Compatible actions of Lie algebras

Abstract

We study compatible actions (introduced by Brown and Loday in their work on the non-abelian tensor product of groups) in the category of Lie algebras over a fixed ring. We describe the Peiffer product via a new diagrammatic approach, which specializes to the known definitions both in the case of groups and of Lie algebras. We then use this approach to transfer a result linking compatible actions and pairs of crossed modules over a common base object L from groups to Lie algebras. Finally, we show that the Peiffer product, naturally endowed with a crossed module structure, has the universal property of the coproduct in XMod_L(Lie_R).