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In mathematics, a Casimir invariant or Casimir operator is a differential operator that commutes with all the generators of a Lie algebra. A prototypical example is the squared angular momentum operator, which is a Casimir invariant of the three-dimensional rotation group.

Definition

The quadratic Casimir operator ${\displaystyle \Omega }$ of an ${\displaystyle n}$-dimensional semisimple Lie algebra ${\displaystyle {\mathfrak {g}}}$ is defined as follows: Let

${\displaystyle (X_{i})_{i=1}^{n}}$

be a basis of ${\displaystyle {\mathfrak {g}}}$, and

${\displaystyle (Y_{i})_{i=1}^{n}}$

be a basis of ${\displaystyle {\mathfrak {g}}^{*}}$, where ${\displaystyle {\mathfrak {g}}^{*}}$ is the dual of ${\displaystyle {\mathfrak {g}}}$ with respect to the Killing form, ${\displaystyle B}$.

The Casimir operator, ${\displaystyle \Omega }$, is given by

${\displaystyle \Omega =\sum _{i,j=1}^{n}B(X_{i},X_{j})Y_{i}Y_{j}}$

More general Casimir invariants may also be defined, commonly ocurring in the study of pseudo-differential operators in Fredholm theory.

Properties

The Casimir operator is a distinguished element of the center of the universal enveloping algebra of the Lie algebra. In other words, it is a member of the algebra of all differential operators that commutes with all the generators in the Lie algebra.

The number of independent elements of the center of the universal enveloping algebra is also the rank in the case of a semisimple Lie algebra. The Casimir operator gives the concept of the Laplacian on a general semisimple Lie group; but this way of counting shows that there may be no unique analogue of the Laplacian, for rank > 1.

In any irreducible representation of the Lie algebra, by Schur's Lemma, any member of the center of the universal enveloping algebra commutes with everything and thus is proportional to the identity. This constant of proportionality can be used to classify the representations of the Lie algebra (and hence, also of its Lie group). Physical mass and spin are examples of these constants, as are many other quantum numbers found in quantum mechanics. Superficially, topological quantum numbers form an exception to this pattern; although deeper theories hint that these are two facets of the same phenomenon.

Example: so(3)

The Lie algebra so(3) is the Lie algebra of SO(3), the rotation group for three-dimensional Euclidean space. It is semisimple of rank 1, and so it has a single independent Casimir. The Killing form for the rotation group is just the Kronecker delta, and so the Casimir invariant is simply the sum of the squares of the generators ${\displaystyle L_{x},L_{y},L_{z}}$ of the algebra. That is, the Casimir invariant is given by

${\displaystyle L^{2}=L_{x}^{2}+L_{y}^{2}+L_{z}^{2}}$

The invariance of the Casimir operator implies that it is a multiple of the identity element e of the algebra, so that

${\displaystyle L^{2}=L_{x}^{2}+L_{y}^{2}+L_{z}^{2}=l(l+1)e}$

In quantum mechanics, the scalar value ${\displaystyle l}$ is referred to as the total angular momentum. For finite-dimensional matrix-valued representations of the rotation group, ${\displaystyle l}$ always takes on integer values (for bosonic representations) or half-integer values (for fermionic representations).

For a given value of ${\displaystyle l}$, the matrix representation is ${\displaystyle 2l+1}$-dimensional. Thus, for example, the three-dimensional representation for so(3) corresponds to ${\displaystyle l=1}$, and is given by the generators

${\displaystyle L_{x}={\begin{pmatrix}0&0&0\\0&0&-1\\0&1&0\end{pmatrix}},L_{y}={\begin{pmatrix}0&0&-1\\0&0&0\\1&0&0\end{pmatrix}},L_{z}={\begin{pmatrix}0&-1&0\\1&0&0\\0&0&0\end{pmatrix}}.}$

The quadratic Casimir invariant is then

${\displaystyle L^{2}=L_{x}^{2}+L_{y}^{2}+L_{z}^{2}=2{\begin{pmatrix}1&0&0\\0&1&0\\0&0&1\end{pmatrix}}}$

as ${\displaystyle l(l+1)=2}$ when ${\displaystyle l=1}$. Similarly, the two dimensional representation has a basis given by the Pauli matricies, which correspond to spin 1/2.

See also

• Harish-Chandra isomorphism

• Representation theory of Lie groups
• Lie algebras