Physics 251

Properties of the Gell-Mann matrices

Spring 2013

The Gell-Mann matrices are the traceless hermitian generators of the Lie algebra su(3), analogous to the Pauli matrices of su(2). The eight Gell-Mann matrices are dened by: 0 1 0 0 i 0 1 0 0 1 = 1 0 0 , 2 = i 0 0 , 3 = 0 1 0 , 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 4 = 0 0 0 7 = 0 0 0 0 0 1 1 , 0 0 5 = 0 i 0 i 0 0 , 0 0 0 0 1 0 . 0 2 0 6 = 0 0 0 0 1 0 1 , 0

0 0 0 i , i 0

1 1 0 8 = 3 0

The Gell-Mann matrices satisfy commutation relation, [a , b] = 2ifabc c , where a, b, c = 1, 2, 3, . . . , 8 ,

where there is an implicit sum over c, and the structure constants fabc are totally antisymmetric under the interchange of any pair of indices. The explicit form of the non-zero su(3) structure constants are listed in Table 1. Table 1: Non-zero structure constants1 fabc of su(3). abc 123 147 156 246 257
1

fabc 1
1 2

abc 345 367 458 678

fabc
1 2 1 2

1 2
1 2 1 2

1 2 2

3 3

The fabc are antisymmetric under the permutation of any pair of indices.

The following properties of the Gell-Mann matrices are also useful: Tr(a b ) = 2ab ,
4 ab , {a , b } = 2dabc c + 3

where {A, B } AB + BA is the anticommutator of A and B . It follows that i Tr a [b , c ] , fabc = 1 4 dabc = 1 Tr a {b , c } . 4 The dabc are totally symmetric under the interchange of any pair of indices. The explicit form of the non-zero dabc are listed in Table 2. Table 2: Non-zero independent elements of the tensor2 dabc of su(3). abc 118 146 157 228 247 256 338 344
2

dabc
1 3 1 2 1 2 1 3 1 2 1 2 1 3 1 2

abc 355 366 377 448 558 668 778 888

dabc
1 2 1 2 1 2 1 2 3 1 2 3 1 2 3 1 23 1 3

The dabc are symmetric under the permutation of any pair of indices.

The dabc can be employed to construct a cubic Casimir operator for su(3), d , C3 1 8 abc a b c where all repeated indices are summed over. The overall factor of It is straightforward to prove that, [a , C3 ] = 0 , for a = 1, 2, 3, . . . , 8 .
1 8

is conventional.

Since C3 commutes with all the su(3) generators of the dening representation, it follows that C3 is a multiple of the identity. One can dene C3 for any d-dimensional irreducible representation of su(3). Denoting the traceless hermitian generators by Ra ,1 C3 (R) dabc Ra Rb Rc = c3R I , where I is the d d identity matrix. For an irreducible representation of su(3) denoted by (n, m), corresponding to a Young diagram with n + m boxes in the rst row and n boxes in the second row, the eigenvalue of the cubic Casimir operator is given by: c3 = 1 (m n) 2
2 (m 9 1 + n)2 + 9 mn + m + n + 1 .

1 The traceless hermitian generators Ra satisfy [Ra , Rb ] = ifabc Rc . In the dening representation 1 a and in the adjoint representation of su(3), (Ra )bc = ifabc . of su(3) , Ra = 2