Structural theory of special Lie algebras (Q941926)

The paper under review is a detailed survey on special Lie algebras. Recall that a Lie algebra \(L\) is special if it is (isomorphic to) a subalgebra of some algebra \(A^{(-)}\), \(A\) an associative algebra that satisfies a polynomial identity (a PI algebra). Here \(A^{(-)}\) is the vector space of \(A\) considered together with the usual Lie bracket. As one defines special Lie algebras through polynomial identities it seems natural to study them via the theory of varieties, relatively free algebras and so on. We draw the reader's attention that the class of special Lie algebras is quite large: it includes, for example, the finite-dimensional algebras. The survey gives quite complete idea of what is going on in the area. The author provides a list of the most important results obtained as well as the motivations that have led to them. The survey counts with an extensive bibliography which may be quite useful. The major open problems in the area are stated as well, together with some hints and comments. The paper is divided in 10 sections. The first two sections relate special Lie algebras to associative PI algebras and introduce the main concepts. In section 3, some important classes of special Lie algebras (prime and simple) are studied. The following two sections describe results concerning the centroid and the prime radical for special and generalized special Lie algebras. Afterwards, the locally nilpotent radical of special Lie algebras is studied and the reductive special Lie algebras are described. It is shown afterwards that for generalized special Lie algebras one has analogues of the Levi, Malcev, and Harish-Chandra theorem. In section 9, artinian and noetherian special Lie algebras are studied. In the last section the author suggests how one can employ the theory of special Lie algebras in order to study varieties of algebras. Results concerning weak polynomial identities (also called identities of representations of Lie algebras) are given. A new proof of a fundamental theorem due to Razmyslov is given as well. The theorem states that if \(V\) is a nonmatrix variety of Lie algebras (over a field of characteristic 0) then it satisfies an identity of the form \([[x_1,x_2],[x_3,x_4], \ldots, [x_{2k-1},x_{2k}]]\). The author is one of the established specialists in the field. The survey is written with sound knowledge of the main results, methods, and open problems int he area. The readers would be specialists in polynomial identity rings and algebras, interested in Lie algebras with polynomial identities.