A solvable Lie group is a Lie group which is connected and
whose Lie algebra
is a solvable Lie algebra.
That is, the Lie algebra commutator series
(1)
|
eventually vanishes,
for some
.
Since nilpotent Lie algebras are also solvable, any nilpotent
Lie group is a solvable Lie group.
The basic example is the group of invertible upper triangular matrices with positive determinant, e.g.,
(2)
|
such that .
The Lie algebra
of
is its tangent space at the
identity matrix, which is the vector space of all
upper triangular matrices, and it is a solvable
Lie algebra. Its Lie algebra commutator
series is given by
(3)
| |||
(4)
| |||
(5)
|
Any real solvable Lie group is diffeomorphic to Euclidean space. For instance, the group of matrices
in the example above is diffeomorphic to , via the Lie group exponential
map. However, in general, the exponential map in a solvable
Lie algebra need not be surjective.