Abstract: | Let be a nilpotent Lie algebra, over a field of characteristic zero, and its universal enveloping algebra. In this paper we study: (1) the prime ideal structure of related to finitely generated -modules , and in particular the set of associated primes for such (note that now is equal to the set of annihilator primes for ); (2) the problem of nontriviality for the modules when is a (maximal) prime of , and in particular when is the augmentation ideal of . We define the support of , as a natural generalization of the same notion from commutative theory, and show that it is the object of primary interest when dealing with (2). We also introduce and study the reduced localization and the reduced support, which enables to better understand the set . We prove the following generalization of a stability result given by W. Casselman and M. S. Osborne in the case when , as in the theorem, are abelian. We also present some of its interesting consequences. Theorem. Let be a finite-dimensional Lie algebra over a field of characteristic zero, and an ideal of ; denote by the universal enveloping algebra of . Let be a -module which is finitely generated as an -module. Then every annihilator prime of , when is regarded as a -module, is -stable for the adjoint action of on . |