This chapter is devoted to studying some concepts that will be extensively used in the last chapters, namely the cohomology of Lie algebras with values in a vector space, the Whitehead lemmas and Lie algebra extensions (which are related to second cohomology groups). The same three different cases of extensions of chapter 5 as well as the ℱ(M)-valued version of cohomology will be considered. In fact, the relation between Lie group and Lie algebra cohomology will be explored here, first with the simple example of central extensions of groups and algebras (governed by twococycles), and then in the higher order case, providing explicit formulae for obtaining Lie algebra cocycles from Lie group ones and vice versa.

The Lie algebra cohomology à la Chevalley-Eilenberg, which uses invariant forms on a Lie group, is also presented in this chapter. This will turn out to be specially useful in the construction of physical actions (chapter 8), i.e. in the process of relating cohomology and mechanics. The BRST formulation of Lie algebra cohomology will also be discussed here due to its importance in gauge theories.

Cohomology of Lie algebras: general definitions

We now discuss the cohomology of Lie algebras with values on a vector space V following the same pattern as used in chapter 5 for the cohomology of groups with values in an abelian group. Let G be a Lie algebra, and let the vector space V over the field K be a ρ(G)-module.