Residual finiteness of solvable varieties of Lie algebras (Q1093715)

A variety of Lie algebras \({\mathfrak U}\) over a finite field is called residually finite if every algebra of \({\mathfrak U}\) is residually finite, i.e. the intersection of all its ideals of finite codimension is trivial. The main result of the paper under review describes the residually finite varieties \({\mathfrak U}\) of solvable algebras. It turns out that \({\mathfrak U}\) has such a property if and only if \({\mathfrak U}\) is generated by a finite solvable A-algebra. Recall that a Lie algebra is an A-algebra if every nilpotent subalgebra is abelian. This result is in the spirit of a similar group-theoretical result due to \textit{A. Yu. Ol'shanskij} [Izv. Akad. Nauk SSSR, Ser. Mat. 33, 915-927 (1969; Zbl 0186.037)]. It is still an open problem whether the solvability of the variety is essential in the assertion of the theorem.