On Zel'manov's global nilpotence theorem for Engel Lie algebras
Group Theory
2025-07-30 v1 Rings and Algebras
Abstract
I give a proof of Zel'manov's theorem that if is an -Engel Lie algebra over a field of characteristic zero then is (globally) nilpotent. This is a very important result which extends Kostrikin's theorem that is locally nilpotent if the characteristic of is zero or some prime . Zel'manov's proof contains some striking original ideas, and I wrote this note in an effort to understand his arguments. I hope that my efforts will be of use to other mathematicians in understanding this remarkable theorem.
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Cite
@article{arxiv.2507.21677,
title = {On Zel'manov's global nilpotence theorem for Engel Lie algebras},
author = {Michael Vaughan-Lee},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2507.21677},
year = {2025}
}
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14 pages