Lie algebras with non-degenerate Killing forms. #
In characteristic zero, the following three conditions are equivalent:
- The solvable radical of a Lie algebra is trivial
- A Lie algebra is a direct sum of its simple ideals
- A Lie algebra has non-degenerate Killing form
In positive characteristic, it is still true that 3 implies 2, and that 2 implies 1, but there are counterexamples to the remaining implications. Thus condition 3 is the strongest assumption. Furthermore, much of the Cartan-Killing classification of semisimple Lie algebras in characteristic zero, continues to hold in positive characteristic (over a perfect field) if the Lie algebra has a non-degenerate Killing form.
This file contains basic definitions and results for such Lie algebras.
Main declarations #
LieAlgebra.IsKilling: a typeclass encoding the fact that a Lie algebra has a non-singular Killing form.LieAlgebra.IsKilling.instSemisimple: if a finite-dimensional Lie algebra over a field has non-singular Killing form then it is semisimple.LieAlgebra.IsKilling.instHasTrivialRadical: if a Lie algebra over a PID has non-singular Killing form then it has trivial radical.
TODO #
- Prove that in characteristic zero, a semisimple Lie algebra has non-singular Killing form.
We say a Lie algebra is Killing if its Killing form is non-singular.
NB: This is not standard terminology (the literature does not seem to name Lie algebras with this property).
We say a Lie algebra is Killing if its Killing form is non-singular.
Instances
The converse of this is true over a field of characteristic zero. There are counterexamples over fields with positive characteristic.
Note that when the coefficients are a field this instance is redundant since we have
LieAlgebra.IsKilling.instSemisimple and LieAlgebra.IsSemisimple.instHasTrivialRadical.
Given an equivalence e of Lie algebras from L to L', and elements x y : L, the
respective Killing forms of L and L' satisfy κ'(e x, e y) = κ(x, y).
Given a Killing Lie algebra L, if L' is isomorphic to L, then L' is Killing too.
Alias of LieAlgebra.isKilling_of_equiv.
Given a Killing Lie algebra L, if L' is isomorphic to L, then L' is Killing too.