The socle of a nondegenerate Lie algebra

Abstract

We define the socle of a nondegenerate Lie algebra as the sum of all its minimal inner ideals. The socle turns out to be an ideal which is a direct sum of simple ideals, and satisfies the descending chain condition on principal inner ideals. Every classical finite dimensional Lie algebra coincides with its socle, while relevant examples of infinite dimensional Lie algebras with nonzero socle are the simple finitary Lie algebras and the classical Banach Lie algebras of compact operators on an infinite dimensional Hilbert space. This notion of socle for Lie algebras is compatible with the previous ones for associative algebras and Jordan systems. We conclude with a structure theorem for simple nondegenerate Lie algebras containing abelian minimal inner ideals, and as a consequence we obtain that a simple Lie algebra over an algebraically closed field of characteristic 0 is finitary if and only if it is nondegenerate and contains a rank-one element.