{{unreferenced, date=September 2009 In mathematics, Lie group decompositions are used to analyse the structure of Lie groups and associated objects, by showing how they are built up out of

subgroup In group theory, a branch of mathematics, given a group ''G'' under a binary operation ∗, a subset ''H'' of ''G'' is called a subgroup of ''G'' if ''H'' also forms a group under the operation ∗. More precisely, ''H'' is a subgroup ...

s. They are essential technical tools in the

representation theory Representation theory is a branch of mathematics that studies abstract algebraic structures by ''representing'' their elements as linear transformations of vector spaces, and studies modules over these abstract algebraic structures. In essen ...

of Lie groups and Lie algebras; they can also be used to study the

algebraic topology Algebraic topology is a branch of mathematics that uses tools from abstract algebra to study topological spaces. The basic goal is to find algebraic invariants that classify topological spaces up to homeomorphism, though usually most classify ...

of such groups and associated homogeneous spaces. Since the use of Lie group methods became one of the standard techniques in twentieth century mathematics, many phenomena can now be referred back to decompositions. The same ideas are often applied to Lie groups, Lie algebras,

algebraic group In mathematics, an algebraic group is an algebraic variety endowed with a group structure which is compatible with its structure as an algebraic variety. Thus the study of algebraic groups belongs both to algebraic geometry and group theory. Ma ...

s and

p-adic number In mathematics, the -adic number system for any prime number extends the ordinary arithmetic of the rational numbers in a different way from the extension of the rational number system to the real and complex number systems. The extensi ...

analogues, making it harder to summarise the facts into a unified theory.

List of decompositions

* The

Jordan–Chevalley decomposition In mathematics, the Jordan–Chevalley decomposition, named after Camille Jordan and Claude Chevalley, expresses a linear operator as the sum of its commuting semisimple part and its nilpotent part. The multiplicative decomposition expresses an inve ...

of an element in algebraic group as a product of semisimple and unipotent elements * The

Bruhat decomposition In mathematics, the Bruhat decomposition (introduced by François Bruhat for classical groups and by Claude Chevalley in general) ''G'' = ''BWB'' of certain algebraic groups ''G'' into cells can be regarded as a general expression of the principle ...

''G'' = ''BWB'' of a

semisimple algebraic group In mathematics, a reductive group is a type of linear algebraic group over a field. One definition is that a connected linear algebraic group ''G'' over a perfect field is reductive if it has a representation with finite kernel which is a direc ...

into double

coset In mathematics, specifically group theory, a subgroup of a group may be used to decompose the underlying set of into disjoint, equal-size subsets called cosets. There are ''left cosets'' and ''right cosets''. Cosets (both left and right) ...

s of a

Borel subgroup In the theory of algebraic groups, a Borel subgroup of an algebraic group ''G'' is a maximal Zariski closed and connected solvable algebraic subgroup. For example, in the general linear group ''GLn'' (''n x n'' invertible matrices), the subgroup ...

can be regarded as a generalization of the principle of

Gauss–Jordan elimination In mathematics, Gaussian elimination, also known as row reduction, is an algorithm for solving systems of linear equations. It consists of a sequence of operations performed on the corresponding matrix of coefficients. This method can also be used ...

, which generically writes a matrix as the product of an upper triangular matrix with a lower triangular matrix—but with exceptional cases. It is related to the Schubert cell decomposition of

Grassmannian In mathematics, the Grassmannian is a space that parameterizes all -dimensional linear subspaces of the -dimensional vector space . For example, the Grassmannian is the space of lines through the origin in , so it is the same as the projective ...

s: see

Weyl group In mathematics, in particular the theory of Lie algebras, the Weyl group (named after Hermann Weyl) of a root system Φ is a subgroup of the isometry group of that root system. Specifically, it is the subgroup which is generated by reflections ...

for more details. *The

Cartan decomposition In mathematics, the Cartan decomposition is a decomposition of a semisimple Lie group or Lie algebra, which plays an important role in their structure theory and representation theory. It generalizes the polar decomposition or singular value decom ...

writes a semisimple real Lie algebra as the sum of eigenspaces of a

Cartan involution In mathematics, the Cartan decomposition is a decomposition of a semisimple Lie group or Lie algebra, which plays an important role in their structure theory and representation theory. It generalizes the polar decomposition or singular value decom ...

. * The

Iwasawa decomposition In mathematics, the Iwasawa decomposition (aka KAN from its expression) of a semisimple Lie group generalises the way a square real matrix can be written as a product of an orthogonal matrix and an upper triangular matrix (QR decomposition, a cons ...

''G'' = ''KAN'' of a semisimple group ''G'' as the product of

compact Compact as used in politics may refer broadly to a pact or treaty; in more specific cases it may refer to: * Interstate compact * Blood compact, an ancient ritual of the Philippines * Compact government, a type of colonial rule utilized in British ...

, abelian, and

nilpotent In mathematics, an element x of a ring R is called nilpotent if there exists some positive integer n, called the index (or sometimes the degree), such that x^n=0. The term was introduced by Benjamin Peirce in the context of his work on the cla ...

subgroups generalises the way a square real matrix can be written as a product of an

orthogonal matrix In linear algebra, an orthogonal matrix, or orthonormal matrix, is a real square matrix whose columns and rows are orthonormal vectors. One way to express this is Q^\mathrm Q = Q Q^\mathrm = I, where is the transpose of and is the identity m ...

and an

upper triangular matrix In mathematics, a triangular matrix is a special kind of square matrix. A square matrix is called if all the entries ''above'' the main diagonal are zero. Similarly, a square matrix is called if all the entries ''below'' the main diagonal are ...

(a consequence of Gram–Schmidt orthogonalization). *The

Langlands decomposition In mathematics, the Langlands decomposition writes a parabolic subgroup ''P'' of a semisimple Lie group as a product P=MAN of a reductive subgroup ''M'', an abelian subgroup ''A'', and a nilpotent subgroup ''N''. Applications A key applicat ...

''P'' = ''MAN'' writes a parabolic subgroup ''P'' of a Lie group as the product of semisimple, abelian, and nilpotent subgroups. * The

Levi decomposition In Lie theory and representation theory, the Levi decomposition, conjectured by Wilhelm Killing and Élie Cartan and proved by , states that any finite-dimensional real Lie algebra ''g'' is the semidirect product of a solvable ideal and a semi ...

writes a finite dimensional Lie algebra as a semidirect product of a normal solvable ideal and a

semisimple In mathematics, semi-simplicity is a widespread concept in disciplines such as linear algebra, abstract algebra, representation theory, category theory, and algebraic geometry. A semi-simple object is one that can be decomposed into a sum of ''sim ...

subalgebra. * The

LU decomposition In numerical analysis and linear algebra, lower–upper (LU) decomposition or factorization factors a matrix as the product of a lower triangular matrix and an upper triangular matrix (see matrix decomposition). The product sometimes includes a p ...

of a dense subset in the general linear group. It can be considered as a special case of the

. * The Birkhoff decomposition, a special case of the

for affine groups. Lie groups factorization