Pairing problem of generators in Kac-Moody algebras (Q5955941)

A theorem of Kuranishi says that each finite-dimensional simple Lie algebra is generated by two elements. Later this fact has been generalized by the author and Z. X. Wan to any Lie algebra \(g(A)\) defined by a complex \(n\times n\) matrix. In the article under review the author studies the following question: Given a Lie algebra generated by two elements, let \(x\) be an element \(\neq 0\). Does there exist an element \(y\) such that \(x\) and \(y\) generate the whole Lie algebra? As one of the main results the author proves the following theorem: Let \(x\) be an element of a Cartan subalgebra of \(g(A)\) that does not lie in the center of \(g(A)\). Then there exists an element \(y\) in \(g(A)\) such that \(x\) and \(y\) jointly generate a subalgebra containing the derived algebra of \(g(A)\). Moreover the author also proves this theorem in case \(x\) is a real root vector.