Killing Vector Fields of Invariant Metrics on Five-Dimensional Solvable Lie Groups

In this paper we study the existence of Killing vector fields for right-invariant metrics on five-dimensional Lie groups. We begin by providing some explanation of the classification lists of the low-dimensional Lie algebras. Then we review some of the known results about Killing vector fields on Lie groups. We take as our invariant metric the sum of the squares of the right-invariant Maurer–Cartan one-forms, starting from a coordinate representation. A number of such metrics are uncovered that have one or more extra Killing vector fields, besides the left-invariant vector fields that are automatically Killing for a right-invariant metric. In each case the corresponding Lie algebra of Killing vector fields is found and identified to the extent possible on a standard list. The computations are facilitated by use of the symbolic manipulation package MAPLE.