different between unipotent vs nilpotent

English

Etymology

uni- +? potent

Adjective

unipotent (not comparable)

1. (biology) Having the capacity to develop into only one type of cell or tissue.
2. (mathematics) Having a single idempotent element.

Related terms

• idempotent
• nilpotent
• nullipotent

Translations

English

Etymology

From nil (“not any”) +? potent (“having power”) with literal meaning “having zero power” - bearing Latin roots nil and potens.Coined in 1870, along with idempotent, by American mathematician Benjamin Peirce to describe elements of associative algebras.

Adjective

nilpotent (not comparable)

1. (algebra, ring theory, of an element x of a semigroup or ring) Such that, for some positive integer n, xⁿ = 0.
   • 2012, Martin W. Liebeck, Gary M. Seitz, Unipotent and Nilpotent Classes in Simple Algebraic Groups and Lie Algebras, American Mathematical Society, page 129,

     The rest of this book is devoted to determining the conjugacy classes and centralizers of nilpotent elements in L(G) and unipotent elements in G, where G is an exceptional algebraic group of type E₈,E₇, E₆, F₄ or G₂ over an algebraically closed field K of characteristic p. This chapter contains statements of the main results for nilpotent elements.

Coordinate terms

• idempotent

Derived terms

• nilpotent algebra
• nilpotent ideal
• nilpotently
• nilpotent orbit
• nilpotent semigroup

Related terms

• nilpotence
• nilpotency
• idempotent
• nullipotent
• unipotent

Translations

Noun

nilpotent (plural nilpotents)

1. (algebra) A nilpotent element.