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E8

The document presents a proof of the uniqueness of the E8 lattice, demonstrating that any even unimodular positive-definite lattice of rank 8 is isomorphic to E8. The proof involves constructing an odd '2-neighbor' lattice and establishing its properties to conclude the relationship with E8. The work is supported by the National Science Foundation and references previous research on lattice characterization.

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72 views

E8

The document presents a proof of the uniqueness of the E8 lattice, demonstrating that any even unimodular positive-definite lattice of rank 8 is isomorphic to E8. The proof involves constructing an odd '2-neighbor' lattice and establishing its properties to conclude the relationship with E8. The work is supported by the National Science Foundation and references previous research on lattice characterization.

Uploaded by

nalel05
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Yet another proof of the uniqueness of the E8 lattice

Noam D. Elkies
August, 2004

Theorem (Mordell 1938 [2]). Let L be an even unimodular positive-definite


lattice of rank 8. Then L ∼
= E8 .

Yet another proof : We construct an odd “2-neighbor” L0 of L, identify L0


with Z8 using our characterization of Zn by its minimal characteristic norm [1],
and use this to identify L with E8 .
A “2-neighbor” of L is a self-dual lattice L0 ⊂ L ⊗ Q such that L0 = L ∩ L0
is a sublattice of index 2 in each of L and L0 . To obtain L0 and L0 , first fix a
lattice vector v0 ∈/ 2L such that 4|(v0 , v0 ). (Such a vector exists in every even
lattice of rank at least 3.) We may assume that (v0 , v0 ) ≡ 4 mod 8, since if
8|(v0 , v0 ) we may replace v0 by v0 + 2w with (v0 , w) odd. Set
v0
L0 = {v ∈ L : 2|(v, v0 )}, L0 = L0 ∪ (L0 + ).
2
We claim that L0 is an odd self-dual lattice. That it is a lattice is clear since
certainly v0 ∈ L0 . It is contained in its dual by construction. Since [L0 : L0 ] =
∗ ∗
[L : L0 ] = 2, we have disc(L0 ) = disc(L) = 1, so L0 ⊆ L0 implies L0 = L0 .
0
Finally L is odd because it contains the vector v0 /2 of odd norm.
Recall (see for instance [1]) that every unimodular lattice M has character-
istic vectors: lattice vectors c ∈ M such that (c, v) ≡ (v, v) mod 2 for all v ∈ M .
These constitute a coset of 2M in M , and if M is positive definite of rank n
then (c, c) ≡ n mod 8 for all characteristic c ∈ M . Since L0 is odd, 0 is not a
characteristic vector of L0 . Hence for every characteristic vector c of L0 we have
(c, c) ≥ 8 = rank(L0 ). By [1] it follows that L0 ∼
= Z8 .
Therefore L0 , being an even lattice contained with index 2 in L0 , is a D8
lattice. Thus L is one of the three lattices intermediate between D8 and D8∗ .
One of these lattices is L0 = Z8 . The other two are isomorphic to E8 , Q.E.D.

Acknowledgements. This work was supported in part by the the National


Science Foundation (grant DMS-0200687), and took place during a workshop at
the American Institute of Mathematics.

References
[1] Elkies, N.D.: A characterization of the Zn lattice. Math. Res. Letters 2
#3 (5/1995), 321–326. math.NT/9906019 at arXiv.org.
[2] Mordell, L.J.: The definite quadratic forms in eight variables with deter-
minant unity, J. Math. Pures Appl. 17 (1938), 41–46.

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