Nilpotent Lie Algebras

This volume is devoted to the theory of nilpotent Lie algebras and their applications. Nilpotent Lie algebras have played an important role over the last years both in the domain of algebra, considering its role in the classification problems of Lie algebras, and in the domain of differential geometry. Among the topics discussed here are the following: cohomology theory of Lie algebras, deformations and contractions, the algebraic variety of the laws of Lie algebras, the variety of nilpotent laws, and characteristically nilpotent Lie algebras in nilmanifolds. Audience: This book is intended for graduate students specialising in algebra, differential geometry and in theoretical physics and for researchers in mathematics and in theoretical physics.

This book presents a consistent development of the Kohn-Nirenberg type global quantization theory in the setting of graded nilpotent Lie groups in terms of their representations. It contains a detailed exposition of related background topics on homogeneous Lie groups, nilpotent Lie groups, and the analysis of Rockland operators on graded Lie groups together with their associated Sobolev spaces. For the specific example of the Heisenberg group the theory is illustrated in detail. In addition, the book features a brief account of the corresponding quantization theory in the setting of compact Lie groups. The monograph is the winner of the 2014 Ferran Sunyer i Balaguer Prize.

Through the 1990s, a circle of ideas emerged relating three very different kinds of objects associated to a complex semisimple Lie algebra: nilpotent orbits, representations of a Weyl group, and primitive ideals in an enveloping algebra. The principal aim of this book is to collect together the important results concerning the classification and properties of nilpotent orbits, beginning from the common ground of basic structure theory. The techniques used are elementary and in the toolkit of any graduate student interested in the harmonic analysis of representation theory of Lie groups. The book develops the Dynkin-Konstant and Bala-Carter classifications of complex nilpotent orbits, derives the Lusztig-Spaltenstein theory of induction of nilpotent orbits, discusses basic topological questions, and classifies real nilpotent orbits. The classical algebras are emphasized throughout; here the theory can be simplified by using the combinatorics of partitions and tableaux. The authors conclude with a survey of advanced topics related to the above circle of ideas. This book is the product of a two-quarter course taught at the University of Washington.

This book concerns the theory of unipotent elements in simple algebraic groups over algebraically closed or finite fields, and nilpotent elements in the corresponding simple Lie algebras. These topics have been an important area of study for decades, with applications to representation theory, character theory, the subgroup structure of algebraic groups and finite groups, and the classification of the finite simple groups. The main focus is on obtaining full information on class representatives and centralizers of unipotent and nilpotent elements. Although there is a substantial literature on this topic, this book is the first single source where such information is presented completely in all characteristics. In addition, many of the results are new--for example, those concerning centralizers of nilpotent elements in small characteristics. Indeed, the whole approach, while using some ideas from the literature, is novel, and yields many new general and specific facts concerning the structure and embeddings of centralizers.

Each chapter ends with a summary of the material covered and notes on the history and development of group theory.

Contemporary introduction to semisimple Lie algebras; concise and informal, with numerous exercises and examples

This book provides a thorough but relaxed mathematical treatment of Lie algebras.