Automorphisms and derivations of the insertion-elimination algebra and related graded Lie algebras

Abstract: This paper addresses several structural aspects of the insertion-elimination algebra, a Lie algebra that can be realized in terms of tree-inserting and tree-eliminating operations on the set of rooted trees. In particular, we determine the finite-dimensional subalgebras, the automorphism group, the derivation group, and a generating set for the insertion-elimination Lie algebra. Many parts of the results are stated for a more general class of Lie algebras and reproduce results for the generalized Virasoro algebras.