Formal deformations, contractions and moduli spaces of Lie algebras

Jump deformations and contractions of Lie algebras are inverse concepts, but the approaches to their computations are quite different. In this paper, we contrast the two approaches, showing how to compute jump deformations from the miniversal deformation of a Lie algebra, and thus arrive at the contractions. We also compute contractions directly. We use the moduli spaces of real 3-dimensional and complex 3 and 4-dimensional Lie algebras as models for explaining a deformation theory approach to computation of contractions.Comment: 27 page

Global geometric deformations of current algebras as Krichever-Novikov type algebras

We construct algebraic-geometric families of genus one (i.e. elliptic) current and affine Lie algebras of Krichever-Novikov type. These families deform the classical current, respectively affine Kac-Moody Lie algebras. The construction is induced by the geometric process of degenerating the elliptic curve to singular cubics. If the finite-dimensional Lie algebra defining the infinite dimensional current algebra is simple then, even if restricted to local families, the constructed families are non-equivalent to the trivial family. In particular, we show that the current algebra is geometrically not rigid, despite its formal rigidity. This shows that in the infinite-dimensional Lie algebra case the relations between geometric deformations, formal deformations and Lie algebra two-cohomology are not that close as in the finite-dimensional case. The constructed families are e.g. of relevance in the global operator approach to the Wess-Zumino-Witten-Novikov models appearing in the quantization of Conformal Field Theory.Comment: 35 pages, AMS-Late

Leibniz algebra deformations of a Lie algebra

In this note we compute Leibniz algebra deformations of the 3-dimensional nilpotent Lie algebra $\mathfrak{n}_3$ and compare it with its Lie deformations. It turns out that there are 3 extra Leibniz deformations. We also describe the versal Leibniz deformation of $\mathfrak{n}_3$ with the versal base.Comment: 15 page

Cohomology and deformations of the infinite dimensional filiform Lie algebra m_0

Denote m_0 the infinite dimensional N-graded Lie algebra defined by basis e_i, i>= 1 and relations [e_1,e_i] = e_(i+1) for all i>=2. We compute in this article the bracket structure on H1(m_0,m_0), H2(m_0,m_0) and in relation to this, we establish that there are only finitely many true deformations of m_0 in each nonpositive weight, by constructing them explicitely. It turns out that in weight 0 one gets exactly the other two filiform Lie algebras.Comment: 25 page