Almost inner derivations of Lie algebras

Abstract

We study almost inner derivations of Lie algebras, which were introduced by Gordon and Wilson in their work on isospectral deformations of compact solvmanifolds. We compute all almost inner derivations for low-dimensional Lie algebras, and introduce the concept of fixed basis vectors for proving that all almost inner derivations are inner for $2$-step nilpotent Lie algebras determined by graphs, free $2$ and $3$-step nilpotent Lie algebras, free metabelian nilpotent Lie algebras on two generators, almost abelian Lie algebras and triangular Lie algebras. On the other hand we also exhibit families of nilpotent Lie algebras having an arbitrary large space of non-inner almost inner derivations.