Integral Orders for the Okubo Algebra and Idempotent Geometries of the $E_8$ Lattice

Abstract

We study the Coxeter-Dickson $E_8$ order as a common integral support for the octonionic, para-octonionic and compact real Okubo products. The three algebra structures have the same additive lattice, the same positive composition norm and hence the same $240$ norm-one vectors, namely the roots of $E_8$ and the vertices of the Gosset polytope $4_{21}$. Their multiplicative structures are nevertheless different and this difference is already visible in the idempotents: among the same $240$ roots one finds respectively $1$, $57$ and $12$ nonzero integral idempotents. We show that these three counts organize the common root system in three increasingly polarized ways. The octonionic product leaves the full $E_8$ geometry unseparated; the $57$ para-octonionic idempotents reproduce the $E_7$ contact decomposition $1+56+126+56+1$; the $12$ Okubo idempotents split into four mutually orthogonal oriented $A_2$ triangles and hence determine canonically an $A_2^4$ subsystem. Choosing one triangle as the external $A_2$ then yields the $A_2+E_6$ Magic Star, while the remaining nine idempotents determine the trinification subsystem $A_2^3\subset E_6$. This provides an arithmetic interpretation of the $E_8\supset E_7$ and $E_8\supset E_6+A_2$ decompositions directly from integral idempotents.

Article for the 10th Conference AGACSE 2026 August 24-28, 2026 Beijing, China