Koszul duality and the PBW theorem in symmetric tensor categories in positive characteristic

We then proceed to discuss the PBW theorem for operadic Lie algebras (i.e., algebras over the operad Lie). This theorem is well known to fail for vector spaces in characteristic 2 (as one needs to require that [x,x]=0), and for supervector spaces in characteristic 3 (as one needs to require that [[x,x],x]=0 for odd x), but it holds in these categories in any characteristic p≥5; there is a well known proof based on Koszul duality. However, we show that in the category Verp, because of failure of Koszul duality, the PBW theorem can fail in any characteristic p≥5. Namely, one needs to impose the p-Jacobi identity, a certain generalization to characteristic p of the identities [x,x]=0 and [[x,x],x]=0. On the other hand, our main result is that once the p-Jacobi identity is imposed, the PBW theorem holds. This shows that the correct definition of a Lie algebra in Verp is an algebra over Lie which satisfies the p-Jacobi identity. This also applies to any symmetric tensor category that admits a symmetric tensor functor to Verp (e.g., a symmetric fusion category, see [19], Theorem 1.5). Finally, we prove the PBW theorem for Lie algebras in any quasi-semisimple symmetric tensor category.