The degeneracy of extended affine Lie algebras (Q1271532)

A key concept in the theory of extended affine Lie algebras (EALAs) is that of the nullity \(\nu\), the dimension of the real space spanned by the isotropic roots. See [\textit{B. N. Allison}, et al., Mem. Am. Math. Soc. 603 (1997; Zbl 0879.17012)] for the basic structure theory of EALAs. From this viewpoint, the usual affine Kac-Moody algebras are tame EALAs of nullity one. If the nullity is greater than one, it is possible that the isotropic roots are not linearly independent over \(\mathbb C\), so that the complex space spanned by the isotropic roots has dimension less than \(\nu\). In this case the EALA is said to be degenerate. In earlier classification papers [J. Funct. Anal. 135, No. 2, 339-389 (1996; Zbl 0847.17009) and Trans. Am. Math. Soc. 347, No. 11, 4315-4363 (1995; Zbl 0847.17010)], the authors implicitly assumed that the EALAs were non-degenerate. Here, the author gives some examples of degenerate EALAs, shows how to construct degenerate EALAs from non-degenerate ones and then proves that every degenerate EALA can be obtained from a non-degenerate one by the given procedure, thereby obtaining a complete classification.