Commutator

Commutator identities are an important tool in group theory.[3] The expression a^x denotes the conjugate of a by x, defined as x⁻¹ax.

1. ${\displaystyle x^{y}=x[x,y].}$
2. ${\displaystyle [y,x]=[x,y]^{-1}.}$
3. ${\displaystyle [x,zy]=[x,y]\cdot [x,z]^{y}}$ and ${\displaystyle [xz,y]=[x,y]^{z}\cdot [z,y].}$
4. ${\displaystyle \left[x,y^{-1}\right]=[y,x]^{y^{-1}}}$ and ${\displaystyle \left[x^{-1},y\right]=[y,x]^{x^{-1}}.}$
5. ${\displaystyle \left[\left[x,y^{-1}\right],z\right]^{y}\cdot \left[\left[y,z^{-1}\right],x\right]^{z}\cdot \left[\left[z,x^{-1}\right],y\right]^{x}=1}$ and ${\displaystyle \left[\left[x,y\right],z^{x}\right]\cdot \left[[z,x],y^{z}\right]\cdot \left[[y,z],x^{y}\right]=1.}$

Identity (5) is also known as the Hall–Witt identity, after Philip Hall and Ernst Witt. It is a group-theoretic analogue of the Jacobi identity for the ring-theoretic commutator (see next section).

N.B., the above definition of the conjugate of a by x is used by some group theorists.[4] Many other group theorists define the conjugate of a by x as xax⁻¹.[5] This is often written ${\displaystyle {}^{x}a}$. Similar identities hold for these conventions.

Many identities are used that are true modulo certain subgroups. These can be particularly useful in the study of solvable groups and nilpotent groups. For instance, in any group, second powers behave well:

${\displaystyle (xy)^{2}=x^{2}y^{2}[y,x][[y,x],y].}$

If the derived subgroup is central, then

${\displaystyle (xy)^{n}=x^{n}y^{n}[y,x]^{\binom {n}{2}}.}$

The commutator has the following properties:

1. ${\displaystyle [A+B,C]=[A,C]+[B,C]}$
2. ${\displaystyle [A,A]=0}$
3. ${\displaystyle [A,B]=-[B,A]}$
4. ${\displaystyle [A,[B,C]]+[B,[C,A]]+[C,[A,B]]=0}$

Relation (3) is called anticommutativity, while (4) is the Jacobi identity.

1. ${\displaystyle [A,BC]=[A,B]C+B[A,C]}$
2. ${\displaystyle [A,BCD]=[A,B]CD+B[A,C]D+BC[A,D]}$
3. ${\displaystyle [A,BCDE]=[A,B]CDE+B[A,C]DE+BC[A,D]E+BCD[A,E]}$
4. ${\displaystyle [AB,C]=A[B,C]+[A,C]B}$
5. ${\displaystyle [ABC,D]=AB[C,D]+A[B,D]C+[A,D]BC}$
6. ${\displaystyle [ABCD,E]=ABC[D,E]+AB[C,E]D+A[B,E]CD+[A,E]BCD}$
7. ${\displaystyle [A,B+C]=[A,B]+[A,C]}$
8. ${\displaystyle [A+B,C+D]=[A,C]+[A,D]+[B,C]+[B,D]}$
9. ${\displaystyle [AB,CD]=A[B,C]D+[A,C]BD+CA[B,D]+C[A,D]B=A[B,C]D+AC[B,D]+[A,C]DB+C[A,D]B}$
10. ${\displaystyle [[A,C],[B,D]]=[[[A,B],C],D]+[[[B,C],D],A]+[[[C,D],A],B]+[[[D,A],B],C]}$

If A is a fixed element of a ring R, identity (1) can be interpreted as a Leibniz rule for the map ${\displaystyle \operatorname {ad} _{A}:R\rightarrow R}$ given by ${\displaystyle \operatorname {ad} _{A}(B)=[A,B]}$. In other words, the map ad_A defines a derivation on the ring R. Identities (2), (3) represent Leibniz rules for more than two factors, and are valid for any derivation. Identities (4)–(6) can also be interpreted as Leibniz rules. Identities (7), (8) express Z-bilinearity.

From identity (9), one finds that the commutator of integer powers of ring elements is:

${\displaystyle [A^{N},B^{M}]=\sum _{n=0}^{N-1}\sum _{m=0}^{M-1}A^{n}B^{m}[A,B]A^{N-n-1}B^{M-m-1}}$

Some of the above identities can be extended to the anticommutator using the above ± subscript notation.[8] For example:

1. ${\displaystyle [AB,C]_{\pm }=A[B,C]_{-}+[A,C]_{\pm }B}$
2. ${\displaystyle [AB,CD]_{\pm }=A[B,C]_{-}D+AC[B,D]_{-}+[A,C]_{-}DB+C[A,D]_{\pm }B}$
3. ${\displaystyle [[A,B],[C,D]]=[[[B,C]_{+},A]_{+},D]-[[[B,D]_{+},A]_{+},C]+[[[A,D]_{+},B]_{+},C]-[[[A,C]_{+},B]_{+},D]}$
4. ${\displaystyle \left[A,[B,C]_{\pm }\right]+\left[B,[C,A]_{\pm }\right]+\left[C,[A,B]_{\pm }\right]=0}$
5. ${\displaystyle [A,BC]_{\pm }=[A,B]_{-}C+B[A,C]_{\pm }=[A,B]_{\pm }C\mp B[A,C]_{-}}$
6. ${\displaystyle [A,BC]=[A,B]_{\pm }C\mp B[A,C]_{\pm }}$

Consider a ring or algebra in which the exponential ${\displaystyle e^{A}=\exp(A)=1+A+{\tfrac {1}{2!}}A^{2}+\cdots }$ can be meaningfully defined, such as a Banach algebra or a ring of formal power series.

In such a ring, Hadamard's lemma applied to nested commutators gives: ${\textstyle e^{A}Be^{-A}\ =\ B+[A,B]+{\frac {1}{2!}}[A,[A,B]]+{\frac {1}{3!}}[A,[A,[A,B]]]+\cdots \ =\ e^{\operatorname {ad} _{A}}(B).}$ (For the last expression, see Adjoint derivation below.) This formula underlies the Baker–Campbell–Hausdorff expansion of log(exp(A) exp(B)).

A similar expansion expresses the group commutator of expressions ${\displaystyle e^{A}}$ (analogous to elements of a Lie group) in terms of a series of nested commutators (Lie brackets),

$${\displaystyle e^{A}e^{B}e^{-A}e^{-B}=\exp \!\left([A,B]+{\frac {1}{2!}}[A{+}B,[A,B]]+{\frac {1}{3!}}\left({\frac {1}{2}}[A,[B,[B,A]]]+[A{+}B,[A{+}B,[A,B]]]\right)+\cdots \right).}$$

The general Leibniz rule, expanding repeated derivatives of a product, can be written abstractly using the adjoint representation:

${\displaystyle x^{n}y=\sum _{k=0}^{n}{\binom {n}{k}}\operatorname {ad} _{x}^{k}\!(y)\,x^{n-k}.}$

Replacing x by the differentiation operator ${\displaystyle \partial }$, and y by the multiplication operator ${\displaystyle m_{f}:g\mapsto fg}$, we get ${\displaystyle \operatorname {ad} (\partial )(m_{f})=m_{\partial (f)}}$, and applying both sides to a function g, the identity becomes the usual Leibniz rule for the n-th derivative ${\displaystyle \partial ^{n}\!(fg)}$.