The space becomes a Lie algebra under the commutator
A Lie subalgebra is abelian when ; nilpotent when its Lower central series of a Lie algebra reaches zero; and soluble when its derived series of a Lie algebra reaches zero.
If and is nilpotent, choose the least with . Then , while
Thus the normalizer of a Lie subalgebra strictly contains . If is maximal proper, its normalizer must be all of , so is an ideal. Solubility is insufficient: in the two-dimensional affine Lie algebra with , the maximal subalgebra is not an ideal.
A derivation of a Lie algebra is a linear map satisfying
It is inner when for some .
Every nonzero finite-dimensional nilpotent Lie algebra has an outer derivation of a nilpotent Lie algebra. Choose a codimension-one maximal subalgebra ; it is an ideal by the result above, and write . The centralizer is nonzero because it contains . Let be largest such that
and choose . Define
Because is an ideal and centralizes , the derivation identity holds on and on , hence everywhere. If , then would put in , so
contrary to the choice of . Thus is outer.
The analogous assertion fails for soluble algebras. In the affine example, a derivation has
and equals . Thus every derivation is inner although is nonzero and soluble.