Skew-adjoint nilpotent operators vanish ($A^{\ast }=-A,A^k=0⟹A=0$)

On a finite-dimensional positive inner-product space, a skew-adjoint nilpotent operator is zero. In an orthonormal basis, $\Vert A{\Vert }_F^2=\mathrm{tr}(A^{\ast }A)=-\mathrm{tr}(A^2)=0$, since a nilpotent matrix has zero trace and so does its square. The Frobenius norm therefore vanishes. In particular, a nonzero nilpotent adjoint map rules out a compact Lie algebra.