English

A sum-bracket theorem for simple Lie algebras

Rings and Algebras 2023-07-14 v2

Abstract

Let g\mathfrak{g} be an algebra over KK with a bilinear operation [,]:g×gg[\cdot,\cdot]:\mathfrak{g}\times\mathfrak{g}\rightarrow\mathfrak{g} not necessarily associative. For AgA\subseteq\mathfrak{g}, let AkA^{k} be the set of elements of g\mathfrak{g} written combining kk elements of AA via ++ and [,][\cdot,\cdot]. We show a "sum-bracket theorem" for simple Lie algebras over KK of the form g=sln,son,sp2n,e6,e7,e8,f4,g2\mathfrak{g}=\mathfrak{sl}_{n},\mathfrak{so}_{n},\mathfrak{sp}_{2n},\mathfrak{e}_{6},\mathfrak{e}_{7},\mathfrak{e}_{8},\mathfrak{f}_{4},\mathfrak{g}_{2}: if char(K)\mathrm{char}(K) is not too small, we have growth of the form AkA1+ε|A^{k}|\geq|A|^{1+\varepsilon} for all generating symmetric sets AA away from subfields of KK. Over Fp\mathbb{F}_{p} in particular, we have a diameter bound matching the best analogous bounds for groups of Lie type [BDH21]. As an independent intermediate result, we prove also an estimate of the form AVAkdim(V)/dim(g)|A\cap V|\leq|A^{k}|^{\dim(V)/\dim(\mathfrak{g})} for linear affine subspaces VV of g\mathfrak{g}. This estimate is valid for all simple algebras, and kk is especially small for a large class of them including associative, Lie, and Mal'cev algebras, and Lie superalgebras.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2204.02018,
  title  = {A sum-bracket theorem for simple Lie algebras},
  author = {Daniele Dona},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2204.02018},
  year   = {2023}
}

Comments

36 pages; v2: restructured introduction, minor edits, final version

R2 v1 2026-06-24T10:38:05.546Z