˜
P
v
0,0
M
+
˜
P
v
0,0
=
˜
P
N
+
v
0,0
=0
N
+
˜
P
v
0,0
=
˜
P
M
+
v
0,0
=0
and thus
˜
P
v
0,0
is a highest weight vector for (j
2
, j
1
)! We have thus proven the
following proposition:
Proposition 5.9 Let H be a double cover of O(3, 1) and (, V ) a complex rep-
resentation of H with induced sl(2, C)
R
representation (π, V ). If W ⊂ V is an
irreducible subspace of (π, V ) equivalent to (j
1
, j
2
) and j
1
= j
2
, then there exists
another irreducible subspace W
of (π, V ) equivalent to (j
2
, j
1
).
It should be clear from the above that the operator (
˜
P)corresponding to parity
takes us back and forth between W and W
. This means that even though W is an
invariant subspace of the Lie algebra representation (π, V ), W is not invariant under
the Lie group representation (, V ), since (
˜
P) takes vectors in W to vectors in
W
!IfW and W
make up all of V ,i.e.ifV =W ⊕W
, this means that V is irre-
ducible under the H representation but not under the so(3, 1) representation π,
and so we have an irreducible Lie group representation whose induced Lie algebra
representation is not irreducible! We will meet two examples of this type of repre-
sentation below. Note that this does not contradict Proposition 5.3, as the group H
does not satisfy the required hypotheses of connectedness.
Exercise 5.41 Let : H → G be a Lie group homomorphism with induced Lie algebra
homomorphism φ :h →g. Use the definition of the adjoint mapping and of φ to show that
φ
Ad
h
(X)
=Ad
(h)
φ(X)
∀h ∈H, X ∈h.
Exercise 5.42 Verify (5.100)and(5.101). You will need the result of the previous exercise!
Example 5.40 The Dirac spinor revisited
As a particular application of Proposition 5.9, suppose our representation (, V )
of H contains a subspace equivalent to the left-handed spinor (
1
2
, 0); then it must
also contain a subspace equivalent to the right-handed spinor (0,
1
2
).Thisiswhythe
Dirac spinor is (
1
2
, 0) ⊕ (0,
1
2
). It is not irreducible as an SL(2, C) representation,
but it is irreducible as a representation of a group H which extends SL(2, C) and
covers O(3, 1).