Formal group

In mathematics, a formal group law is (roughly speaking) a formal power series behaving as if it were the product of a Lie group. They were introduced by S.Bochner (1946). The term formal group sometimes means the same as formal group law, and sometimes means one of several generalizations. Formal groups are intermediate between Lie groups (or algebraic groups) and Lie algebras. They are used in algebraic number theory and algebraic topology.