On Lie Algebras All of Whose Minimal Subalgebras Are Lower Modular

Abstract

The main purpose of this paper is to study Lie algebras L such that if a subalgebra U of L has a maximal subalgebra of dimension one then every maximal subalgebra of U has dimension one. Such an L is called lm(0)-algebra. This class of Lie algebras emerges when it is imposed on the lattice of subalgebras of a Lie algebra the condition that every atom is lower modular. We see that the effect of that condition is highly sensitive to the ground field F. If F is algebraically closed, then every Lie algebra is lm(0). By contrast, for every algebraically non-closed field there exist simple Lie algebras which are not lm(0). For the real field, the semisimple lm(0)-algebras are just the Lie algebras whose Killing form is negative-definite. Also, we study when the simple Lie algebras having a maximal subalgebra of codimension one are lm(0), provided that char(F) ≠ 2. Moreover, lm(0)-algebras lead us to consider certain other classes of Lie algebras and the largest ideal of an arbitrary Lie algebra L on which the action of every element of L is split, which might have some interest by themselves.

Key Words:

• Lie algebras
• Lattice of subalgebras
• Modular subalgebra

AMS Classification:

• 17B05

Acknowledgment

The authors are grateful to the referee for his/her suggestions. The third named author was supported by DGI Grant BFM2000-1049-C02-01, Spain.

Notes

^#Communicated by I. Shestakov.