Overgroups of regular unipotent elements in reductive groups

We study reductive subgroups $H$ of a reductive linear algebraic group $G$ -- possibly non-connected -- such that $H$ contains a regular unipotent element of $G$. We show that under suitable hypotheses, such subgroups are $G$-irreducible in the sense of Serre. This generalizes results of Malle, Testerman and Zalesski. We obtain analogous results for Lie algebras and for finite groups of Lie type. Our proofs are short, conceptual and uniform.

Semisimplification for Subgroups of Reductive Algebraic Groups

Let $G$ be a reductive algebraic group---possibly non-connected---over a field $k$ and let $H$ be a subgroup of $G$. If $G= GL_n$ then there is a degeneration process for obtaining from $H$ a completely reducible subgroup $H$ of $G$; one takes a limit of $H$ along a cocharacter of $G$ in an appropriate sense. We generalise this idea to arbitrary reductive $G$ using the notion of $G$-complete reducibility and results from geometric invariant theory over non-algebraically closed fields due to the authors and Herpel. Our construction produces a $G$-completely reducible subgroup $H$ of $G$, unique up to $G(k)$-conjugacy, which we call a $k$-semisimplification of $H$. This gives a single unifying construction which extends various special cases in the literature (in particular, it agrees with the usual notion for $G= GL_n$ and with Serres $G$-analogue of semisimplification for subgroups of $G(k)$). We also show that under some extra hypotheses, one can pick $H$ in a more canonical way using the Tits Centre Conjecture for spherical buildings and/or the theory of optimal destabilising cocharacters introduced by Hesselink, Kempf and Rousseau.

On relative complete reducibility

Let $K$ be a reductive subgroup of a reductive group $G$ over an algebraically closed field $k$. The notion of relative complete reducibility, introduced in previous work of Bate-Martin-Roehrle-Tange, gives a purely algebraic description of the closed $K$-orbits in $G^n$, where $K$ acts by simultaneous conjugation on $n$-tuples of elements from $G$. This extends work of Richardson and is also a natural generalization of Serres notion of $G$-complete reducibility. In this paper we revisit this idea, giving a characterization of relative $G$-complete reducibility which directly generalizes equivalent formulations of $G$-complete reducibility. If the ambient group $G$ is a general linear group, this characterization yields representation-theoretic criteria. Along the way, we extend and generalize several results from the aforementioned work of Bate-Martin-Roehrle-Tange.

Irreducible modules for pseudo-reductive groups

We classify the irreducible representations of smooth, connected affine algebraic groups over a field, by tackling the case of pseudo-reductive groups. We reduce the problem of calculating the dimension for pseudo-split pseudo-reductive groups to the split reductive case and the pseudo-split pseudo-reductive commutative case. Moreover, we give the first results on the latter, including a rather complete description of the rank one case.

On unipotent radicals of pseudo-reductive groups

We establish some results on the structure of the geometric unipotent radicals of pseudo-reductive k-groups. In particular, our main theorem gives bounds on the nilpotency class of geometric unipotent radicals of standard pseudo-reductive groups, which are sharp in many cases. A major part of the proof rests upon consideration of the following situation: let k be a purely inseparable field extension of k of degree p^e and let G denote the Weil restriction of scalars R_{k/k}(G) of a reductive k-group G. When G= R_{k/k}(G) we also provide some results on the orders of elements of the unipotent radical RR_u(G_{bar k}) of the extension of scalars of G to the algebraic closure bar k of k.

Orbit Closures and Invariants

Let G be a reductive linear algebraic group, H a reductive subgroup of G and X an affine G-variety. Let Y denote the set of fixed points of H in X, and N(H) the normalizer of H in G. In this paper we study the natural map from the quotient of Y by N(H) to the quotient of X by G induced by the inclusion of Y in X. We show that, given G and H, this map is a finite morphism for all G-varieties X if and only if H is G-completely reducible (in the sense defined by J-P. Serre); this was proved in characteristic zero by Luna in the 1970s. We discuss some applications and give a criterion for the map of quotients to be an isomorphism. We show how to extend some other results in Lunas paper to positive characteristic and also prove the following theorem. Let H and K be reductive subgroups of G; then the double coset HgK is closed for generic g in G if and only if the intersection of generic conjugates of H and K is reductive.

Cocharacter-closure and spherical buildings

Let $k$ be a field, let $G$ be a reductive $k$-group and $V$ an affine $k$-variety on which $G$ acts. In this note we continue our study of the notion of cocharacter-closed $G(k)$-orbits in $V$. In earlier work we used a rationality condition on the point stabilizer of a $G$-orbit to prove Galois ascent/descent and Levi ascent/descent results concerning cocharacter-closure for the corresponding $G(k)$-orbit in $V$. In the present paper we employ building-theoretic techniques to derive analogous results.

On a question of Kulshammer for representations of finite groups in reductive groups

Let $G$ be a simple algebraic group of type $G_2$ over an algebraically closed field of characteristic $2$. We give an example of a finite group $Gamma$ with Sylow $2$-subgroup $Gamma_2$ and an infinite family of pairwise non-conjugate homomorphisms $rhocolon Gammarightarrow G$ whose restrictions to $Gamma_2$ are all conjugate. This answers a question of Burkhard Kulshammer from 1995. We also give an action of $Gamma$ on a connected unipotent group $V$ such that the map of 1-cohomologies ${rm H}^1(Gamma,V)rightarrow {rm H}^1(Gamma_p,V)$ induced by restriction of 1-cocycles has an infinite fibre.

Cocharacter-closure and the rational Hilbert-Mumford Theorem

For a field k, let G be a reductive k-group and V an affine k-variety on which G acts. Using the notion of cocharacter-closed G(k)-orbits in V, we prove a rational version of the celebrated Hilbert-Mumford Theorem from geometric invariant theory. We initiate a study of applications stemming from this rationality tool. A number of examples are discussed to illustrate the concept of cocharacter-closure and to highlight how it differs from the usual Zariski-closure. When k is perfect, we give a criterion in terms of closed orbits for G to be k-anisotropic, answering a question of Borel.

Asymptotic Bounds for the Size of Hom$(A,{rm GL}_n(q))$

Fix an arbitrary finite group $A$ of order $a$, and let $X(n,q)$ denote the set of homomorphisms from $A$ to the finite general linear group ${rm GL}_n(q)$. The size of $X(n,q)$ is a polynomial in $q$. In this note it is shown that generically this polynomial has degree $n^2(1-a^{-1}) - epsilon_r$ and leading coefficient $m_r$, where $epsilon_r$ and $m_r$ are constants depending only on $r := n mod a$. We also present an algorithm for explicitly determining these constants.