On regular subalgebras of Kac-Moody algebras and their associated invariant forms. Symmetrizable case (Q811632)

Let \({\mathfrak g}(A)\) be the Kac-Moody algebra associated to a symmetrizable generalized Cartan matrix \(A\) over the complex number field \(\mathbb{C}\), \({\mathfrak h}\) a Cartan subalgebra, \(\Delta\) the root system of \(({\mathfrak g}(A),{\mathfrak h})\), and \(( \mid )\) a standard invariant form on \({\mathfrak g}(A)\). In this paper, we study certain fundamental subalgebras called regular subalgebras. These subalgebras are defined as an infinite dimensional analogue of regular semi-simple subalgebras (in the sense of Dynkin) of a finite dimensional complex semi-simple Lie algebra. The latter played an important role in the classification of semi-simple subalgebras. We now give a constructive definition of regular subalgebras. A subset \(\{\beta_ r\}^ m_{r=1}\) of \(\Delta\) is called fundamental if it satisfies the following: (1) \(\{\beta_ r\}^ m_{r=1}\subset{\mathfrak h}^*\) is linearly independent, (2) \(\beta_ s-\beta_ t \notin \Delta\) \((s\neq t)\), (3) \(\beta_ r\) is a real root, or a positive imaginary root \((1\leq r\leq m)\). Let \(\hat{\mathfrak g}\) be a subalgebra of \({\mathfrak g}(A)\) generated by root vectors attached to each root \(\pm\beta_ r\) \((1\leq r\leq m)\) and a certain vector subspace \({\mathfrak h}_ 0\) of \({\mathfrak h}\). We call this subalgebra \(\hat{\mathfrak g}\) a regular subalgebra of \({\mathfrak g}(A)\). First, we show that this regular subalgebra is no more isomorphic to a Kac-Moody algebra in general, but is isomorphic to the generalized Kac- Moody algebra \({\mathfrak g}(\hat A)\) associated to a canonically defined matrix \(\hat A\). Here, generalized Kac-Moody algebras are a class of Lie algebras introduced in [\textit{R. Borcherds}, J. Algebra 115, No. 2, 501- 512 (1988; Zbl 0644.17010)] as a natural generalization of Kac-Moody algebras. Further, we show that, in the case where a fundamental subset \(\{\beta_ r\}^ m_{r=1}\) consists only of real roots, the restriction of a standard invariant form \((.\mid.)\) on \({\mathfrak g}(A)\) to the regular subalgebra \(\hat{\mathfrak g}\subset{\mathfrak g}(A)\) coincides with a standard invariant form on \(\hat{\mathfrak g}\) which is identified with \({\mathfrak g}(\hat A)\). As a result, we see that real (resp. imaginary) roots of \({\mathfrak g}(\hat A)\cong\hat{\mathfrak g}\) can be regarded as a subset of real (resp. imaginary) roots of \({\mathfrak g}(A)\). Second, we prove that when \({\mathfrak g}(A)\) is an affine type Kac-Moody algebra, we have either one of the following two cases: (a) \(\hat{\mathfrak g}\) is a direct sum of finite type or affine type Kac-Moody algebras. Moreover, the number of affine type direct summands is at most one. (b) \(\hat{\mathfrak g}\) is a direct sum of finite type Kac-Moody algebras and one generalized Kac-Moody algebra \({\mathfrak g}(O_ 1)\) associated to the zero matrix \(O_ 1\) of degree 1. We remark that, contrary to this affine case, if \({\mathfrak g}(A)\) is of hyperbolic type, there can be a regular subalgebra \(\hat{\mathfrak g}\) which is a Kac-Moody algebra, but whose direct summands do not remain inside the category of finite, affine, or hyperbolic types. Finally, we determine all the types of regular subalgebras of non-twisted affine Lie algebras, using the classical results of Dynkin for finite dimensional simple Lie algebras.