The orders of nonsingular derivations of Lie algebras of characteristic two

Nonsingular derivations of modular Lie algebras which have finite multiplicative order play a role in the coclass theory for pro-p groups and Lie algebras. A study of the set of positive integers which occur as orders of nonsingular derivations of finite-dimensional nonnilpotent Lie algebras of characteristic p > 0 was initiated by Shalev and continued by the present author. In this paper we continue this study in the case of characteristic two. Among other results, we prove that any divisor n of 2^k − 1 with n ⁴ > (2^k − n)³ belongs to . Our methods consist of elementary arguments with polynomials over finite fields and a little character theory of finite groups. This work was partially supported by Ministero dell’Istruzione e dell’Università, Italy, through PRIN “Graded Lie algebras and pro-p-groups of finite width”.