About the classification of the holonomy algebras of Lorentzian manifolds

Abstract

The classification of the holonomy algebras of Lorentzian manifolds can be reduced to the classification of irreducible subalgebras $\mathfrak{h}\subset\mathfrak{so}(n)$ that are spanned by the images of linear maps from $\mathbb{R}^n$ to $\mathfrak{h}$ satisfying an identity similar to the Bianchi one. T. Leistner found all such subalgebras and it turned out that the obtained list coincides with the list of irreducible holonomy algebras of Riemannian manifolds. The natural problem is to give a simple direct proof to this fact. We give such proof for the case of semisimple not simple Lie algebras $\mathfrak{h}$.