Cayley's Ω process

In mathematics, Cayley's Ω process, introduced by

group action

.

As a

partial differential operator acting on functions of n² variables x_ij, the omega operator is given by the determinant

\Omega ={\begin{vmatrix}{\frac {\partial }{\partial x_{11}}}&\cdots &{\frac {\partial }{\partial x_{1n}}}\\\vdots &\ddots &\vdots \\{\frac {\partial }{\partial x_{n1}}}&\cdots &{\frac {\partial }{\partial x_{nn}}}\end{vmatrix}}.

For binary forms f in x₁, y₁ and g in x₂, y₂ the Ω operator is ${\frac {\partial ^{2}fg}{\partial x_{1}\partial y_{2}}}-{\frac {\partial ^{2}fg}{\partial x_{2}\partial y_{1}}}$ . The r-fold Ω process Ω^r(f, g) on two forms f and g in the variables x and y is then

Convert f to a form in x₁, y₁ and g to a form in x₂, y₂
Apply the Ω operator r times to the function fg, that is, f times g in these four variables
Substitute x for x₁ and x₂, y for y₁ and y₂ in the result

The result of the r-fold Ω process Ω^r(f, g) on the two forms f and g is also called the r-th transvectant and is commonly written (f, g)^r.

Applications

Cayley's Ω process appears in Capelli's identity, which Weyl (1946) used to find generators for the invariants of various classical groups acting on natural polynomial algebras.

Hilbert (1890) used Cayley's Ω process in his proof of finite generation of rings of invariants of the general linear group. His use of the Ω process gives an explicit formula for the Reynolds operator of the special linear group.

Cayley's Ω process is used to define transvectants.

References

Cayley, Arthur (1846), "On linear transformations", Cambridge and Dublin Mathematical Journal, 1: 104–122 Reprinted in Cayley (1889), The collected mathematical papers, vol. 1, Cambridge: Cambridge University press, pp. 95–112
S2CID 179177713

MR 0986027

ISBN 978-0-521-55821-1

MR 1255980

MR 0000255
, retrieved 26 March 2007