An elemental characterization of orthogonal ideals in Lie algebras (Q2254933)

The theory of prime ideals in ring theory has been extended to various classes of nonassociative algebras, including Lie algebras, \(L\). Ideals \(I\) and \(J\) of \(L\) are orthogonal if their product is \(0\). \(L\) is prime if it contains no non-zero orthogonal ideals. Various authors have considered elemental characterizations of primeness. Under certain conditions, elements \(x\) and \(y\) in \(L\) generate orthogonal ideals if and only if \([x,[y,L]]=0\). The present paper considers Lie algebras that are non-degenerate; that is, they contain no non-zero element x with ad\(_x^2=0\). Let \(L\) be non-degenerate over a ring which contains \(1/2\) and \(1/3\). The authors show that \([x,[y,L]]=0\) if and only if \(x\) and \(y\) generate orthogonal ideals.