The path group construction of Lie group extensions (Q931826)

In infinite dimensions Lie's third theorem is not valid: there exist Lie algebras which do not correspond to any Lie group. In particular, given a connected infinite dimensional Lie group \(G\), not every abelian Lie algebra extension of its Lie algebra comes from a Lie group extension of \(G\). The obstructions determined by K. H. Neeb involve the fundamental and the second homotopy groups of \(G\). Much studied is the central extension of the loop group \(G=\mathcal C^\infty(S^1,H)\) of a simple Lie group \(H\). Explicit constructions of the central extension of the loop group \(G\) by the circle \(\mathbb T\) were computed by Mickelsson, Murray, Pressley and Segal. In this paper, one presents an explicit realization of abelian extensions of infinite dimensional Lie groups using abelian extensions of path groups, by generalizing Mickelsson's approach to loop groups and the approach of Losev-Moore-Nekrasov-Shatashvilli to current groups. One applies our method to coupled cocycles on current Lie algebras and to Lichnerowicz cocycles on the Lie algebra of divergence free vector fields.