A characterisation of nilpotent Lie algebras by invertible Leibniz-derivations

Abstract

Jacobson proved that if a Lie algebra admits an invertible derivation, it must be nilpotent. He also suspected, though incorrectly, that the converse might be true: that every nilpotent Lie algebra has an invertible derivation. We prove that a Lie algebra is nilpotent if and only if it admits an invertible Leibniz-derivation. The proofs are elementary in nature and are based on well-known techniques.