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The Jacobi identity is the compatibility condition on a Lie bracketTogether with an Alternating Lie bracket, it defines a Lie algebra. Unlike associativity, it relates three cyclic bracketings rather than equating two bracketings. Equivalently, using antisymmetry of a Lie bracket,Thus the linear map ${\mathrm{ad}}_x:y\mapsto [x,y]$ is a derivation of a Lie algebra: acting on a bracket is the sum of acting on each argument. This makes infinitesimal symmetries act consistently on each other's products. It also gives $[{\mathrm{ad}}_x,{\mathrm{ad}}_y]={\mathrm{ad}}_{[x,y]}$, the identity that makes the Adjoint representation of a Lie algebra a Lie algebra representation.

For the commutator in an associative algebra, the cancellation is directly visible:Each word occurs once with each sign. This proves the Jacobi identity without a restriction on the characteristic of a field.

For a computed check in the sl2 matrix commutator example,Here the last two terms are individually nonzero over characteristic zero; the identity records their cancellation. In the cross-product Lie algebra, the same cyclic cancellation is the vector triple product identity.

The historical connection is unusually concrete: Lie and Engel's volume I expands nested commutators of differential operators into twelve terms and cancels them cyclically, in Chapter 5, §26, equation (7). See Lie and Engel, §26, in Merker's translation, pp. 105–106.

The Lie bracket is the product in a Lie algebra: a bilinear map with an Alternating Lie bracket and the Jacobi identity. Bilinearity means, for $a,b\in k$,Unlike matrix multiplication, a Lie bracket need not satisfy associativity. In the sl2 matrix commutator example, $[H,[E,F]]=0$ but $[[H,E],F]=2H$. The replacement compatibility law is the Jacobi identity, which makes bracketing with a fixed element a derivation of a Lie algebra.

For Matrix Lie groups, the Lie bracket is the matrix commutator $[X,Y]=XY-YX$ on their tangent space. For the cross-product Lie algebra, it is $[x,y]=x\times y$. Both products measure a failure of infinitesimal motions to commute. In a real Lie group, a zero Lie bracket means that the two corresponding one-parameter subgroups commute for all real parameters.

For a Lie bracket over $\mathbb{R}$ or $\mathbb{C}$, antisymmetry of a Lie bracket means $[x,y]=-[y,x]$. In particular $[x,x]=0$ in these characteristic-zero fields. The Jacobi identity isIt expresses compatibility of the bracket with its own adjoint action. Bilinearity must hold over the chosen base field, and the bracket must take its values in the same vector space.

For the matrix commutator, bilinearity and antisymmetry follow directly from distributivity. Associativity of matrix multiplication givesadding the two cyclic permutations cancels every monomial. Thus the Jacobi identity holds in the entire matrix algebra. For a specified linear subspace, the only additional bracket condition is closure: $AB-BA$ must belong to the subspace whenever $A,B$ do. It is unnecessary to require closure under the separate products $AB$ and $BA$.

To determine the special unitary Lie algebra, let $g(t)$ be a differentiable curve in the special unitary group with $g(0)=I$ and $A=g^{\prime }(0)$. Differentiating $g(t{)}^{†}g(t)=I$ gives $A^{†}+A=0$. Differentiating $\det g(t)=1$ at the identity gives $\mathrm{tr}A=0$. Conversely a traceless skew-Hermitian matrix has $e^{tA}$ unitary and $\det e^{tA}=e^{t\mathrm{tr}A}=1$, so it really is a tangent vector. ThereforeThis is a real Lie algebra of complex matrices: multiplication by $i$ generally leaves this real subspace. Its complexification is ${\mathfrak{sl}}_n(\mathbb{C})$, not the compact algebra itself. For $A,B\in \mathfrak{su}(n)$,Thus closure holds, and the already verified commutator identities establish all the Lie algebra axioms.

The cross-product Lie algebra on ${\mathbb{R}}^3$ is bilinear, antisymmetric and closed because the cross product has those properties. Its Jacobi identity follows from the vector triple-product identity:In the cyclic sum, the coefficients cancel by symmetry of the scalar product.

For the explicit relation to the SU(2) Lie algebra, take the three Pauli matrices and defineThese matrices are traceless and Skew-Hermitian, and the three images of the standard basis form a real basis of $\mathfrak{su}(2)$. Using the Pauli matrix commutator identity,Hence $F$ is a real Lie algebra isomorphism. The factor and sign $-i/2$ are essential for preserving the unscaled cross-product bracket. At the group level there is an Adjoint double cover from SU(2) to SO(3); the isomorphism of their tangent algebras does not identify the two global groups.

Use the cross-product Lie algebra convention $X=\widehat{e_1}$, $Y=\widehat{e_2}$, $Z=\widehat{e_3}$, so $[X,Y]=Z$. Put $R_x(t)=\exp (tX)$ and $R_y(t)=\exp (tY)$, using the matrix exponential. The finite group commutator isHere $\epsilon \to 0$ and big O notation refers to any fixed matrix norm. Active rotation matrices act on column vectors from right to left: first rotate about $y$ by $-\epsilon$, then about $x$ by $-\epsilon$, then about $y$ by $+\epsilon$, and finally about $x$ by $+\epsilon$. Swapping $x$ and $y$ replaces the product by its inverse and changes the leading Lie bracket to $-Z$.

Writing $c=\cos \epsilon$ and $s=\sin \epsilon$, direct matrix multiplication givesFor $\epsilon =0.1$ radians, $C_{\epsilon }{e}_1\approx (0.999950208,0.009966462,0.000501230)$, whereas $e_1+{\epsilon }^{2}Z{e}_1=(1,0.01,0)$. Thus the residual is a positive rotation about $z$ to leading order; at finite $\epsilon$ it also has smaller components. The Lie bracket captures the leading effect of the four moves rather than their entire finite motion. See Etingof, Section 7.2, Proposition 7.11.

The left panel projects the actual four arcs onto the $yz$-plane for $\epsilon =0.25$; the start and endpoint are close but distinct. The right panel divides the residual coordinates by ${\epsilon }^2$, making the limit $(\Delta y/{\epsilon }^2,\Delta z/{\epsilon }^2)\to (1,0)$ visible. This is a numerical picture of $[X,Y]=Z$ in the SO(3) Lie algebra.