Lie Representations and an Algebra Containing Solomon's

Abstract

We introduce and study a Hopf algebra containing the descent algebra as a sub-Hopf-algebra. It has the main algebraic properties of the descent algebra, and more: it is a sub-Hopf-algebra of the direct sum of the symmetric group algebras; it is closed under the corresponding inner product; it is cocommutative, so it is an enveloping algebra; it contains all Lie idempotents of the symmetric group algebras. Moreover, its primitive elements are exactly the Lie elements which lie in the symmetric group algebras.