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Jim Humphreys
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The short answer is no. In prime characteristic, the Killing form sometimes behaves badly even for simple Lie algebras. If "semisimple" means that the solvable radical is zero, there is no way to obtain the classical equivalences with non-degeneracy of the Killing form and with the direct sum decomposition into simples. Moreover, the simple Lie algebras have only recently been classified when $p=5$ (Premet-Strade), while for $p=2,3$ little is known and for $p>5$ the classification takes an enormous amount of work (by Block-Wilson and others). Conditions on the dimension of a faithful representation or on the prime are not enough to sort out the concept of semisimplicity. Still, a lot is known. For example, Seligman and others explored in the 1960s the class of modular Lie algebras for which the Killing form is non-degenerate.

ADDED: Much more could be said along these lines, but for older results see the book Modular Lie Algebras by G.B. Seligman (Springer, 1967). Modular Lie algebras have been of much less importance overall than linear algebraic groups, whose Lie algebras are "restricted" (have a nice $p$th power operation) but still don't reflect precisely the group structure or representation theory. Moreover, the representations of simple or more generally semisimple Lie algebras in prime characteristic are poorly understood even for those arising from Lie algebras of semisimple algebraic groups. So working with a fixed $p$ and fixed $n$ will usually not be illuminating.

The short answer is no. In prime characteristic, the Killing form sometimes behaves badly even for simple Lie algebras. If "semisimple" means that the solvable radical is zero, there is no way to obtain the classical equivalences with non-degeneracy of the Killing form and with the direct sum decomposition into simples. Moreover, the simple Lie algebras have only recently been classified when $p=5$ (Premet-Strade), while for $p=2,3$ little is known and for $p>5$ the classification takes an enormous amount of work (by Block-Wilson and others). Conditions on the dimension of a faithful representation or on the prime are not enough to sort out the concept of semisimplicity. Still, a lot is known. For example, Seligman and others explored in the 1960s the class of modular Lie algebras for which the Killing form is non-degenerate.

The short answer is no. In prime characteristic, the Killing form sometimes behaves badly even for simple Lie algebras. If "semisimple" means that the solvable radical is zero, there is no way to obtain the classical equivalences with non-degeneracy of the Killing form and with the direct sum decomposition into simples. Moreover, the simple Lie algebras have only recently been classified when $p=5$ (Premet-Strade), while for $p=2,3$ little is known and for $p>5$ the classification takes an enormous amount of work (by Block-Wilson and others). Conditions on the dimension of a faithful representation or on the prime are not enough to sort out the concept of semisimplicity. Still, a lot is known. For example, Seligman and others explored in the 1960s the class of modular Lie algebras for which the Killing form is non-degenerate.

ADDED: Much more could be said along these lines, but for older results see the book Modular Lie Algebras by G.B. Seligman (Springer, 1967). Modular Lie algebras have been of much less importance overall than linear algebraic groups, whose Lie algebras are "restricted" (have a nice $p$th power operation) but still don't reflect precisely the group structure or representation theory. Moreover, the representations of simple or more generally semisimple Lie algebras in prime characteristic are poorly understood even for those arising from Lie algebras of semisimple algebraic groups. So working with a fixed $p$ and fixed $n$ will usually not be illuminating.

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Jim Humphreys
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The short answer is no. In prime characteristic, the Killing form sometimes behaves badly even for simple Lie algebras. If "semisimple" means that the solvable radical is zero, there is no way to obtain the classsicalclassical equivalences with non-degeneracy of the Killing form and with the direct sum decomposition into simples. Moreover, the simple Lie algebras have only recently been classified when $p=5$ (Premet-Strade), while for $p=2,3$ little is known and for $p>5$ the classification takes an enormous amount of work (by Block-Wilson and others). Conditions on the dimension of a faithful representation or on the prime are not enough to sort out the concept of semisimplicity. Still, a lot is known. For example, Seligman and others explored in the 1960s the class of modular Lie algebras for which the Killing form is non-degenerate.

The short answer is no. In prime characteristic, the Killing form sometimes behaves badly even for simple Lie algebras. If "semisimple" means that the solvable radical is zero, there is no way to obtain the classsical equivalences with non-degeneracy of the Killing form and with the direct sum decomposition into simples. Moreover, the simple Lie algebras have only recently been classified when $p=5$ (Premet-Strade), while for $p=2,3$ little is known and for $p>5$ the classification takes an enormous amount of work (by Block-Wilson and others). Conditions on the dimension of a faithful representation or on the prime are not enough to sort out the concept of semisimplicity. Still, a lot is known. For example, Seligman and others explored in the 1960s the class of modular Lie algebras for which the Killing form is non-degenerate.

The short answer is no. In prime characteristic, the Killing form sometimes behaves badly even for simple Lie algebras. If "semisimple" means that the solvable radical is zero, there is no way to obtain the classical equivalences with non-degeneracy of the Killing form and with the direct sum decomposition into simples. Moreover, the simple Lie algebras have only recently been classified when $p=5$ (Premet-Strade), while for $p=2,3$ little is known and for $p>5$ the classification takes an enormous amount of work (by Block-Wilson and others). Conditions on the dimension of a faithful representation or on the prime are not enough to sort out the concept of semisimplicity. Still, a lot is known. For example, Seligman and others explored in the 1960s the class of modular Lie algebras for which the Killing form is non-degenerate.

Source Link
Jim Humphreys
  • 52.9k
  • 4
  • 120
  • 240

The short answer is no. In prime characteristic, the Killing form sometimes behaves badly even for simple Lie algebras. If "semisimple" means that the solvable radical is zero, there is no way to obtain the classsical equivalences with non-degeneracy of the Killing form and with the direct sum decomposition into simples. Moreover, the simple Lie algebras have only recently been classified when $p=5$ (Premet-Strade), while for $p=2,3$ little is known and for $p>5$ the classification takes an enormous amount of work (by Block-Wilson and others). Conditions on the dimension of a faithful representation or on the prime are not enough to sort out the concept of semisimplicity. Still, a lot is known. For example, Seligman and others explored in the 1960s the class of modular Lie algebras for which the Killing form is non-degenerate.