Filtrations and distortion in infinite-dimensional algebras

A tame filtration of an algebra is defined by the growth of its terms, which has to be majorated by an exponential function. A particular case is the degree filtration used in the definition of the growth of finitely generated algebras. The notion of tame filtration is useful in the study of possible distortion of degrees of elements when one algebra is embedded as a subalgebra in another. A geometric analogue is the distortion of the (Riemannian) metric of a (Lie) subgroup when compared to the metric induced from the ambient (Lie) group. The distortion of a subalgebra in an algebra also reflects the degree of complexity of the membership problem for the elements of this algebra in this subalgebra. One of our goals here is to investigate, mostly in the case of associative or Lie algebras, if a tame filtration of an algebra can be induced from the degree filtration of a larger algebra. (C) 2010 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.