In Cartan’s PhD thesis, there is a formula defining a certain rank 8 vector distribution in dimension 15, whose algebra of authomorphism is the split real form of the simple exceptional complex Lie algebra $\mathfrak {f}_4$. Cartan’s formula is written in the standard Cartesian coordinates in $\mathbb {R}^{15}$. In the present paper, we explain how to find analogous formulae for the flat models of any bracket generating distribution $\mathcal D$ whose symbol algebra $\mathfrak {n}({\mathcal D})$ is constant and 2-step graded, $\mathfrak {n}({\mathcal D})=\mathfrak {n}_{-2}\oplus \mathfrak {n}_{-1}$.

The formula is given in terms of a solution to a certain system of linear algebraic equations determined by two representations $(\rho ,\mathfrak {n}_{-1})$ and $(\tau ,\mathfrak {n}_{-2})$ of a Lie algebra $\mathfrak {n}_{00}$ contained in the $0$th order Tanaka prolongation $\mathfrak {n}_0$ of $\mathfrak {n}({\mathcal D})$.

Numerous examples are provided, with particular emphasis put on the distributions with symmetries being real forms of simple exceptional Lie algebras $\mathfrak {f}_4$ and $\mathfrak {e}_6$.

In this paper, we study the center Z of the finite W-algebra $${\mathcal{T}}({\mathfrak{g}},e)$$ associated with a semi-simple Lie algebra $$\mathfrak{g}$$ over an algebraically closed field $$\mathbb{k}$$ of characteristic p≫0, and an arbitrarily given nilpotent element $$e \in{\mathfrak{g}} $$ We obtain an analogue of Veldkamp’s theorem on the center. For the maximal spectrum Specm(Z), we show that its Azumaya locus coincides with its smooth locus of smooth points. The former locus reflects irreducible representations of maximal dimension for $${\mathcal{T}}({\mathfrak{g}},e)$$ .

For a locally compact Hausdorff space X and a C*-algebra A with only finitely many closed ideals, we discuss a characterization of closed ideals of C0(X,A) in terms of closed ideals of A and a class of closed subspaces of X. We further use this result to prove that a closed ideal of C0(X)⊗minA is a finite sum of product ideals. We also establish that for a unital C*-algebra A, C0(X,A) has the centre-quotient property if and only if A has the centre-quotient property. As an application, we characterize the closed Lie ideals of C0(X,A) and identify all the closed Lie ideals of HC0(X)⊗minB(H), H being a separable Hilbert space.

We give a new and useful approach to study the representations of symmetric Leibniz algebras. Using this approach, we obtain some results on the representations of these algebras.

We prove that if $\mathfrak{s}$ is a solvable Lie algebra of matrices over a field of characteristic 0 and $A\in \mathfrak{s}$, then the semisimple and nilpotent summands of the Jordan–Chevalley decomposition of $A$ belong to $\mathfrak{s}$ if and only if there exist $S,N\in \mathfrak{s}$, $S$ is semisimple, $N$ is nilpotent (not necessarily $[S,N]=0$) such that $A=S+N$.

A basis ${\mathcal{B}}=\{u_{i}\}_{i\in I}$ of a commutative or anticommutative algebra $\mathfrak{C},$ over an arbitrary base field $\mathbb{F}$, is called multiplicative if for any $i,j\in I$ we have that $u_{i}u_{j}\in \mathbb{F}u_{k}$ for some $k\in I$. We show that if a commutative or anticommutative algebra $\mathfrak{C}$ admits a multiplicative basis then it decomposes as the direct sum $\mathfrak{C}=\bigoplus _{j}\mathfrak{i}_{j}$ of well-described ideals each one of which admits a multiplicative basis. Also the minimality of $\mathfrak{C}$ is characterised in terms of the multiplicative basis and it is shown that, under a mild condition, the above direct sum is indexed by the family of its minimal ideals admitting a multiplicative basis.

We study the absolute continuity of the convolution ${\it\delta}_{e^{X}}^{\natural }\star {\it\delta}_{e^{Y}}^{\natural }$ of two orbital measures on the symmetric spaces $\mathbf{SO}_{0}(p,p)/\mathbf{SO}(p)\times \mathbf{SO}(p)$, $\mathbf{SU}(p,p)/\mathbf{S}(\mathbf{U}(p)\times \mathbf{U}(p))$ and $\mathbf{Sp}(p,p)/\mathbf{Sp}(p)\times \mathbf{Sp}(p)$. We prove sharp conditions on $X$, $Y\in \mathfrak{a}$ for the existence of the density of the convolution measure. This measure intervenes in the product formula for the spherical functions.

In this paper we prove that the Kostrikin radical of an extended affine Lie algebra of reduced type coincides with the center of its core, and use this characterization to get a type-free description of the core of such algebras. As a consequence we get that the core of an extended affine Lie algebra of reduced type is invariant under the automorphisms of the algebra.

We give the general structure of complex (resp., real) $G$-graded contractions of Lie algebras where $G$ is an arbitrary finite Abelian group. For this purpose, we introduce a number of concepts, such as pseudobasis, higher-order identities, and sign invariants. We characterize the equivalence classes of $G$-graded contractions by showing that our set of invariants (support, higher-order identities, and sign invariants) is complete, which yields a classification.

We introduce the notion of Lie algebras with plus-minus pairs as well as regular plus-minus pairs. These notions deal with certain factorizations in universal enveloping algebras. We show that many important Lie algebras have such pairs and we classify, and give a full treatment of, the three dimensional Lie algebras with plus-minus pairs.