1. Introduction
The cohomology of Lie groups and Lie algebras constitutes a fundamental topic in differential geometry and algebraic topology, with profound connections to representation theory and mathematical physics. For a compact connected Lie group
with Lie algebra
, the cohomology of
is defined as the de Rham cohomology arising from the complex of differential forms on
. We build on the work of Chevalley and Eilenberg [1], who introduced Lie algebra cohomology to compute de Rham cohomology, thereby translating a geometric problem into an algebraic one. Specifically, when
acts trivially on
, there exists an isomorphism:
where
denotes the space of
-invariant elements. This isomorphism provides a powerful tool for computing the de Rham cohomology of
by leveraging the algebraic structure of
. While the theory is well-known, computations become increasingly complex as the dimension grows for Lie groups. Existing literature often focuses on lower-dimensional cases (e.g.,
), but systematic computations remain challenge for classical groups of higher dimensions. This paper provides a rigorous exposition of the isomorphism and presents detailed cohomology calculations for specific classical Lie groups, namely
,
,
, and
.
This paper is organized as follows: In Sect. 2, we recall basic concepts about the de Rham cohomology and the Lie algebra cohomology. In Sect. 3, we provide a detailed proof of the isomorphism. In Sect. 4, we compute specific examples.
2. Preliminary Knowledge
This section recalls the definitions and fundamental properties of the de Rham cohomology and the Lie algebra cohomology.
Definition 1 [2] Let
be a field. A Lie algebra
is a vector space over
with a bilinear bracket
:
satisfying the following axioms for all
and
:
1) Bilinearity:
;
2) Antisymmetry:
;
3) Jacobi identity:
.
Definition 2 [2] Let
be a field and
be a unital ring. If the additive group of
forms a
-vector space, and
for all
, and
, then
is called an associative algebra over
, or simply a
-algebra.
Let
be an associative algebra over a field
. The commutator bracket
defines a Lie algebra structure on the underlying
-vector space of
.
Definition 3 [3] Let
and
be Lie algebras over a field
. A
-linear map
is a Lie algebra homomorphism if for all
A canonical example is a homomorphism from a Lie algebra
to
, the general linear Lie algebra on a vector space
.
Definition 4 [3] A representation of a Lie algebra
over a field
is a pair
, where
is a
-vector space and
is a Lie algebra homomorphism.
Definition 5 [3] For any Lie algebra
, the adjoint representation is the homomorphism
, defined by
.
The adjoint representation is fundamental for studying the structure of Lie algebra. To connect this algebraic framework to the differential geometry of Lie groups, we recall basic concepts from smooth manifold theory.
Definition 6 [4] Let
be an
-dimensional topological manifold. If a smooth structure
is specified on
, then
is called an
-dimensional smooth manifold.
Definition 7 [4] Let
be a smooth manifold. A function
is called smooth if it is smooth with respect to the smooth structure of
. The set of all smooth functions on
is denoted by
.
Definition 8 [5] Let
be a smooth manifold and
. Denote by
the algebra of germs of smooth functions at
. A tangent vector at
is a linear map
satisfying the following axioms: for all
and
,
1)
;
2)
.
The tangent space at
, denoted
, is the vector space of all tangent vectors.
Definition 9 [5] A cotangent vector at
is a linear functional
. The cotangent space
is the dual space of
.
Definition 10 [5] Let
be a smooth manifold. The tangent bundle of
is defined as
, equipped with a natural smooth structure that makes it a smooth manifold.
Definition 11 [6] A smooth vector field on a smooth manifold
is a smooth map
such that
, where
is the canonical projection. In other words,
is a smooth section of the tangent bundle.
The set of all smooth vector fields on
is denoted by
.
Definition 12 [7] Let
be a smooth manifold. A differential
-form on
is a smooth section of the
-th exterior power of the cotangent bundle, i.e., a smooth map
such that
for each
. The set of all differential
-forms on
is denoted by
.
Property 1 [6] Let
be a smooth manifold. There exists a unique operator
, called the exterior derivative, satisfying the following properties:
1)
is a linear map.
2)
,
,
.
3) For
,
is the ordinary differential of
.
4)
.
Proposition 1 [6] The space
of differential
-forms on a smooth manifold
is isomorphic as a
-module to the space of alternating
-multilinear maps
.
Proposition 2 [8] (Invariant formula) For any
and
,
where
denotes that the element
is omitted.
Definition 13 [6] Let
and
be smooth manifolds and
a smooth map. For each
, the pushforward of
at
is the linear map
defined by
for all
and
.
Definition 14 [6] Let
be a smooth map. The pullback induced by
is the map
defined by
for all
and
.
Property 2 [6] Let
be a smooth map. The pullback
satisfies the following properties:
1)
is a linear map.
2) For all
and
,
.
3)
.
Definition 15 [9] A Lie group is a group
that is also a smooth manifold such that the group operations
and inversion
are smooth maps.
For any fixed
, the maps
and
are smooth diffeomorphisms, called left multiplication and right multiplication, respectively.
The group
acts smoothly on G via
If
, this action gives the conjugation by
, denoted
.
Definition 16 [7] Let a Lie group
acts smoothly on a smooth manifold
via a map
. For each
, denote by
the smooth map
given by the action. A differential form
is called
-invariant if
, for all
.
The space of all
-invariant
-forms on
is denoted by
.
Definition 17 [9] Let
be a Lie group. A vector field
is left-invariant if for all
,
The set of all left-invariant vector fields on
forms a Lie algebra under the Lie bracket of vector fields. This Lie algebra is denoted by
and is isomorphic to the tangent space
at the identity element
. It is called the Lie algebra of
.
Definition 18 [10] A chain complex
of
-modules is a family
of
-modules together with
-modules map
such that the sequence
satisfies
for all
.
Definition 19 [10] Let
and
be chain complexes. A chain map
is a family of morphisms
such that diagram
commutes, i.e.,
for all
.
Definition 20 [10] Let
be a chain complex. Its
-th homology is defined as the quotient module
Definition 21 [10] A chain map
is called a quasi-isomorphism if for every integer
the induced map
are an isomorphism.
Definition 22 [11] Let
be a feld,
a Lie algebra over
, and
a
-module. Define
The space
can be identified with the space of alternating
-linear maps
. For
, define
by
for all
.
One can verify that
, so we obtain a cochain complex
The Lie algebra cohomology of
with coefficients in
is
3. Isomorphism between de Rham Cohomology and Lie Algebra Cohomology
This section constructs explicit chain complexe isomorphisms that induce isomorphisms in cohomology. As a consequence, we prove that for a compact connected Lie group
with Lie algebra
, the de Rham cohomology
is isomorphic to the Lie algebra cohomology
Proposition 3 [11] Let
be a smooth manifold and
a connected compact Lie group acting smoothly on
via
. Then the inclusion map
↪
is a quasi-isomorphism.
Let
be a connected Lie group with Lie algebra
. Let
be a vector space and
a representation of
. Its derivative at the identity gives the induced Lie algebra representation
Recall that for any
, the exponential map
satisfies
where exp is defined by
, with
being the maximal integral curve of the left-invariant vector field determined by
and satisfying
. Applying the chain rule to
yields
Definition 23 [12] Let
be a Lie group acting linearly on a vector space
via a representation
, and let
be the corresponding Lie algebra representation. A vector
is called
-invariant if
, for all
.
The subspace of
-invariant vectors is denoted by
. A vector
is called
-invariant if
, for all
.
The subspace of
-invariant vectors is denoted by
.
We shall now prove that these two subspaces coincide.
Proposition 4
.
Proof. We prove the equality by showing two inclusions.
1)
.
Let
, so that
for every
. For any
,
hence
.
2)
.
Let
, i.e.,
for every
. Define the evaluation map
by
. Then
Since
is connected, the map
is constant. As
, we obtain
, where
is the identity of
. Thus
. Combining (1) and (2) we conclude
.
Building on Proposition 4, we now establish an isomorphism between the complex of invariant differential forms and the cochain complex of the Lie algebra, thereby connecting the de Rham cohomology of a Lie group to its Lie algebra cohomology.
Proposition 5 The evaluation map at the identity
,
,
, defines an isomorphism of cochain complexes.
Proof. First, we verify that
is well-defined. Identifying
with the tangent space
, we have
Hence
is well-defined.
Consider the following diagram:
Let
and
. Since
is
-invariant,
. We have
, so
is also
-invariant, i.e.,
.
Next, we show that
is a chain map, i.e.,
. Let
and
. Let
be the left-invariant vector field on
with
. Since
and each
are left-invariant, we have
for all
. The invariance of
means that for any tangent vectors
,
Define the function
by
. Then
Thus,
is left-invariant. Consequently,
is left-invariant and therefore constant.
Since
acts trivially on
, we have
On the other hand,
This implies that
, so
is a chain map.
Next we prove that
is an isomorphism. Let
,
and
. Then
Hence
. It follows that
is injective.
Let
, there exists
such that
For any
,
Thus,
. Additionally, since
it follows that
. Thus,
is surjective. We conclude that
is an isomorphism.
Next, we construct a representation of the Lie group
with Lie algebra
on the cochain complex
, and show that the subspace of
-invariant cochains coincides with the subspace of
-invariant cochains.
Proposition 6
.
Proof. First, we construct the action
.
For
and
, recall that
acts on
via the adjoint action
where
is conjugation by
. This action extends naturally to the exterior power
, which we also denote by
, satisfying
Dualising gives an action
of
on
,
,
Next we verify that
is a homomorphism. For
and
it follows that
. Thus,
is a representation of
.
Now we construct the corresponding Lie algebra action
. The adjoint action of
on itself is
which we can extend to an action of
on
by
Again this dualises to an action on
,
satisfying
Next we show that
is a Lie algebra homomorphism, i.e.,
for all
. Recall that
. For
and
,
Similarly,
Hence
it follows that
. Thus,
is a representation of
.
Next we prove that
for every
. Since
it follows that
. According to Proposition 4, we conclude
.
Next we prove that for every
, its differential satisfies
. Let
and
. Because
is
-invariant,
Now compute
:
It follows that
. We finally obtain
.
We now consider the action of
on
and establish an isomorphism of cochain complexes between the space of
-invariant differential forms on
and the
-invariant supspace of the Lie algebra cochain complex.
Proposition 7 Evaluation at
,
,
defines an isomorphism of chain complexes.
Proof. Let
, we show that
, that is,
is
-invariant. For any
and
, the invariance of
gives
. Hence
Therefore
It follows that
, which means that
is
-invariant. Consequently,
is well-defined.
Consider the following diagram:
Let
and
. Since
is
-invariant, we have
so
.
Next we show that
is a chain map, i.e.,
. Let
and
. Let
be the left-invariant vector field on
with
. Because
and each
are left-invariant, the function
is left-invariant and therefore is constant. Moreover,
acts trivially on
. Consequently,
On the other hand,
This implies that
. Thus,
is a chain map.
Next, we prove that
is an isomorphism. Let
,
and
. Because a
-invariant form is in particular left-invariant, we have
This gives
. Thus,
is injective.
Let
, there exists
such that
For any
,
Thus,
. Additionally, since
it follows that
. Thus,
is surjective. We conclude that
is an isomorphism.
The isomorphisms of chain complexes established in Propositions 5 and 7, together with the quasi-isomorphism in Proposition 3 and the equality in Proposition 6, induce isomorphisms in cohomology.
Theorem 1 If
is a compact connected Lie group with Lie algebra
, then
where
acts trivially on
Proof. According to Proposition 3, we have
. Moreover, Proposition 5 also gives an isomorphism of complexes
. Consequently,
We obtain
.
Now we prove that
of the chain complex
For any
and
. Because
acts trivially on
and
is
-invariant, we have
This gives
. Combining all isomorphisms we finally obtain
4. Example
This section provides explicit cohomology computations for several examples, with a detailed derivation for
. For higher-dimensional cases (
), the rapid growth in combinatorial complexity and computational demands necessitates algorithmic approaches. We therefore compute these results programmatically using MATLAB.
Example 1 Calculate the de Rham cohomology of
and the Lie algebra cohomology of its Lie algebra
.
The Lie group
is defined as
with Lie algebra
By Theorem 1, we have isomorphisms
The Lie algebra
is spanned by the basis matrices
whose Lie brackets satisfy
Next, we compute
. For any
,
is an
-invariant linear map, i.e.,
satisfying
Write
, with
, we have
Hence
. Consequently,
Next, we compute
. For any
,
is a bilinear, alternating,
-invariant map, i.e.,
for
,
. Write
it follows that
This implies that
. Thus,
Next, we compute
. For any
,
is a 3-linear, alternating,
- invariant map, i.e.,
for
and
. According to
and
, we obtain
All three equations are automatically satisfied for any
. This implies that
is free. Consequently,
Summarising the results for
:
The Lie algebra cohomology of
,
and
is computed below using a method analogous to that employed for
. However, the increased dimensionality leads to substantial growth in computational complexity, rendering manual calculations impractical. Consequently, the results presented below were obtained via MATLAB.
Example 2 Calculate the de Rham cohomology of
and the Lie algebra cohomology of its Lie algebra
.
The Lie group
is defined as
with Lie algebra
By Theorem 1 we have the isomorphisms
A basis of
is given by the matrices
whose Lie brackets satisfy
We calculated the results below using MATLAB.
For
, all coefficients
.
For
, all coefficients
.
For
, the coefficients satisfy
with all other
.
For
, all coefficients
.
For
, all coefficients
.
For
, the coefficient
is a free parameter in
.
Hence,
Example 3 Calculate the de Rham cohomology of
and the Lie algebra cohomology of the Lie algebra
.
The Lie group
is defined as
with Lie algebra
By Theorem 1 we have the isomorphisms
The Lie algebra
is spanned by the basis matrices
whose Lie brackets satisfy
We calculated the results below using MATLAB.
For
, all coefficients
.
For
, all coefficients
.
For
, the coefficients satisfy
with all other other
.
For
, all coefficients
.
For
, all coefficients
.
For
, all coefficients
.
For
, the coefficients satisfy
with all other
.
For
, all coefficients
.
For
, all coefficients
.
For
, the coefficient
is a free parameter in
.
Hence,
Example 4 Calculate the de Rham cohomology of
and the Lie algebra cohomology of the Lie algebra
.
The Lie group
is defined as
with Lie algebra
By Theorem 1 we have the isomorphisms
The Lie algebra
is spanned by the basis matrices
whose Lie brackets satisfy
We calculated the results below using MATLAB.
For
, all coefficients
.
For
, all coefficients
.
For
, the coefficients satisfy
with all other
.
For
, all coefficients
.
For
, the coefficients satisfy
with all other
.
For
, all coefficients
.
For
, the coefficients satisfy
with all other
.
For
, the coefficients satisfy
with all other
.
For
, all coefficients
.
For
, the coefficients satisfy
with all other
.
For
, all coefficients
.
For
, the coefficients satisfy
with all other
.
For
, all coefficients
.
For
, all coefficients
.
For
, the coefficient
is a free parameter
.
Hence,
Example 5 Calculate the de Rham cohomology of
and the Lie algebra cohomology of the Lie algebra
.
The Lie group
is defined as
with Lie algebra
By Theorem 1 we have isomorphisms
The Lie algebra
is spanned by the basis matrices
whose Lie brackets satisfy
We calculated the results below using MATLAB.
For
, all coefficients
.
For
, all coefficients
.
For
, the coefficients satisfy
with all other
.
For
, all coefficients
.
For
, the coefficients satisfy
with all other
.
For
, all coefficients
.
For
, all coefficients
.
For
, the coefficient
is a free parameter in
Hence,