Locally finite Lie algebras with root decomposition

Abstract.

Let K be an algebraically closed field of characteristic zero, $\frak {g}$ be a countably dimensional locally finite Lie algebra over K, and $\frak {h} \subset \frak {g}$ be a (a priori non-abelian) locally nilpotent subalgebra of $\frak {g}$ which coincides with its zero Fitting component. We classify all such pairs $(\frak {g}, \frak {h})$ under the assumptions that the locally solvable radical of $\frak {g}$ equals zero and that $\frak {g}$ admits a root decomposition with respect to $\frak {h}$. More precisely, we prove that $\frak {g}$ is the union of reductive subalgebras $\frak {g}_n$ such that the intersections $\frak {g}_n \cap \frak {h}$ are nested Cartan subalgebras of $\frak {g}_n$ with compatible root decompositions. This implies that $\frak {g}$ is root-reductive and that $\frak {h}$ is abelian. Root-reductive locally finite Lie algebras are classified in [6]. The result of the present note is a more general version of the main classification theorem in [9] and is at the same time a new criterion for a locally finite Lie algebra to be root-reductive. Finally we give an explicit example of an abelian selfnormalizing subalgebra $\frak {h}$ of $\frak {g} = \frak {sl}(\infty)$ with respect to which $\frak {g}$ does not admit a root decomposition.