Locally nilpotent sets of derivations

Abstract

Let B be an algebra over a field k and let Der(B) be the set of k-derivations from B to B. We define what it means for a subset of Der(B) to be a locally nilpotent set. We prove some basic results about that notion and explore the following questions. Let L be a Lie subalgebra of Der(B); if every element of L is a locally nilpotent derivation then does it follow that L is a locally nilpotent set? Does it follow that L is a nilpotent Lie algebra?

Version 2 corrects notational errors in the proof of 6.2