Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci.

USA
Vol. 93, pp. 1423314237, December 1996
Colloquium Paper

This paper was presented at a colloquium entitled Symmetries Throughout the Sciences, organized by Ernest M.
Henley, held May 1112, 1996, at the National Academy of Sciences in Irvine, CA.

A brief survey of symmetry in mathematics

G. D. MOSTOW
Yale University, Department of Mathematics, 10 Hillhouse Avenue, New Haven, CT 06520

ABSTRACT This paper presents a brief survey of the idea s 3: z 3 z 3 3 ~ z 3! 3 5 z

of symmetry in mathematics, as exemplified by some partic-
ular developments in algebra, differential equations, topology, s 5: z 3 z 5 3 ~ z 5! 5 5 z
and number theory.
s 7: z 3 z 7 3 ~ z 7! 7 5 z .
At this conference on Symmetries Throughout the Sciences, I
thought that it might be of interest to survey briefly how the
Then { s 1, s n} forms a subgroup of two elements ' Zy2Z, n 5
idea of symmetry has developed in its native habitat
3, 5, 7
mathematics.

Section 1 G 5 ~ Zy2Z ! 3 ~ Zy2Z ! .

Every congruence of two triangles in the Euclidean plane gives G has three subgroups different from s1.
a symmetry of the plane. But millenia passed before mathe- In the field Q( z )(5 Q[i, =2]),

S D
maticians began to consider the totality of symmetries G of the
plane. Once that is done, one sees that there is an algebraic
operation on G combining two elements to get a third, namely $ 1, s 3% fixes all numbers in Q 2i
the composition gzh, which sends any point x to g(h(x)). If one
extracts the notion of group from this context, a group G is a
$ 1, s 5% fixes Q @ i #
set with a binary operation (g 1, g 2) 3 g 1zg 2, which is associa-

tive: (g 1zg 2)zg 3 5 g 1z(g 2zg 3), has an identity element 1 such that
gz1 5 1zg for all g in G, and each g in G has an inverse g 21 such
that g 21zg 5 1 5 gzg 21. Towards the end of the 18th century,
this idea was used by J. L. Lagrange, A. T. Vandermonde, and
P. Ruffini. One of the great advances in mathematics was the
exploitation of this new notion by E. Galois (18111832) in an
algebraic context.
Let f(x) 5 x n 1 a 1x n21 1 . . . 1 a n be a polynomial with
coefficients in the field Q of rational numbers {myn; m, n [
Z, the ring of integers}. Then with the use of complex numbers,
f(x) 5 ) ni51 (x 2 u i) factors into linear factors, u i being the
roots of f(x).
Galois considered the group of all permutations of the roots
u 1, . . . , u n, which respect addition and multiplication of all
expressions formed by them together with rational numbers in
the field they generate.
This simple idea has had far reaching applications. To give
a rudimentary example, consider the field generated by the
roots of
f ~ x ! 5 x 8 2 1 5 0.
Let z 5 cos 2py8 1 i sin 2 p y8 5 =2y2 1 i =2y2. Then
the zeros of x 8 2 1 are 1, z, . . . , z7, and z satisfies x 4 1 1 5
0. The group G of automorphisms of the field Q(z) consists of
the four automorphisms
s n: z 3 z n,
where gcd(n, 8) 5 1, i.e., n 5 1, 3, 5, 7.
Each element of the Galois group G other than s1 has order
2; since
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F G
$ 1, s 7% fixed Q 2 .
That is, to each subgroup H of G there corresponds the unique
subfield of Q(z) whose elements it fixes, and conversely each
subfield F of Q(z) arises in this way. Finally, the number of
elements in G 5 dim(Q(z), the dimension of Q(z) as a vector
space with scalars Q.
These relations between a field generated by all the roots of
a polynomial in Q[x] and its Galois group hold generally.
Galois introduced the notion of normal subgroup (he called
it propre), proved that an irreducible polynomial of degree
5 or greater cannot be expressed by radicals, and exhibited such
irreducible polynomials. N. Abel (18021829) proved a similar
result but only for general polynomials with indeterminate
coefficients.
As an even easier application, one could settle the long-
standing geometric conjectures about the impossibility of
angle trisection and cube doubling via compass and ruler
construction.
The interest in crystallography led to the study of a class of
infinite groups. M. L. Frankenheimer in 1842 classified all the
crystallographic lattices in R3; these are groups G, which
contain a subgroup T of translations in three independent
directions in 3-space, and moreover the set of cosets {xT; x [
G}, which is denoted GyT, is a finite set. Indeed, if we take T
to be the subgroup of all translations in G, then xTx 21 5 T and
thus GyT is a finite group. In 1850, Auguste Bravais reworked
Frankenheimers results more rigorously, discovering that
there were only 14 types of crystallographic groups in R3,
correcting Frankenheimers claim of 15. These are known as
Bravais lattices.
Well come back to lattices later.

14233
14234 Colloquium Paper: Mostow
Section 2
Let us turn now to finite continuous groupsthese contain
an infinity of elements parametrized by a finite number of
parameters. The first major achievement was by the Norwegian
mathematician, Sophus M. Lie (18421899), who in 18731874
associated to each such group its algebra of infinitesimal
generators. By definition, an infinitesimal generator in local
coordinates (x 1, . . . , x n) is an operator
Xf 5 j i~ x ! f,
x i
which describes how the smooth function f changes at the
points x in the direction ( j 1(x), . . . , j n(x)).
Geometrically, X defines a vector field, which we can think
of as the velocity field of the flow dx iydt 5 j i(x)(i 5 1, . . . ,
n). The resulting flow after time t results in the finite
transformation denoted exp t X, which moves each point to its
downstream position after time t. This general notion agrees
with the usual exponential:
If A is any n 3 n matrix and j (x) 5 Ax for x [ R n, then
exp t A 5 e tA.
Lies earliest interest was in getting quadratures for differ-
ential equations from symmetries. Later, he studied the group
structures. If G is a finite continuous group, with u, v, w in
G and w 5 uzv, then the group multiplication law is specified
by r functions of 2r variables, r 5 dimG. The big idea of Lie
was that group multiplication can be determined by merely r 3
numbers in the following way.
A finite continuous transformation group G on a space M is
specified by:
(i) smooth manifolds G and M,
(ii) a multiplication G 3 G 3 G:(g 1, g 2) 3 g 1g 2,
(iii) an action G 3 M 3 M:(g, m) 3 g(m) of G on M such
that (g 1g 2)(m) 5 g 1(g 2(m)).
Let c(t) be any smooth curve in G with c(0) 5 1. Then
m 3 dc(t)(m)ydt ut50 is a vector field on M. Let G denote the
totality of such vector fields. In the special case where G acts
on itself by left multiplication, we call G the Lie algebra of G;
it is often denoted Lie(G).
Properties:
1. X, Y [ G f X 1 Y [ G, aX [ G, for all a [ R.
2. X, Y [ G f [X, Y ] [ G (where for any function f on
M, [X, Y ] f 5 XYf 2 YXf ).
3. [X [Y, Z]] 1 [Z, [X, Y ]] 1 [Y [Z, X ]] 5 0.
4. dim G # dim G, with equality if g(m) 5 m for all m [
M implies g 5 1.
Let {X 1, . . . , X r} be a base for Lie(G). Then [X i, X j] 5
rk51 c ki, j X k, c ki, j [ R.
The r 3 constants c ki, j are called Lies constants of structure.
Lie introduced the notion of a simple group Gone having
no normal subgroup of positive dimension G. He listed four
great classes of simple groups of rank n:
SL ~ n 1 1 ! , SO ~ 2n 1 1 ! , Sp ~ 2n ! , SO ~ 2n ! .
These are the matrix groups that preserve det, x 21 1 . . .
1 x 22n11, a skew-symmetric bilinear form in x 1, . . . , x 2n, and
x 21 1 . . . 1 x 22n, respectively. He had in mind the group with
complex entries. The rank n refers to the dimension of any
maximal diagonalizable subgroup of Gall such being con-
jugate under an inner automorphism (Fig. 1).
W. Killing in 18881889, classified all simple Lie algebras
(over C) of rank n (1, 2). His results needed a slight correction,
which Cartan did in this 1896 thesis. Hermann Weyl put
Cartans classification into a more geometric form, which
Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 93 (1996)
permits us to give a remarkably vivid picture of the classifi-
cation.
To each simple Lie group, there corresponds a unique simply
connected simple Lie group G (i.e., any circle in G can be
deformed to a point.) Each simple Lie group G over C has a
maximal compact subgroup G K unique up to conjugacy.
Lie (G K) is a real Lie algebra and Lie(G) 5 Lie(G K) R C; that
is, the complex Lie algebra Lie(G) consists of complex Lie
combinations of elements of Lie(G K).
Choose T, a maximal diagonalizable subgroup of G K (all
such T are conjugate in G K). G acts on itself by inner
automorphisms. This action induces a linear action on the Lie
algebra G called the adjoint representation.
Decompose G 5 QGa into spaces of common eigenvectors
for Ad T, i.e., Ad(t)X a 5 a (t)X a for all X a [ G a, t [ T.
Let L 5 Ker exp: Lie(T) 3 T; i.e., x [ L 7 x [ Lie(T) and
expX 5 1. Then L is a lattice in the sense of crystallography.
Let N(T) 5 {g [ G; gTg 21 5 T}. Then N(T) acts on Lie(T)
and stabilizes L. Moreover, W 5 N(T)yT acts faithfully on L.
G 5 W 3 L (semi-direct product) is a crystallographic
group; we call it highly symmetric, by which we mean that G
is generated by reflections in the n 1 1 faces of an n-
dimensional simplex (Fig. 1).
The classification of simple Lie groups can be formulated as:
The correspondence
Highly Symmetric Crystals 4 simple Lie algebrasyC
is a 1 2 1 correspondence. Indeed all the information about the
algebraic and geometric structure of G can be deduced from
the crystal structure (1).
The early interest of S. Lie in applications of infinitesimal
symmetries to differential equations has borne fruit. Well
known to physicists is the theorem of E. Noether (1918) that
to each infinitesimal symmetry there corresponds a conserva-
tion law (3).
Starting with a paper of Date et al. (4), a remarkable link was
discovered between representation theory of affine Lie alge-
bras and the KortewegdeVries nonlinear partial differential
equations. Starting in 1978, it has been realized that complete
integrability is related to Lie algebra theory and that both
KortewegdeVries equations and Toda systems can be viewed
FIG. 1. Unitary group SU(3) 5 simply connected compact real
form of SL(3).
 Colloquium Paper: Mostow
as Hamiltonian systems in the co-adjoint orbit of a suitable Lie
algebra (2, 5, 6).
Section 3
The most important application of groups to topology lies in
the construction via groups of special space prototypes in
terms of which all spaces can be analyzed. The construction is
via quotient spaces whose points are cosets of a group.
We consider in this section quotients of compact groups. In
the next section, we consider quotients of noncompact groups
by discrete subgroups.
A fiber bundle (E, B, F, p , G) with total space E, base B,
fiber F, projection p :E 3 B, and group G is specified by a
collection of open sets {V i} covering B and by homeomor-
phisms for each index i:
w i:V i 3 F 3 p 21~ V i! with w i:v 3 F 5 p 21~ v !
satisfying
w 21
i w j~ v, f ! 5 ~ v, g ji~ v !~ t !! , [1]
where g ji(v) [ G and is continuous in v [ V i V j.
For example, a mobius strip is the total space of a fiber
bundle over the circle S 1, with fiber the unit interval I 5
[0, 1] and the group G 5 Zy(2) acting by flipping I.
If in Eq. 1 we replace the fiber F by the group G acting on
itself by left multiplication, we obtain the principal G-bundle
associated to (E, B, F, p , G), which we denote (P, B, G, p ).
Since left and right multiplication in any group commute, the
action of G on P by right multiplication can be defined
unambiguously. A principal G-bundle (P G, B G, G, p G) is
called n-universal, if and only if p k(P G) 5 0, 0 # k , n; i.e.,
any map of the k-sphere S k to P G can be deformed to a point
for all k , n. Its basic property is: For any principal G-bundle
(P, B, G, p ) with dimB # n, there is a G-bundle map f:(P, B,
G, p ) 3 (P G, B G, G, p G) (i.e., f is continuous and respects
fibers and hence defines a map f:B 3 B G) and therefore the
bundle (P, B, G, p ) is equivalent to the pull-back bundle,
defined as
f21~ P G, B G, G, p G! 5 P 3f P G
5 $~b, x! [ B 3 PG; f~b! 5 p G~x!%.
We can take as N-universal U(q) bundle the principal bundle
(P G, B G, U(q), p G) with
P G 5 U ~ q 1 N ! yU ~ N ! 5 $ orthonormal q-frames in C q1n%
B G 5 U ~ q 1 N ! yU ~ N ! 3 U ~ q ! 5 Gr ~ q, N, C !
5 $q-dimensional vector subspaces in Cq1N%.
Clearly dimC Gr(q, N, C) 5 qN.
Fix C i1N2i in C q1N. Let
] i 5 $ V [ Gr ~ q, N, C ! ; dim V C i1N21 $ i % .
] i is called a Schubert cycle; dimR ] i 5 2(qN 2 i). Intersec-
tions of ] i with cycles of dim 2 i defines a linear function on the
homology group H 2i(Gr(q, N, C), Z); hence, an element c i the
cohomology group H 2i(Gr(q, N, Z)).
The i th Chern class of principal bundle (P, B, G, p ) is
defined as the element in H 2i(B, Z) given by
c i~ P, B, U ~ q ! , p ! 5 f*c i,
where N is taken $ dim B.
These topological invariants can be expressed in terms of the
curvature of the bundle
Example. (P, B, G, p ) with G 5 GL(q, C)
Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 93 (1996) 14235
f 5 connection on bundle 5 1-form, values in Lie(G),
F 5 curvature 5 d f 2 1y2 [ f , f ] is a Lie(G) 2 valued 2 2
form on p
det( l I q 2 1y(2 p =21) X ) 5 l q 1 F 1(X) l q21 1 . . . 1
F q(X), x [ Lie(G).
Then F i(F) 5 c i(P, B, G, p ) [ H 2i(B, Z) (7).
The foregoing ideas are exploited in YangMills theories.
Section 4. Discrete Groups
By a lattice G in a Lie group G, we mean a subgroup which
is
(i) discrete (i.e., no accumulation points),
(ii) GyG has finite Haar measure.
Example. SL(n, Z) is a lattice in SL(n, R).
BORELHARISHCHANDRA THEOREM (1961). G(Z) is a
lattice in G(R) for any algebraic group defined over Q with no
homomorphisms to scalars defined over Q (8).
Such lattices and closely related ones are called arithmetic.
A near converse to the foregoing theorem is the
Margulis Theorem (1974). A lattice in a semi-simple group of
R-rank . 1 and with no R-rank 1 factors is arithmetic (9).
Margulis result came from a strengthening of the following
rigidity theorem.
THEOREM (MOSTOW, 1972). Let G, G9 be semi-simple Lie
groups having no compact factors and no centers. Let G, G9 be
lattices in G, G9, respectively. Assume GyG and G9yG9 are
compact, and u:G 3 G9 is an isomorphism. Then u extends to an
analytic isomorphism G 3 G9, except in the case that G 5 SL(2,
R)y6 1.
Underlying the proof of this rigidity theorem is the study of
the space of double cosets K\GyG associated to the pair (G, G),
where K is a maximal compact subgroup (10). The space KyG
is a symmetric Riemannian space; at each of its points, the map
reversing the direction of geodesics gives an isometry of the
space [Example: hyperbolic n-space 5 SO(n)\SO o(n, 1)]. The
space K\GyG for (G, K) as above and G a discrete subgroup is
a locally symmetric space.
This rigidity result is false for SL(2, R)y6 1, as is well-
known from the theory of one complex variable.
Margulis strengthening consisted in replacing the hypoth-
esis on G9 by a weaker one, permitting u to be a homomor-
phism, and implementing the boundary map strategy used in
proving rigidity, but replacing the geometric arguments in
Mostows proof by measure theoretic arguments based on the
multiplicative ergodic theorem.
The applications of the rigidity theorem that have been
made by W. Thurston to the study of three-dimensional
manifolds depend on the 1968 version that was proved for
SO(1, n) using the theory of quasi-conformal mappings in
n-space (11). (The first version assumes that GyG is compact;
subsequently, the general strategy was extended by Gopal
Prasad to the case of arbitrary lattices in SO(1, n), (n . 1))
(12).
FIG. 2. The figure-eight knot.
14236 Colloquium Paper: Mostow
FIG. 3. A regular ideal tetrahedron in B3.
As a consequence of this rigidity theorem, the metric
invariants of n-dimensional manifolds (n . 2) having finite
volume hyperbolic structure are topological invariants!
Thurstons central conjecture is that 3-manifolds can be
decomposed canonically into pieces each having geometric
structure K\GyG, a space of double cosets of a group (13). In
some of the most important cases, the geometric structure is
finite volume hyperbolic. For example, the complement of a
figure-eight knot in S 3 (Figs. 25), or that obtained by (p, q)
Dehn surgery has finite volume hyperbolic structure if upu . 4
or uqu . 1. The proof is based on remarkable geometry-guided
computations (14).
Another line of investigation in topology has been directed
at topological characterization of spaces, which admit nega-
tively curved metrics resembling those on negatively curved
locally symmetric spaces (15).
Section 5. Number Theory
We conclude with a bare bones statement of the ongoing
Langlands program (16, 17).
The locally compact adele ring A of Q is defined as
A 5 R ^ Q2 3 Q3 3 Q5 3 . . . ,
the restricted direct product of the field R and the p-adic
completions Q p for all primes p. Then Q embeds diagonally in
A and its image is discrete. Consider G 5 GL(n), G(A) 5
FIG. 4. The gluing pattern figure-eight knot complement.
Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 93 (1996)
FIG. 5. The figure-eight knot draped over the tetrahedron T.
GL(n, A), and G(Q) 5 GL(n, Q), which is discrete in G(A).
We define the regular representation R of G(A) on L 2
(G(Q)\G(A)) via R(g)f(x) 5 f(xg) for x, g [ G. A represen-
tation p of G(A) is called automorphic if and only if p is
irreducible, unitary, and occurs in the decomposition of R or
from an analytic continuation of such.
The decomposition alluded to here owes much to profound
work of Harish-Chandra and, later, Langlands (18, 19). Then
p decomposes as a tensor product
p 5 pR ^ p2 ^ p3 ^ p5 ^ . . . ,
with each pp an irreducible unitary representation of G(Qp). For
all p some finite set Sp, pp contains a vector fixed by G(Zp). By
the representation theory of Qp, pp 5 pp, u, i.e., depends on a
parameter u [ Cn and is unitary if u [ =21Rn. Moreover,
2 p iZ
p p,u , p p,u9 N ~ u91, . . . , u9n! 5 ~ u s~1!, . . . , u s~n!! mod ,
log p
s being a permutation.
Set t( p p) 5 conjugacy class of S p2u1
0
0
p2un D in
GL(n, C)
t ~ p ! 5 $ t ~ p p! ; pS p% .
Given f:Gal(Q, Q) 3 GL(n, C) continuous (i.e., Kerf is the
fixer of a finite dimensional Galois extension field E of Q),
there is a finite set of prime numbers S w such that the ideal Z Ep
in the ring Z E of algebraic integers in E P e . . . , with e . 1
(i.e., p does not ramify in E) for all p S f. For such p S f,
the Frobenius p th power automorphism of Z EyP over Zy(p) is
 Colloquium Paper: Mostow Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 93 (1996) 14237

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