Yau Science Award

(2a) Let $S_{i}, 1 \leq i \leq n$, denote the 1-dimensional modules such that $E_{i i}$ acts by 1 and $E_{i j}, E_{j j}$ acts by 0 for $j \neq i$. They are simple modules. (2b) It remains to show that the $S_{i}$ we have constructed are the only simple modules. Let $S$ denote any finite dimensional simple module. We claim that $E_{i j}, i<j$, form a nilpotent 2-sided ideal $N$ (because the product of an upper triangular matrix with a strictly upper one is strictly upper). Then $N$ acts on $S$ by 0 (To see this, $N S$ is a submodule of $S$. It is proper because $N$ is nilpotent. Since $S$ is simple, we deduce that $N S=0$.) Note that the action of $E_{i i}$ commute with each other (and with the 0 -action by $E_{i j}$ ), thus they are module endomorphisms. By Schur's Lemma, $E_{i i}$ acts on $S$ as a scalar. Since $E_{i i} E_{j j}=0$ for $i \neq j$, at most one $E_{i i}$ acts as a non-zero scalar. Recall that $1=\sum_{i} E_{i i}$ acts by the identity. The claim follows.