Metric Lie algebras with maximal isotropic centre

Abstract

A metric Lie algebra is a Lie algebra equipped with an invariant non-degenerate symmetric bilinear form. It is called indecomposable if it is not the direct sum of two metric Lie algebras. We are interested in describing the isomorphism classes of indecomposable metric Lie algebras. In the present paper we restrict ourselves to a certain class of solvable metric Lie algebras which includes all indecomposable metric Lie algebras with maximal isotropic centre. We will see that each metric Lie algebra belonging to this class is a twofold extension associated with an orthogonal representation of an abelian Lie algebra. We will describe equivalence classes of such extensions by a certain cohomology set. In particular we obtain a classification scheme for indecomposable metric Lie algebras with maximal isotropic centre and the classification of metric Lie algebras of index 2.