Bases, filtrations and module decompositions of free Lie algebras

We use the technique known as elimination to devise some new bases of the free Lie algebra which (like classical Hall bases) consist of Lie products of left normed basic Lie monomials. Our bases yield direct decompositions of the homogeneous components of the free Lie algebra with direct summands that are particularly easy to describe: they are tensor products of metabelian Lie powers. They also give rise to new filtrations and decompositions of free Lie algebras as modules for groups of graded algebra automorphisms. In particular, we obtain some new decompositions for free Lie algebras and free restricted Lie algebras over fields of positive characteristic. © 2007 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.