All the 3-dimensional Lie algebras other than types VIII and IX can be constructed as a
semidirect product of
R2 and
R, with
R acting on
R2 by some 2 by 2 matrix
M. The different types correspond to different types of matrices
M, as described below. •
Type I: This is the abelian and
unimodular Lie algebra
R3. The simply connected group has center
R3 and outer automorphism group GL3(
R). This is the case when
M is 0. •
Type II: The
Heisenberg algebra, which is
nilpotent and unimodular. The simply connected group has center
R and outer automorphism group GL2(
R). This is the case when
M is nilpotent but not 0 (eigenvalues all 0). •
Type III: This algebra is a product of
R and the 2-dimensional non-abelian Lie algebra. (It is a limiting case of type VI, where one eigenvalue becomes zero.) It is
solvable and not unimodular. The simply connected group has center
R and outer automorphism group the group of non-zero real numbers. The matrix
M has one zero and one non-zero eigenvalue. •
Type IV: The algebra generated by [
y,
z] = 0, [
x,
y] =
y, [
x,
z] =
y +
z. It is solvable and not unimodular. The simply connected group has trivial center and outer automorphism group the product of the reals and a group of order 2. The matrix
M has two equal non-zero eigenvalues, but is not
diagonalizable. •
Type V: [
y,
z] = 0, [
x,
y] =
y, [
x,
z] =
z. Solvable and not unimodular. (A limiting case of type VI where both eigenvalues are equal.) The simply connected group has trivial center and outer automorphism group the elements of GL2(
R) of determinant +1 or −1. The matrix
M has two equal eigenvalues, and is diagonalizable. •
Type VI: An infinite family: semidirect products of
R2 by
R, where the matrix
M has non-zero distinct real eigenvalues with non-zero sum. The algebras are solvable and not unimodular. The simply connected group has trivial center and outer automorphism group a product of the non-zero real numbers and a group of order 2. •
Type VI0: This Lie algebra is the semidirect product of
R2 by
R, with
R where the matrix
M has non-zero distinct real eigenvalues with zero sum. It is solvable and unimodular. It is the Lie algebra of the 2-dimensional
Poincaré group, the group of isometries of 2-dimensional
Minkowski space. The simply connected group has trivial center and outer automorphism group the product of the
positive real numbers with the
dihedral group of order 8. •
Type VII: An infinite family: semidirect products of
R2 by
R, where the matrix
M has non-real and non-imaginary eigenvalues. Solvable and not unimodular. The simply connected group has trivial center and outer automorphism group the non-zero reals. •
Type VII0: Semidirect product of
R2 by
R, where the matrix
M has non-zero imaginary eigenvalues. Solvable and unimodular. This is the Lie algebra of the group of isometries of the plane. The simply connected group has center
Z and outer automorphism group a product of the non-zero real numbers and a group of order 2. •
Type VIII: The Lie algebra
sl2(
R) of traceless 2 by 2 matrices, associated to the group
SL2(R). It is
simple and unimodular. The simply connected group is not a matrix group; it is denoted by \overline{\mbox{SL}(2,\mathbf{R})}, has center
Z and its outer automorphism group has order 2. •
Type IX: The Lie algebra of the
orthogonal group O3(
R). It is denoted by
𝖘𝖔(3) and is simple and unimodular. The corresponding simply connected group is
SU(2); it has center of order 2 and trivial outer automorphism group, and is a
spin group. The classification of 3-dimensional complex Lie algebras is similar except that types VIII and IX become isomorphic, and types VI and VII both become part of a single family of Lie algebras. The connected 3-dimensional Lie groups can be classified as follows: they are a quotient of the corresponding simply connected Lie group by a discrete subgroup of the center, so can be read off from the table above. The groups are related to the 8 geometries of Thurston's
geometrization conjecture. More precisely, seven of the 8 geometries can be realized as a left-invariant metric on the simply connected group (sometimes in more than one way). The Thurston geometry of type
S2×
R cannot be realized in this way.
Structure constants The three-dimensional Bianchi spaces each admit a set of three
Killing vector fields \xi^{(a)}_i which obey the following property: :\left( \frac{\partial \xi^{(c)}_i}{\partial x^k} - \frac{\partial \xi^{(c)}_k}{\partial x^i} \right) \xi^i_{(a)} \xi^k_{(b)} = C^c_{\ ab} where C^c_{\ ab}, the "structure constants" of the group, form a
constant order-three tensor antisymmetric in its lower two indices. For any three-dimensional Bianchi space, C^c_{\ ab} is given by the relationship :C^c_{\ ab} = \varepsilon_{abd}n^{cd} - \delta^c_a a_b + \delta^c_b a_a where \varepsilon_{abd} is the
Levi-Civita symbol, \delta^c_a is the
Kronecker delta, and the vector a_a = (a,0,0) and
diagonal tensor n^{cd} are described by the following table, where n^{(i)} gives the
ith
eigenvalue of n^{cd}; the parameter
a runs over all positive
real numbers: The standard Bianchi classification can be derived from the structural constants in the following six steps: • Due to the antisymmetry C_{ab}^c = -C_{ba}^c, there are nine independent constants C_{ab}^c. These can be equivalently represented by the nine components of an arbitrary constant matrix
Cab: C_{ab}^c = \varepsilon_{abd} C^{dc},where ε
abd is the totally antisymmetric three-dimensional Levi-Civita symbol (ε123 = 1). Substitution of this expression for C_{ab}^c into the
Jacobi identity, results in \varepsilon_{abd} C^{bd} C^{ac} = 0. • The structure constants can be transformed as:C^{ab} = \left (\det{A} \right )^{-1} A_m^a A_n^b \acute{C}^{mn}.Appearance of det
A in this formula is due to the fact that the symbol ε
abd transforms as
tensor density: \varepsilon_{abc} = \left ( \det{A} \right ) D_a^m D_b^n D_c^d \acute{\varepsilon}_{mnd}, where έ
mnd ≡ ε
mnd. By this transformation it is always possible to reduce the matrix
Cab to the form:C^{ab} = \begin{bmatrix} n_1 & 0 & 0 \\ 0 & C^{22} & C^{23} \\ 0 & C^{32} & C^{33} \end{bmatrix}. After such a choice, one still have the freedom of making triad transformations but with the restrictions A_2^1 = A_3^1 = 0 and A_1^2 = A_1^3 = 0. • Now, the Jacobi identities give only one constraint: \left ( C^{23} - C^{32} \right ) n_1 = 0. • If
n1 ≠ 0 then
C23 –
C32 = 0 and by the remaining transformations with A_{\bar{b}}^{\bar{a}} \neq 0 , \quad \bar{a},\bar{b} = \bar{2},\bar{3}, the 2 × 2 matrix C^{\bar{a} \bar{b}} in
Cab can be made diagonal. ThenC^{ab} = \begin{bmatrix} n_1 & 0 & 0 \\ 0 & n_2 & 0 \\ 0 & 0 & n_3 \end{bmatrix}. The diagonality condition for
Cab is preserved under the transformations with diagonal A_b^a. Under these transformations, the three parameters
n1,
n2,
n3 change in the following way:n_a = \left ( A_1^1 A_2^2 A_3^3 \right ) \left ( A_a^a \right )^2 \acute{n}_a, \text{no summation over} \ a.By these diagonal transformations, the modulus of any
na (if it is not zero) can be made equal to unity. Taking into account that the simultaneous change of sign of all
na produce nothing new, one arrives to the following invariantly different sets for the numbers
n1,
n2,
n3 (invariantly different in the sense that there is no way to pass from one to another by some transformation of the triad e_a^{\bar{a}} = A_{\bar{b}}^{\bar{a}} e_a^{\bar{b}}), that is to the following different types of homogeneous spaces with diagonal matrix
Cab:\begin{matrix} Bianchi \ IX & : & (n_1, n_2, n_3) & = & (1, 1, 1), \\ Bianchi \ VIII & : & (n_1, n_2, n_3) & = & (1, 1, -1), \\ Bianchi \ VII_0 & : & (n_1, n_2, n_3) & = & (1, 1, 0), \\ Bianchi \ VI_0 & : & (n_1, n_2, n_3) & = & (1, -1, 0), \\ Bianchi \ II & : & (n_1, n_2, n_3) & = & (1, 0, 0). \end{matrix} • Consider now the case
n1 = 0. It can also happen in that case that
C23 –
C32 = 0. This returns to the situation already analyzed in the previous step but with the additional condition
n1 = 0. Now, all essentially different types for the sets
n1,
n2,
n3 are (0, 1, 1), (0, 1, −1), (0, 0, 1) and (0, 0, 0). The first three repeat the types
VII0,
VI0,
II. Consequently, only one new type arises:Bianchi \ I \ : \ (n_1 , n_2 , n_3) \ = \ (0, 0, 0). • The only case left is
n1 = 0 and
C23 –
C32 ≠ 0. Now the 2 × 2 matrix C^{\bar{a} \bar{b}} ( \bar{a}, \bar{b} = 2, 3) is non-symmetric and it cannot be made diagonal by transformations using A_{\bar{b}}^{\bar{a}} \neq 0. However, its symmetric part can be diagonalized, that is the 3 × 3 matrix
Cab can be reduced to the form:C^{ab} = \begin{bmatrix} 0 & 0 & 0 \\ 0 & n_2 & a \\ 0 & -a & n_3 \end{bmatrix}, where
a is an arbitrary number. After this is done, there still remains the possibility to perform transformations with diagonal A_{\bar{b}}^{\bar{a}}, under which the quantities
n2,
n3 and
a change as follows:n_2 = \left ( A_1^1 A_2^2 A_3^3 \right )^{-1} \left ( A_2^2 \right )^2 \acute{n}_2, \quad n_3 = \left ( A_1^1 A_2^2 A_3^3 \right )^{-1} \left ( A_3^3 \right )^2 \acute{n}_3, \quad a = \left ( A_1^1 \right )^{-1} \acute{a}.These formulas show that for nonzero
n2,
n3,
a, the combination
a2(
n2
n3)−1 is an invariant quantity. By a choice of A_1^1, one can impose the condition
a > 0 and after this is done, the choice of the sign of A_3^3 \left ( A_2^2 \right )^{-1} permits one to change both signs of
n2 and
n3 simultaneously, that is the set (
n2 ,
n3) is equivalent to the set (−
n2,−
n3). It follows that there are the following four different possibilities:(a, n_2, n_3 ) = (a, 0, 0), (a, 0, 1), (a, 1, 1), (a, 1,-1).For the first two, the number
a can be transformed to unity by a choice ofthe parameters A_1^1 and A_3^3 \left ( A_2^2 \right )^{-1}. For the second two possibilities, both of these parameters are already fixed and
a remains an invariant and arbitrary positive number. Historically these four types of homogeneous spaces have been classified as:\begin{matrix} Bianchi \ V & : & n_1 = 0, \ (a, n_2, n_3) & = & (1, 0, 0), \\ Bianchi \ IV & : & n_1 = 0, \ (a, n_2, n_3) & = & (1, 0, 1), \\ Bianchi \ VII & : & n_1 = 0, \ (a, n_2, n_3) & = & (a, 1, 1), \\ Bianchi \ III & : & n_1 = 0, \ (a, n_2, n_3) & = & (1, 1, -1), \\ Bianchi \ VI & : & n_1 = 0, \ (a, n_2, n_3) & = & (a, 1, -1). \end{matrix} Type
III is just a particular case of type
VI corresponding to
a = 1. Types
VII and
VI contain an infinity of invariantly different types of algebras corresponding to the arbitrariness of the continuous parameter
a. Type
VII0 is a particular case of
VII corresponding to
a = 0 while type
VI0 is a particular case of
VI corresponding also to
a = 0.
Curvature of Bianchi spaces The Bianchi spaces have the property that their
Ricci tensors can be
separated into a product of the
basis vectors associated with the space and a coordinate-independent tensor. For a given
metric: :ds^2 = \gamma_{ab} \xi^{(a)}_i \xi^{(b)}_k dx^i dx^k (where \xi^{(a)}_idx^i are
1-forms), the Ricci curvature tensor R_{ik} is given by: :R_{ik} = R_{(a)(b)} \xi^{(a)}_i \xi^{(b)}_k :R_{(a)(b)} = \frac{1}{2} \left[ C^{cd}_{\ \ b} \left( C_{cda} + C_{dca} \right) + C^c_{\ cd} \left( C^{\ \ d}_{ab} + C^{\ \ d}_{ba} \right) - \frac{1}{2} C^{\ cd}_b C_{acd} \right] where the indices on the structure constants are raised and lowered with \gamma_{ab} which is not a function of x^i. == Cosmological application ==