Simple Lie algebras over fields of positive characteristic. II: Classifying the absolute toral rank two case (Q5902216)

The book under review is the second of three volumes devoted to a unified proof of the classification of finite-dimensional simple Lie algebras over an algebraically closed field of characteristic \(p>3\). The goal of the second volume is the classification of simple Lie algebras of absolute toral rank two. Together with the first volume the second volume will be a prerequisite for the classification in the general case which will be presented in the third volume. The three volumes will include a complete classification in the sense that a list of simple Lie algebras is given and it is proved that this list is complete. As in the classification of complex simple Lie algebras one major step is to determine \(1\)-sections and \(2\)-sections with respect to a torus. In fact, it will be sufficient for the classification of modular simple Lie algebras to describe the semisimple quotients of the \(2\)-sections with respect to certain tori and for this one needs to know the simple Lie algebras of absolute toral rank at most two. The classification of simple Lie algebras of absolute toral rank one was done in the last chapter of the first volume. Since the classification of simple Lie algebras of absolute toral rank two is completely different from the absolute toral rank one case and the general case, the former classification is separated from the latter (making up about 210 pages of the second volume). In more detail the second volume contains the following results. (Note that contrary to the first volume the ground field in the second volume is always assumed to be an algebraically closed field of characteristic \(p>3\).) In Chapter 10 (the first chapter of the second volume) the author determines the Hamiltonian and Melikian algebras of absolute toral rank at most two. Then their automorphism groups and the conjugacy classes of tori in their minimal \(p\)-envelopes are described as well as the centralizers of toral elements are computed. As a result the author determines the simple Lie algebras of classical, Cartan or Melikian type that have absolute toral rank two. In the final section of this chapter the author gives an estimate for the number of weights of the simple Lie algebras of Cartan or Melikian type of absolute toral rank two in any restricted module with respect to two-dimensional tori in their minimal \(p\)-envelopes. This chapter is somewhat different from the rest of the book and by far the longest of this volume (comprising about 120 pages). Chapter 11 collects structural features of Lie algebras of absolute toral rank one or having a Cartan subalgebra of toral rank one from Chapter 9 of the preceding volume and applies this to the classification of \(1\)-sections with respect to any torus (and thus also to a classification of \(1\)-sections with respect to any Cartan subalgebra). Important tools of the present volume are sandwich elements going back to Kostrikin-Premet and graded algebras in conjunction with the Block-Weisfeiler description of the latter. Accordingly, in Chapter 12 the author provides sufficient conditions for the existence of sandwich elements which at the same time are eigenvectors with respect to a given two-dimensional torus. It should be remarked that the length of this chapter is mainly due to Lie algebras in characteristic five -- in case that the characteristic is larger than five, the arguments would simplify considerably. One crucial result obtained in this chapter is a characterization of the restricted Melikian algebra as the smallest simple Lie algebra \(L\) containing a Cartan subalgebra that acts non-trigonalizable on \(L\). The remaining two chapters are devoted to the classification of the simple Lie algebras of absolute toral rank two. Let \(L\) denote a finite-dimensional simple Lie algebra of absolute toral rank two and let \(T\) be a two-dimensional torus in the minimal \(p\)-envelope of \(L\) for which its centralizer \(C_L(T)\) acts trigonalizable on \(L\). In Chapter 13 the author constructs a special \(T\)-invariant filtration \(L=L_{(-r)}\supset\cdots\supset L_{(-1)}\supset L_{(0)}\supset L_{(1)} \supset\cdots\supset L_{(s)}\supset 0\) of \(L\) that contains all \(T\)-sandwich elements and satisfies certain restrictions on the dimension of \(L/L_{(0)}\) and the corresponding root spaces. For a suitable choice of the torus and the filtration this will reduce the classification to the associated graded algebra rather than to the original one. In Chapter 14 it is shown that for such a choice the associated graded Lie algebra \(\mathrm{gr}\,L\) of \(L\) is simple, and in case that \(L\) is a counterexample to the classification, then \(\mathrm{gr}\,L\) is a counterexample as well. By iterating this procedure one obtains a simple Lie algebra that is no counterexample and therefore leads to a contradiction. As the first volume the second volume is largely self-contained and only supposes that the reader is familiar with major parts of the book by the author and \textit{R.\ Farnsteiner} [Modular Lie algebras and their representations. Monographs and Textbooks in Pure and Applied Mathematics, 116.\ New York etc.: Marcel Dekker (1988; Zbl 0648.17003)] as well as the first volume [Simple Lie algebras over fields of positive characteristic. I: Structure theory. de Gruyter Expositions in Mathematics 38. Berlin: de Gruyter (2004; Zbl 1074.17005)]. In summary this book will be very useful for researchers in modular Lie theory and especially for those who want to understand the classification of finite-dimensional simple Lie algebras over an algebraically closed field of characteristic \(p>3\) from a uniform point of view.