This paper describes how to use subgroups to parameterize unipotent classes in the classical algebraic group in characteristic 2. These results can be viewed as an extension of the Bala-Carter Theorem, and give a convenient way to compare unipotent classes in a group $G$ with unipotent classes of a subgroup $X$ where $G$ is exceptional and $X$ is a Levi subgroup of classical type.
The goal of this note is to classify the weakly closed unipotent subgroups in the split Chevalley groups. In an application we show under some mild assumptions on the characteristic that the Lie algebra of a connected simple algebraic group fails to be a so called 2F-module.
Let F be a local field of positive characteristic, and let G be either a Heisenberg group over F, or a certain (nonabelian) two-dimensional unipotent group over F. If H is an arithmetic subgroup of G, we provide an explicit description of every automorphism of H. From this description, it follows that every automorphism of H virtually extends to a virtual automorphism of G.
Every commutator preserving bijection of the unipotent radical $Up(2n, R)$ of the Borel subgroup of the classical symplectic group of rank at least 4 over a field $F$ such that $6F=F$ is shown to be the composition of a standard automorphism of $Up(2n,R)$ and a central map. The latter is a bijection which acts as the right multiplication by a matrix from the center of $Up(2n,F)$.
In the present paper we prove sandwich classification for the overgroups of the subsystem subgroup $E(Δ,R)$ of the Chevalley group $G(Φ,R)$ for the three types of pair $(Φ,Δ)$ (the root system and its subsystem) such that the group $G(Δ,R)$ is (up to torus) a Levi subgroup of the parabolic subgroup with abelian unipotent radical. Namely we show that for any such an overgroup $H$ there exists a unique pair of ideals $σ$ of the ring $R$ such that $E(Φ,Δ,R,σ)\le H\le N_{G(Φ,R)}(E(Φ,Δ,R,σ))$.
T. De Medts, Y. Segev and K. Tent [Special Moufang sets, their root groups and their μ-maps, Proc. Lond. Math. Soc. (3) 96 (2008), 767-791] proved that the little projective group of a special Moufang set M(U,τ) is perfect provided that U has size at least 4. We give a short, elementary and self-contained argument when U is abelian, working with Timmesfeld's concept of special (abstract) rank one groups with abelian unipotent subgroups [Abstract root subgroups and simple groups of Lie type, Monographs in Mathematics, 95. Birkhäuser, 2001]. This simplifies Timmesfeld's (quasi) simplicity criter…
We prove a formula connecting the number of unipotent conjugacy classes in a maximal parabolic subgroup of a finite general linear group with the numbers of unipotent conjugacy classes in various parabolic subgroups in smaller dimensions. We generalise this formula and deduce a number of corollaries; in particular, we express the number of conjugacy classes of unitriangular matrices over a finite field in terms of the numbers of unipotent conjugacy classes in maximal parabolic subgroups over the same field. We show how the numbers of unipotent conjugacy classes in parabolic subgroups of small …
Let $G$ be a simple exceptional algebraic group of adjoint type over an algebraically closed field of characteristic $p>0$ and let $X = {\rm PSL}_{2}(p)$ be a subgroup of $G$ containing a regular unipotent element $x$ of $G$. By a theorem of Testerman, $x$ is contained in a connected subgroup of $G$ of type $A_1$. In this paper we prove that with two exceptions, $X$ itself is contained in such a subgroup (the exceptions arise when $(G,p) = (E_6,13)$ or $(E_7,19)$). This extends earlier work of Seitz and Testerman, who established the containment under some additional conditions on $p$ and the …
In studying nilpotent groups, the lower central series and other variations can be used to construct an associated $\mathbb{Z}^+$-graded Lie ring, which is a powerful method to inspect a group. Indeed, the process can be generalized substantially by introducing $\mathbb{N}^d$-graded Lie rings. We compute the adjoint refinements of the lower central series of the unipotent subgroups of the classical Chevalley groups over the field $\mathbb{Z}/p\mathbb{Z}$ of rank $d$. We prove that, for all the classical types, this characteristic filter is a series of length $Θ(d^2)$ with nearly all factors ha…
Let G be a unipotent algebraic subgroup of some GL_m(C) defined over Q. We describe an algorithm for finding a finite set of generators of the subgroup G(Z) = G \cap GL_m(Z). This is based on a new proof of the result (in more general form due to Borel and Harish-Chandra) that such a finite generating set exists.
The existence of closed orbits of real algebraic groups on real algebraic varieties is established. As an application, it is shown that if G is a real reductive linear group with Iwasawa decomposition G= KAN, then every unipotent subgroup of G is conjugate to a subgroup of N.
One of the central tools in the classification of simple algebraic groups is the distinction between semisimple subgroups and unipotent subgroups. It is not a priori clear how to make this distinction for torsion-free subgroups of a group of finite Morley rank. We exploit the ``graded'' notion of 0-unipotence to develop a Sylow theory for torsion-free subgroups of a solvable group of finite Morley rank. This Sylow theory provides a robust alternative to the usual theory of Carter subgroups, and will be used in the analysis of intersections of Borel subgroups in minimal simple groups.
We investigate positive-dimensional closed reductive subgroups of almost simple algebraic groups containing a regular unipotent element. Our main result states that such subgroups do not lie inside proper parabolic subgroups unless possibly when their connected component is a torus. This extends the earlier result of Testerman and Zalesski treating connected reductive subgroups.
The unipotent groups are an important class of algebraic groups. We show that techniques used to compute with finitely generated nilpotent groups carry over to unipotent groups. We concentrate particularly on the maximal unipotent subgroup of a split reductive group and show how this improves computation in the reductive group itself.
We deal with aspects of the direct and inverse problems in parameterized Picard-Vessiot (PPV) theory. It is known that, for certain fields, a linear differential algebraic group (LDAG) G is a PPV Galois group over these fields if and only if G contains a Kolchin-dense finitely generated group. We show that, for a class of LDAGs G, including unipotent groups, G is such a group if and only if it has differential type 0. We give a procedure to determine if a parameterized linear differential equation has a PPV Galois group in this class and show how one can calculate the PPV Galois group of a par…
Let $q$ be a power of a prime $p$. Let $P$ be a parabolic subgroup of the general linear group $\GL_n(q)$ that is the stabilizer of a flag in $\FF_q^n$ of length at most 5, and let $U = O_p(P)$. In this note we prove that, as a function of $q$, the number $k(U)$ of conjugacy classes of $U$ is a polynomial in $q$ with integer coefficients.
Describing the conjugacy classes of the unipotent upper triangular groups $\mathrm{UT}_{n}(\mathbb{F}_{q})$ uniformly (for all or many values of $n$ and $q$) is a nearly impossible task. This paper takes on the related problem of describing the normal subgroups of $\mathrm{UT}_{n}(\mathbb{F}_{q})$. For $q$ a prime, a bijection will be established between these subgroups and pairs of combinatorial objects with labels from $\mathbb{F}_{q}^{\times}$. Each pair comprises a loopless binary matroid and a tight splice, an apparently new kind of combinatorial object which interpolates between nonnesti…
Let G be a simple algebraic group over an algebraically closed field k of bad characteristic. We classify the spherical unipotent conjugacy classes of G. We also show that if the characteristic of k is 2, then the fixed point subgroup of every involutorial automorphism (involution) of G is a spherical subgroup of G.
Let G be a simple algebraic group defined over an algebraically closed field of characteristic 0 or a good prime for G. Let U be a maximal unipotent subgroup of G and \u its Lie algebra. We prove the separability of orbit maps and the connectedness of centralizers for the coadjoint action of U on (certain quotients of) the dual \u* of \u. This leads to a method to give a parametrization of the coadjoint orbits in terms of so-called minimal representatives which form a disjoint union of quasi-affine varieties. Moreover, we obtain an algorithm to explicitly calculate this parametrization which h…
Let $G$ be a simple algebraic group over an algebraically closed field $K$ of characteristic $p > 0$. We consider connected reductive subgroups $X$ of $G$ that contain a given distinguished unipotent element $u$ of $G$. A result of Testerman and Zalesski (Proc. Amer. Math. Soc., 2013) shows that if $u$ is a regular unipotent element, then $X$ cannot be contained in a proper parabolic subgroup of $G$. We generalize their result and show that if $u$ has order $p$, then except for two known examples which occur in the case $(G, p) = (C_2, 2)$, the subgroup $X$ cannot be contained in a proper para…
Let $G$ be a linear Lie group that acts on it's Lie algebra $\mathfrak{g}$ by the adjoint action: $\mathrm{Ad}(g)X=gXg^{-1}$. An element $X\in \mathfrak {g}$ is called $\mathrm{Ad}_G$-real if $-X = \mathrm{Ad}(g)X $ for some $g\in G$. An $\mathrm{Ad}_G$-real element $X$ is called strongly $\mathrm{Ad}_G $-real if $-X = \mathrm{Ad}(τ) X $ for some involution $τ\in G$. Let $K=\mathbb{R}$, $\mathbb{C}$ or $\mathbb{H}$. Let $\mathrm{U}_n(K)$ be the group of unipotent upper-triangular matrices over $K$. Let $\mathfrak{u}_n (K)$ be the Lie algebra of $\mathrm{U}_n(K)$ that consists of $n \times n$ u…
Let $G$ be a linear algebraic group over an algebraically closed field of characteristic $p\geq 0$. We show that if $H_1$ and $H_2$ are connected subgroups of $G$ such that $H_1$ and $H_2$ have a common maximal unipotent subgroup and $H_1/R_u(H_1)$ and $H_2/R_u(H_2)$ are semisimple, then $H_1$ and $H_2$ are $G$-conjugate. Moreover, we show that if $H$ is a semisimple linear algebraic group with maximal unipotent subgroup $U$ then for any algebraic group homomorphism $σ\colon U\rightarrow G$, there are only finitely many $G$-conjugacy classes of algebraic group homomorphisms $ρ\colon H\rightarr…
If a geometry $Γ$ is isomorphic to the residue of a point $A$ of a shadow geometry of a spherical building $Δ$, a representation $\varepsilon_Δ^A$ of $Γ$ can be given in the unipotent radical $U_{A^*}$ of the stabilizer in $\mathrm{Aut}(Δ)$ of a flag $A^*$ of $Δ$ opposite to $A$, every element of $Γ$ being mapped onto a suitable subgroup of $U_{A^*}$. We call such a representation a unipotent representation. We develope some theory for unipotent representations and we examine a number of interesting cases, where a projective embedding of a Lie incidence geometry $Γ$ can be obtained as a quotie…
Let $U_n$ denote the group of $n\times n$ unipotent upper-triangular matrices over a fixed finite field $\FF_q$, and let $U_\cP$ denote the pattern subgroup of $U_n$ corresponding to the poset $\cP$. This work examines the superclasses and supercharacters, as defined by Diaconis and Isaacs, of the family of normal pattern subgroups of $U_n$. After classifying all such subgroups, we describe an indexing set for their superclasses and supercharacters given by set partitions with some auxiliary data. We go on to establish a canonical bijection between the supercharacters of $U_\cP$ and certain $\…
Let $\bfG$ be a connected reductive algebraic group defined over $\F_q$, where $q$ is a power of a prime $p$ that is good for $\bfG$. Let $F$ be the Frobenius morphism associated with the $\FF_q$-structure on $\bfG$ and set $G = \bfG^F$, the fixed point subgroup of $F$. Let $\bfP$ be an $F$-stable parabolic subgroup of $\bfG$ and let $\bfU$ be the unipotent radical of $\bfP$; set $P = \bfP^F$ and $U = \bfU^F$. Let $G_\uni$ be the set of unipotent elements in $G$. In this note we show that the number of conjugacy classes of $U$ in $G_\uni$ is given by a polynomial in $q$ with integer coefficien…
We consider linear groups which do not contain unipotent elements of infinite order, which includes all linear groups in positive characteristic, and show that this class of groups has good properties which resemble those held by groups of non positive curvature and which do not hold for arbitrary characteristic zero linear groups. In particular if such a linear group is finitely generated then centralisers virtually split and all finitely generated abelian subgroups are undistorted. If further the group is virtually torsion free (which always holds in characteristic zero) then we have a stron…
The current article continues a series of papers on decomposition of unipotents and its applications. Let $G(Φ,R)$ be a Chevalley group with a reduced irreducible root system $Φ$ over a commutative ring $R$. Fix $h\in G(Φ,R)$. Call an element $a\in G(Φ,R)$ "good", if it lies in the unipotent radical of a parabolic subgroup whereas the conjugate to $a$ by $h$ belongs to another proper parabolic subgroup (here we assume that all parabolics contain a given split maximal torus). Decomposition of unipotents is a representation of a root unipotent element as a product of "good" elements. Existence o…
Let $G$ be a semisimple real algebraic Lie group of real rank at least two and $U$ be the unipotent radical of a non-trivial parabolic subgroup. We prove that a discrete Zariski dense subgroup of $G$ that contains an irreducible lattice of $U$ is an arithmetic lattice of $G$. This solves a conjecture of Margulis and extends previous work of Hee Oh.
Exploring Bass' Triangulability Problem on unipotent algebraic subgroups of the affine Cremona groups, we prove a triangulability criterion, the existence of nontriangulable connected solvable affine algebraic subgroups of the Cremona groups, and stable triangulability of such subgroups; in particular, in the stable range we answer Bass' Triangulability Problem is the affirmative. To this end we prove a theorem on invariant subfields of $1$-extensions. We also obtain a general construction of all rationally triangulable subgroups of the Cremona groups and, as an application, classify rationall…
Fixing an arithmetic lattice $Γ$ in an algebraic group $G$, the commensurability growth function assigns to each $n$ the cardinality of the set of subgroups $Δ$ with $[Γ: Γ\cap Δ] [Δ: Γ\cap Δ] = n$. This growth function gives a new setting where methods of F. Grunewald, D. Segal, and G. C. Smith's "Subgroups of finite index in nilpotent groups" apply to study arithmetic lattices in an algebraic group. In particular, we show that for any unipotent algebraic $\mathbb{Z}$-group with arithmetic lattice $Γ$, the Dirichlet function associated to the commensurability growth function satisfies an Eule…
In this paper we consider non-abelian 1-cohomology for groups with coefficients in other groups. We prove versions of the `five lemma' arising from this situation. We go on to show that a connected unipotent algebraic group Q acted on morphically by a connected algebraic group G admits a filtration with successive quotients having the structure of G-modules. From these results we deduce extensions to results due to Cline, Parshall, Scott and van der Kallen. Firstly, if G is a connected, reductive algebraic group with Borel subgroup B and Q a unipotent algebraic G-group, we show the restriction…
This paper describes a family of Hecke algebras H_μ=End_G(Ind_U^G(ψ_μ)), where U is the subgroup of unipotent upper-triangular matrices of G=GL_n(F_q) and ψ_μis a linear character of U. The main results combinatorially index a basis of H_μ, provide a large commutative subalgebra of H_μ, and after describing the combinatorics associated with the representation theory of H_μ, generalize the RSK correspondence that is typically found in the representation theory of the symmetric group.
We extend the notion of induced conjugacy classes in reductive groups, introduced by Lusztig and Spaltenstein for unipotent classes, to arbitrary classes. We study properties of equivariant fibrations of prehomogeneous affine spaces, especially the existence of relative invariants. We also detect prehomogeneous affine spaces as subquotients of canonical parabolic subgroups attached to elements of reductive groups in the sense of Jacobson-Morozov. These results are prerequisites for making the geometric expansion of the Arthur-Selberg trace formula more explicit.
We establish an effective version of the classical Lie--Kolchin Theorem. Namely, let $A,B\in\mathrm{GL}_m(\mathbb{C})$ be quasi--unipotent matrices such that the Jordan Canonical Form of $B$ consists of a single block, and suppose that for all $k\geq0$ the matrix $AB^k$ is also quasi--unipotent. Then $A$ and $B$ have a common eigenvector. In particular, $\langle A,B\rangle<\mathrm{GL}_m(\mathbb{C})$ is a solvable subgroup. We give applications of this result to the representation theory of mapping class groups of orientable surfaces.
Let $Γ$ be a finitely generated group of matrices over $\mathbb{C}$. We construct an isometric action of $Γ$ on a complete CAT(0) space $X$ such that the restriction of this action to any subgroup of $Γ$ containing no nontrivial unipotent elements is well behaved. As an application, we show that if $M$ is a graph manifold that does not admit a nonpositively curved Riemannian metric, then any finite-dimensional $\mathbb{C}$-linear representation of $π_1(M)$ maps a nontrivial element of $π_1(M)$ to a unipotent matrix. In particular, the fundamental groups of such 3-manifolds do not admit any fai…
This paper provides new, relatively simple proofs of some important results about unipotent classes in simple linear algebraic groups. We derive the formula for the Jordan blocks of the Richardson class of a parabolic subgroup of a classical group. This result was originally due to Spaltenstein. Secondly, we derive, for good characteristic, the description of the natural partial order of unipotent classes of a classical group in terms of their Jordan blocks. This result was originally due to Gerstenhaber and Hesselink. As a consequence we obtain a proof of the Bala--Carter Theorem which holds …
Let $G$ be a simple algebraic group over an algebraically closed field $k$, where $\mathrm{char}\, k$ is either 0 or a good prime for $G$. We consider the modality $\mathrm{mod}(B : \mathfrak u)$ of the action of a Borel subgroup $B$ of $G$ on the Lie algebra $\mathfrak u$ of the unipotent radical of $B$, and report on computer calculations used to show that $\mathrm{mod}(B:\mathfrak u) = 20$, when $G$ is of type $\mathrm E_8$. This completes the determination of the values for $\mathrm{mod}(B:\mathfrak u)$ for $G$ of exceptional type.
Let k be a separably closed field. Let G be a reductive algebraic k-group. In this paper, we study Serre's notion of complete reducibility of subgroups of G over k. In particular, using the recently proved center conjecture of Tits, we show that the centralizer of a k-subgroup H of G is G-completely reducible over k if it is reductive and H is G-completely reducible over k. We also show that a regular reductive k-subgroup of G is G-completely reducible over k. Various open problems concerning complete reducibility are discussed. We present examples where the number of overgroups of irreducible…
Let G be a finite simple group of Lie type. In this paper we study characters of G that vanish at the non-semisimple elements and whose degree is equal to the order of a maximal unipotent subgroup of G. Such characters can be viewed as a natural generalization of the Steinberg character. For groups G of small rank we also determine the characters of this degree vanishing only at the non-identity unipotent elements.
The unipotent subgroup of a finite group of Lie type over a prime field Z/pZ comes equipped with a natural set of generators; the properties of the Cayley graph associated to this set of generators have been much studied. In the present paper, we show that the diameter of this Cayley graph is bounded above and below by constant multiples of np + n^2 log p, where n is the rank of the associated Lie group. This generalizes a result of the first author, which treated the case of SL_n(Z/pZ). (Keywords: diameter, Cayley graph, finite groups of Lie type. AMS classification: 20G40, 05C25)
Let $G$ be a simple algebraic group over an algebraically closed field $k$ of characteristic $p$. The classification of the conjugacy classes of unipotent elements of $G(k)$ and nilpotent orbits of $G$ on $\operatorname{Lie}(G)$ is well-established. One knows there are representatives of every unipotent class as a product of root group elements and every nilpotent orbit as a sum of root elements. We give explicit representatives in terms of a Chevalley basis for the eminent classes. A unipotent (resp. nilpotent) element is said to be eminent if it is not contained in any subsystem subgroup (re…
The group U_n(F) of all nxn unipotent upper-triangular matrices over F has derived length d := Ceiling(log_2 (n)), equivalently 2^{d-1} < n <= 2^d. We prove that U_n(F) has a 3-generated subgroup of derived length d, and it has a 2-generated subgroup of derived length d if and only if (21/32)* 2^d < n <= 2^d.
In this paper we study the structure of cohomology spaces for the Frobenius kernels of unipotent and parabolic algebraic group schemes and of their quantum analogs. Given a simple algebraic group $G$, a parabolic subgroup $P_J$, and its unipotent radical $U_J$, we determine the ring structure of the cohomology ring $H^\bullet((U_J)_1,k)$. We also obtain new results on computing $H^\bullet((P_J)_1,L(λ))$ as an $L_J$-module where $L(λ)$ is a simple $G$-module with high weight $λ$ in the closure of the bottom $p$-alcove. Finally, we provide generalizations of all our results to the quantum situat…
Let $\mathrm G / F$ be a reductive split $p$-adic group and let $\mathrm U$ be the unipotent radical of a Borel subgroup. We study the cohomology with trivial $\mathbb Z_p$-coefficients of the profinite nilpotent group $N = \mathrm U(\mathcal O_F)$ and its Lie algebra $\mathfrak n$, by extending a classical result of Kostant to our integral $p$-adic setup. The techniques used are a combination of results from group theory, algebraic groups and homological algebra.