Conformal Killing symmetric tensors on Lie groups

Abstract

We introduce the notion of metric Lie algebras of Killing type, which are characterized by the fact that all conformal Killing symmetric tensors are sums of Killing tensors and multiples of the metric tensor. We show that if a Lie algebra is either 2-step nilpotent, or 2- or 3-dimensional, or 4-dimensional non-solvable, or 4-dimensional solvable with 1-dimensional derived ideal, or has an abelian factor, then it is of Killing type with respect to any positive definite metric.