The Threefold Way. Algebraic Structure of Symmetry Groups and Ensembles in Quantum Mechanics

Abstract

Using mathematical tools developed by Hermann Weyl, the Wigner classification of group‐representations and co‐representations is clarified and extended. The three types of representation, and the three types of co‐representation, are shown to be directly related to the three types of division algebra with real coefficients, namely, the real numbers, complex numbers, and quaternions. The author's theory of matrix ensembles, in which again three possible types were found, is shown to be in exact correspondence with the Wigner classification of co‐representations. In particular, it is proved that the most general kind of matrix ensemble, defined with a symmetry group which may be completely arbitrary, reduces to a direct product of independent irreducible ensembles each of which belongs to one of the three known types.