Bruhat decomposition

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In mathematics, the Bruhat decomposition G = BWB into cells can be regarded as a general expression of the principle of Gauss–Jordan elimination, which generically writes a matrix as a product of an upper triangular and lower triangular matrices—but with exceptional cases. It is related to the Schubert cell decomposition of Grassmannians: see Weyl group for this.

More generally, any group with a (B,N) pair has a Bruhat decomposition.

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[edit] Definitions

  • G is a semisimple algebraic group over an algebraically closed field.
  • B is a Borel subgroup of G
  • W is a the Weyl group of G corresponding to a maximal torus of B.

The Bruhat decomposition of G is the decomposition

G=BWB =\cup_{w\in W}BwB

of G as a disjoint union of double cosets of B parameterized by the elements of the Weyl group W. (Note that although W is not in general a subgroup of G, the coset wB is still well defined.)

[edit] Computations

The number of cells in a given dimension of the Bruhat decomposition are the coefficients of the q-polynomial[1] of the associated Dynkin diagram.

[edit] References

  1. ^ This Week's Finds in Mathematical Physics, Week 186

[edit] See also

[edit] References