A note on the algebra of Poisson brackets

Abstract

In a long sequence of notes in the Comptes Rendus and elsewhere, and in the papers [1], [2], [3], [6], [7], Lichnerowicz and his collaborators have studied the ‘classical infinite-dimensional Lie algebras’, their derivations, automorphisms, co-homology, and other properties. The most familiar of these algebras is the Lie algebra of C∞ vector fields on a C∞ manifold. Another is the Lie algebra of ‘Poisson brackets’, that is, of C∞ functions on a C∞ symplectic manifold, with the Poisson bracket as composition; some questions concerning this algebra are of considerable interest in the theory of quantization – see, for instance, [2] and [3].