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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 LL is an nn-Engel Lie algebra over a field FF of characteristic zero then LL is (globally) nilpotent. This is a very important result which extends Kostrikin's theorem that LL is locally nilpotent if the characteristic of FF is zero or some prime p>np>n. 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