Motivic zeta functions of infinite-dimensional Lie algebras (Q1882751)

The authors associate a motivic zeta function to certain classes of infinite-dimensional Lie algebras over a field \(k\). Included in these classes are the important cases of loop algebras, affine Kac-Moody algebras, the Virasoro algebra and Lie algebras of Cartan type. The construction of this zeta function is done by an adaptation of the idea of the motivic Igusa zeta function introduced by \textit{J. Denef} and the second author [J. Algebr. Geom. 7, 505--537 (1998; Zbl 0943.14010)]. The idea leading to this construction comes from the analogy with the zeta function of a finite-dimensional Lie algebra \(L_p\) over \(\mathbb Z_p\), with \(p\) a prime number. The latter function can be defined as \[ \varsigma_{L_p}(s) := \sum_{n=0}^{\infty} a_{p^n}(L_p) p^{-ns}, \] where \(a_{p^n}(L_p)\) is the number of \(\mathbb{Z}_p\)-subalgebras of \(L_p\) of index \(p^n\). Since all the numbers \(a_{p^n}(L_p)\) are finite, this is a well-defined series. In general an infinite-dimensional Lie algebra over a field \(k\) (of characteristic zero) contains an infinite number of subalgebras of each given finite codimension. So it does not make sense to count them in a conventional way and to try to encode this counting function in a series with coefficients in \(\mathbb{Z}\). Instead, in the cases which are considered in the present paper, the set of subalgebras of a fixed finite codimension forms a constructible subset of some Grassmannian; so we may associate to it an element of the Grothendieck ring \({\mathcal M}\) of algebraic varieties over \(k\), and we can construct the motivic zeta function as a Poincaré series with coefficients in \({\mathcal M}\). The rationality of this series is studied using the theory of motivic integration. An important application of this paper is to provide a good language for talking about the uniformity in \(p\) of local \(p\)-adic zeta functions of finite-dimensional Lie algebras. At the end of the paper also topological zeta functions are introduced.