On the commutator map for real semisimple Lie algebras

Abstract

We find new sufficient conditions for the commutator map of a real semisimple Lie algebra to be surjective. As an application we prove the surjectivity of the commutator map for all simple algebras except $\mathfrak su_{p,q}$ ($p$ or $q$ >1), $\mathfrak so_{p,p+2}$ ($p$ odd or $p=2$), $\mathfrak u^*_{2m+1}(\mathbb H)$ ($m\ge 1$) and $EIII$.