Commutator

This article is about the mathematical concept. For the relation between canonical conjugate entities, see canonical commutation relation. For the type of electrical switch, see commutator (electric).

In mathematics, the commutator gives an indication of the extent to which a certain binary operation fails to be commutative. There are different definitions used in group theory and ring theory.

Group theory

The commutator of two elements, g and h, of a group G, is the element

[g, h] = g⁻¹h⁻¹gh.

It is equal to the group's identity if and only if g and h commute (i.e., if and only if gh = hg). The subgroup of $G$ generated by all commutators is called the derived group or the commutator subgroup of G. Note that one must consider the subgroup generated by the set of commutators because in general the set of commutators is not closed under the group operation. Commutators are used to define nilpotent and solvable groups.

N.B. The above definition of the commutator is used by some group theorists. Many other group theorists define the commutator as

[g, h] = ghg⁻¹h⁻¹.

Identities

Commutator identities are an important tool in group theory. The expression a^x denotes the conjugate of a by x, defined as x⁻¹a x.

1. $x^{y}=x[x,y].\,$
2. $[y,x]=[x,y]^{-1}.\,$
3. $[x,zy]=[x,y]\cdot [x,z]^{y}$ and $[xz,y]=[x,y]^{z}\cdot [z,y].$
4. $[x,y^{-1}]=[y,x]^{y^{-1}}$ and $[x^{-1},y]=[y,x]^{x^{-1}}.$
5. $[[x,y^{-1}],z]^{y}\cdot [[y,z^{-1}],x]^{z}\cdot [[z,x^{-1}],y]^{x}=1$ and $[[x,y],z^{x}]\cdot [[z,x],y^{z}]\cdot [[y,z],x^{y}]=1.$

Identity 5 is also known as the Hall-Witt identity. It is a group-theoretic analogue of the Jacobi identity for the ring-theoretic commutator (see next section).

N.B. The above definition of the conjugate of a by x is used by some group theorists. Many other group theorists define the conjugate of a by x as xax⁻¹. This is often written ${}^{x}a$. Similar identities hold for these conventions.

A wide range of identities are used that are true modulo certain subgroups. These can be particularly useful in the study of solvable groups and nilpotent groups. For instance, in any group second powers behave well

$(xy)^{2}=x^{2}y^{2}[y,x][[y,x],y].\,$

If the derived subgroup is central, then

$(xy)^{n}=x^{n}y^{n}[y,x]^{\binom {n}{2}}.$

Ring theory

The commutator of two elements a and b of a ring or an associative algebra is defined by

[a, b] = ab − ba.

It is zero if and only if a and b commute. In linear algebra, if two endomorphisms of a space are represented by commuting matrices with respect to one basis, then they are so represented with respect to every basis. By using the commutator as a Lie bracket, every associative algebra can be turned into a Lie algebra.

In physics, this is an important over-arching principle in quantum mechanics. The commutator of two operators acting on a Hilbert space is a central concept in quantum mechanics, since it quantifies how well the two observables described by these operators can be measured simultaneously: The uncertainty principle is ultimately a theorem about such commutators, by virtue of the Robertson-Schrödinger relation. In phase space, equivalent commutators of function star-products are called Moyal brackets, and are completely isomorphic to the Hilbert-space commutator structures mentioned.

Identities

The commutator has the following properties:

Lie-algebra relations:

• $[A,A]=0$
• $[A,B]=-[B,A]$
• $[A,[B,C]]+[B,[C,A]]+[C,[A,B]]=0$

The second relation is called anticommutativity, while the third is the Jacobi identity.

Additional relations:

• $[A,BC]=[A,B]C+B[A,C]$
• $[AB,C]=A[B,C]+[A,C]B$
• $[ABC,D]=AB[C,D]+A[B,D]C+[A,D]BC$
• $[AB,CD]=A[B,CD]+[A,CD]B=A[B,C]D+AC[B,D]+[A,C]DB+C[A,D]B$
• $[[[A,B],C],D]+[[[B,C],D],A]+[[[C,D],A],B]+[[[D,A],B],C]=[[A,C],[B,D]]$
• $[AB,C]=A\{B,C\}-\{A,C\}B$, where {A,B}=AB+BA is the anticommutator defined below

If $A$ is a fixed element of a ring $\scriptstyle {\mathfrak {R}}$, the first additional relation can also be interpreted as a Leibniz rule for the map $\scriptstyle D_{A}:R\rightarrow R$ given by $\scriptstyle B\mapsto [A,B]$. In other words: the map $D_{A}$ defines a derivation on the ring $\scriptstyle {\mathfrak {R}}$.

The following identity involving nested commutators, underlying the Campbell-Baker-Hausdorff expansion, is also useful:

• $e^{A}Be^{-A}=B+[A,B]+{\frac {1}{2!}}[A,[A,B]]+{\frac {1}{3!}}[A,[A,[A,B]]]+\cdots \equiv e^{ad(A)}B.$

Graded rings and algebras

When dealing with graded algebras, the commutator is usually replaced by the graded commutator, defined in homogeneous components as $\ [\omega ,\eta ]_{gr}:=\omega \eta -(-1)^{\deg \omega \deg \eta }\eta \omega .$

Derivations

Especially if one deals with multiple commutators, another notation turns out to be useful involving the adjoint representation:

$\operatorname {ad} (x)(y)=[x,y].$

Then ${\rm {ad}}(x)$ is a derivation and ${\rm {ad}}$ is linear, i.e., ${\rm {ad}}(x+y)={\rm {ad}}(x)+{\rm {ad}}(y)$ and ${\rm {ad}}(\lambda x)=\lambda \,\operatorname {ad} (x)$, and a Lie algebra homomorphism, i.e., ${\rm {ad}}([x,y])=[{\rm {ad}}(x),{\rm {ad}}(y)]$, but it is not always an algebra homomorphism, i.e. the identity $\operatorname {ad} (xy)=\operatorname {ad} (x)\operatorname {ad} (y)$ does not hold in general.

Examples:

• ${\rm {ad}}(x){\rm {ad}}(x)(y)=[x,[x,y]\,]$
• ${\rm {ad}}(x){\rm {ad}}(a+b)(y)=[x,[a+b,y]\,].$

Anticommutator

The anticommutator of two elements a and b of a ring or an associative algebra is defined by

{a, b} = ab + ba.

Sometimes the brackets [ ]₊ are also used. The anticommutator is used less often than the commutator, but can be used for example to define Clifford algebras and Jordan algebras.

See also

• Anticommutativity
• Derivation (abstract algebra)
• Pincherle derivative
• Poisson bracket
• Moyal bracket
• Canonical commutation relation
• Associator

References

• Fraleigh, John B. (1976), A First Course In Abstract Algebra (2nd ed.), Reading: Addison-Wesley, ISBN 0-201-01984-1
• Griffiths, David J. (2004), Introduction to Quantum Mechanics (2nd ed.), Prentice Hall, ISBN 0-13-805326-X
• Herstein, I. N. (1964), Topics In Algebra, Waltham: Blaisdell Publishing Company
• Liboff, Richard L. (2002), Introductory Quantum Mechanics (4th ed.), Addison-Wesley, ISBN 0-8053-8714-5
• McKay, Susan (2000), Finite p-groups, Queen Mary Maths Notes, vol. 18, University of London, ISBN 978-0-902480-17-9, MR 1802994
• McMahon, D. (2008), Quantum Field Theory, USA: McGraw Hill, ISBN 978-0-07-154382-8

External links

• More commutator relations with proofs.