Quasi-classical Lie algebras and their contractions (Q928281)

A Lie algebra is called quasi-classical if it has a quadratic Casimir operator which is non-degenerate (i.e. which involves all generators and is non-degenerate as a bilinear form). The author gives some properties of quasi-classical Lie algebras, especially with respect to contractions. He shows that, up to dimension 6, all non-semisimple quasi-classical Lie algebras can be obtained as contractions of reductive Lie algebras, but gives a 10-dimensional counter-example to show that this is not true in general. If \(g\) contracts to \(g'\), \(g'\) can be quasi-classical although \(g\) is not. The theorem states that if the non-degenerate quadratic Casimir operator of \(g'\) can be obtained by contracting some quadratic Casimir operator of \(g\), then \(g\) is also quasi-classical. (The author's proof considers only specific automorphisms, and his assumption (i), that \(g'\) does not have more invariants than \(g\), is not used. However the theorem is obvious since a degenerate bilinear form remains degenerate under automorphisms of the underlying vector space and therefore under the limiting procedure of a contraction.) The statement (see last sentence on p. 592) that under assumption (i), a fundamental system of invariants of \(g\) contracts into a fundamental system of invariants of \(g'\) is only a conjecture since it has not been proven in general.