Locally nilpotent operator

A linear operator $T$ is locally nilpotent if for each vector $v$ there is an integer $m(v)$ such that $T^{m(v)}v=0$. In finite dimension this is equivalent to being a nilpotent operator. Differentiation on the polynomial ring is locally nilpotent in characteristic zero but has no uniform nilpotence exponent.

Over a field of characteristic zero, a locally nilpotent operator has an algebraically defined exponential, because the sum is finite for each vector. Its inverse is $\exp (-T)$. The nilpotence bound may depend on the vector. In an sl2 Lie algebra Verma module, the raising operator is locally nilpotent but the lowering operator is not, so the latter's exponential does not define an endomorphism of the ordinary algebraic module.

// Target: lie-algebra.bigb