English

Almost inner derivations of Lie superalgebras

Rings and Algebras 2025-09-03 v1

Abstract

An almost inner derivation of a Lie algebra LL is a derivation that coincides with an inner derivation on each one-dimensional subspace of LL. The almost inner derivations form a subalgebra aDer(L){aDer}(L) of the Lie algebra Der(L){Der}(L) of all derivations of LL, containing the inner derivations iDer(L){iDer}(L) as an ideal. If LL is a simple finite-dimensional Lie algebra, then aDer(L)=iDer(L){aDer}(L)={iDer}(L), since all derivations of LL are inner. In this paper, we introduce and study almost inner derivations derivations of Lie superalgebras. Since simple Lie superalgebras may admit non-inner outer derivations, the existence of non-inner almost inner derivations becomes a nontrivial question. Nevertheless, we show that all almost inner derivations of finite-dimensional simple Lie superalgebras over C\mathbb C are inner. We also give examples of naturally occurring non-inner almost inner derivations derivations of some pseudo-reductive Lie superalgebras related to the Sato-Kimura classification of prehomogeneous vector spaces.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2509.00689,
  title  = {Almost inner derivations of Lie superalgebras},
  author = {Vera Serganova and Arkady Vaintrob},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2509.00689},
  year   = {2025}
}