Malcev-admissible algebras (Q1086667): Difference between revisions

Given an algebra \(A\) over a field \(F\) with multiplication \(xy\) one can associate an anticommutative algebra \(A^{(-)}\) with multiplication \([x,y]=xy-yx\) defined on the vector space \(A\). Then, \(A\) is termed Lie-admissible or Malcev-admissible if \(A^{(-)}\) is a Lie or Malcev algebra. Since the brief introduction of Lie-admissible algebras by A. A. Albert in 1948, very little has been known about the structure of these algebras until the subject recently came to the attention of physicists. During the last few years the theory of Lie-admissible algebras began to develop rather extensively. It also turned out that many results about Lie-admissible algebras could be extended to Malcev-admissible algebras. The main purpose of the present book is to give a self-contained and detailed account of the theory of Malcev-admissible algebras which has been developed in the past few years. It is assumed that the reader is familiar with the standard theory of Lie and Malcev algebras and with a few results about other nonassociative algebras. The book contains five chapters. The central role is played by Chapter 2 where the author determines all power-associative Malcev-admissible algebras \(A\) for which \(A^{(-)}\) is a split simple or semisimple finite- dimensional Malcev algebra of characteristic 0. The principal result is Theorem 2.33: Let \(A\) be a finite-dimensional Malcev-admissible algebra with product \(*\) over a field \(F\) of characteristic 0 such that \(A^{(-)}\) is a split simple Malcev algebras over \(F\). If \(A\) satisfies the third power-associative identity \((xx)x=x(xx)\), then there exists a linear form \(\tau\) on \(A\) and a scalar \(\beta\in F\) such that \[ x*y= \tfrac12 [x,y] + \tau(x)y + \tau(y)x + \beta x\#y, \tag{i} \] where \(x\#y=0\) for all \(x,y\in A\) unless \(A^{(-)}\) is a Lie algebra of the type \(A_n\) for \(n\ge 2\). In the last case \(A^{(-)}\simeq \mathfrak{sl}(n+1)\) and the product {\#} is defined by \[ x\#y=xy+yx-(2/(n+1)) \operatorname{tr}(xy)E, \] where \(xy\) denotes matrix multiplication and \(E\) is the identity matrix. If the \(*\) product is power-associative, then \(\beta x\# y=0\) for all \(x,y\in A\). Conversely, any product \(*\) defined by (i) in a split simple Malcev algebra gives a third power-associative Malcev-admissible algebra which is power-associative whenever \(\beta x\# y=0\). The situation when \(A^{(-)}\) is semisimple is more complicated and requires the use of a graph theoretical approach to describe power-associativity of \(A\) in terms of the relations between the linear forms on summands of \(A^{(-)}\). The remainder of the book deals exclusively with flexible Malcev-admissible algebras. Some basic definitions and results are given in Chapter 1, and this is the only chapter where the author has made an attempt to investigate flexible Malcev-admissible algebras of arbitrary dimension and of arbitrary characteristic \(\ne 2\). Chapters 3--5 are devoted to the study of finite-dimensional flexible Malcev-admissible algebras of characteristic 0. In Chapter 3 the author gives some basic facts about Malcev modules and shows that a Malcev module \(V\) for a split semisimple Malcev algebra \(S\) can be regarded as a Lie module for \(\operatorname{Der} S\) and that the irreducible summands of \(V\) as an \(S\)-module coincide with those as a \((\operatorname{Der} S)\)-module. All flexible Malcev-admissible algebras \(A\) with \(A^{(-)}\) semisimple (not necessarily split over \(F)\) are classified in Chapter 3. As an application the author determines all real flexible Malcev-admissible algebras with \(A^{(-)}\) simple. Chapter 4 is concerned with the general case where the solvable radical \(R\) of \(A^{(-)}\) is nonzero. The author determines all algebras \(A\) such that either \([S,R]=0\) where \(S\) is a Levi factor of \(A^{(-)}\), or \(A\) is simple and \(R\) is abelian. In the final section of this chapter an example is given to indicate that it is not feasible for flexible Malcev-admissible algebras to develop a structure theory of Wedderburn type. In Chapter 5 the author classifies under some restrictions all flexible Malcev-admissible algebras \(A\) of dimension \(\le 8\) over an algebraically closed field of characteristic 0, when \(A^{(-)}\) is not solvable. As the author says,...``The completeness and coherence of the structure theory of Malcev-admissible algebras even with additional identities are, at present, far from those of the three striking classes of nonassociative algebras, alternative, Jordan and Lie algebras. There seems to be, however, a trend to study nonassociative algebras (of characteristic 0) based on representations of Lie algebras. It is this trend that has inspired us to write a book on the subject.''