Let $\mathfrak {so}_{n}$ denote the skew-symmetric complex $n \times n$-matrices and let $M$ denote the symmetric $n \times n$-matrices of trace 0.
As I understand, $M$ is a module over $\mathfrak {so}_n$. What then is its decomposition into irreducibles?
The standard representation of $\mathfrak {so}_n$ has dimension $n$, the adjoint representation dimension $\frac 1 2 n \cdot (n-1)$ and there are two spin representations of small dimension. But I don't see a way how these, together with the trivial representation, should add up to the dimension of $M$.
Edit: This comes from trying to understand the Cartan decomposition $\mathfrak g=\mathfrak k \oplus \mathfrak p$, where $[\mathfrak k,\mathfrak p] \subseteq \mathfrak p$, cf. the wikipedia article on Cartan decomposition. As the associated symmetric should be irreducible, the representation should be irreducible, but my numbers just don't add up.