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Representation theory of Mackey Lie algebras and their dense subalgebras

In this article we review the main results of the earlier papers [I. Penkov, K. Styrkas, Tensor representations of infinite-dimensional root-reductive Lie algebras, in Developments and Trends in Infinite-Dimensional Lie Theory, Progress in Mathematics 288, Birkhäuser, 2011, pp. 127-150], [I. Penkov, V. Serganova, Categories of integrable $\mathfrak{sl}(\infty)$-, $\mathfrak{o}(\infty)$-, $\mathfrak{sp}(\infty)$-modules, in "Representation Theory and Mathematical Physics", Contemporary Mathematics 557 (2011), pp. 335-357] and [E. Dan-Cohen, I. Penkov, V. Serganova, A Koszul category of representations of finitary Lie algebras, preprint 2011, arXiv:1105.3407], and establish related new results in considerably greater generality. We introduce a class of infinite-dimensional Lie algebras $\mathfrak{g}^{M}$, which we call Mackey Lie algebras, and define monoidal categories $\mathbb{T}_{\mathfrak{g}^M}$ of tensor $\mathfrak{g}^M-$modules. We also consider dense subalgebras $\mathfrak{a} \subset \mathfrak{g}^M$ and corresponding categories $\mathbb{T}_\mathfrak{a}$. The locally finite Lie algebras $\mathfrak{sl}(V,W), \mathfrak{o}(V), \mathfrak{sp}(V)$ are dense subalgebras of respective Mackey Lie algebras. Our main result is that if $\mathfrak{g}^M$ is a Mackey Lie algebra and $\mathfrak{a} \subset \mathfrak{g}^M$ is a dense subalgebra, then the monoidal category $\mathbb{T}_\mathfrak{a}$ is equivalent to $\mathbb{T}_{\mathfrak{sl}(\infty)}$ or $\mathbb{T}_{\mathfrak{o}(\infty)}$; the latter monoidal categories have been studied in detail in [E. Dan-Cohen, I. Penkov, V. Serganova, A Koszul category of representations of finitary Lie algebras, preprint 2011, arXiv:1105.3407]. A possible choice of $\mathfrak{a}$ is the well-known Lie algebra of generalized Jacobi matrices.