[Math] Defining the Lie bracket on a tensor product Lie algebra

lie-algebrasvector-spaces

So, my question is the following:

Suppose that we have two Lie algebras $(\mathfrak{g}_1,[\bullet,\bullet]_1)$ and $(\mathfrak{g}_2,[\bullet,\bullet]_2)$. Then we can define the tensor product of these algebras, namely the Lie algebra $$(\mathfrak{g}_1\otimes\mathfrak{g}_2,[\bullet,\bullet]_{1\otimes 2}).$$
The underlying vector space $\mathfrak{g}_1\otimes\mathfrak{g}_2$ is constructed using the map $\otimes:\mathfrak{g}_1\times\mathfrak{g}_2\to\mathfrak{g}_1\otimes\mathfrak{g}_2$ and consists of the vectors $\{X_1\otimes X_2|X_1\in\mathfrak{g}_1,X_2\in\mathfrak{g}_2\}$. My question is on how to define the Lie bracket $[\bullet,\bullet]_{1\otimes 2}$ correctly, so that the vector space $\mathfrak{g}_1\otimes\mathfrak{g}_2$ becomes a Lie algebra.

Best Answer

There is a way to define the Lie bracket on the tensor product as follows. Suppose that $\mathfrak{g}_1$ and $\mathfrak{g}_2$ are Lie algebras with two bilinear maps $B_1:\mathfrak{g}_1\times \mathfrak{g}_2\longrightarrow \mathfrak{g}_1$ and $B_2:\mathfrak{g}_1\times \mathfrak{g}_2\longrightarrow \mathfrak{g}_2$. Then with some compatibility conditions one can define the Lie bracket on the tensor product by $$ [g_1\otimes g_2, g_1'\otimes g_2']:= B_1(g_1,g_2)\otimes B_2(g_1',g_2')\quad \text{for } g_1,g_1' \in \mathfrak{g}_1 \text{ and } g_2,g_2' \in\mathfrak{g}_2.$$ For example if $\mathfrak{g}_1$ and $\mathfrak{g}_2$ are both ideals of some Lie algebra with bilinear maps given by Lie multiplication then above definition works without any extra constraint. For details see the paper https://www.cambridge.org/core/services/aop-cambridge-core/content/view/S0017089500008107.

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