Reductive subalgebras of semisimple Lie algebras and Poisson commutativity

Abstract

Let $\mathfrak g$ be a semisimple Lie algebra, $\mathfrak h\subset\mathfrak g$ a reductive subalgebra such that $\mathfrak h^\perp$ is a complementary $\mathfrak h$-submodule of $\mathfrak g$. In 1983, Bogoyavlenski claimed that one obtains a Poisson commutative subalgebra of the symmetric algebra ${\mathcal S}(\mathfrak g)$ by taking the subalgebra ${\mathcal Z}$ generated by the bi-homogeneous components of all $H\in{\mathcal S}(\mathfrak g)^{\mathfrak g}$. But this is false, and we present a counterexample. We also provide a criterion for the Poisson commutativity of such subalgebras ${\mathcal Z}$. As a by-product, we prove that ${\mathcal Z}$ is Poisson commutative if $\mathfrak h$ is abelian and describe ${\mathcal Z}$ in the special case when $\mathfrak h$ is a Cartan subalgebra. In this case, ${\mathcal Z}$ appears to be polynomial and has the maximal transcendence degree $(\mathrm{dim}\,\mathfrak g+\mathrm{rk}\,\mathfrak g)/2$.