Complete reducibility of subgroups of reductive algebraic groups over non-perfect fields IV: An 𝐹4 example

Let 𝑘 be a non-perfect separably closed field. Let 𝐺 be a connected reductive algebraic group defined over 𝑘. We study rationality problems for Serre’s notion of complete reducibility of subgroups of 𝐺. In particular, we present the first example of a connected non-abelian 𝑘-subgroup 𝐻 of 𝐺 that is 𝐺-completely reducible but not 𝐺-completely reducible over 𝑘, and the first example of a connected non-abelian 𝑘-subgroup H ′ H^{\prime} of 𝐺 that is 𝐺-completely reducible over 𝑘 but not 𝐺-completely reducible. This is new: all previously known such examples are for finite (or non-connected) 𝐻 and H ′ H^{\prime} only.

Strong and uniform boundedness of groups

A group [Formula: see text] is called bounded if every conjugation-invariant norm on [Formula: see text] has finite diameter. We introduce various strengthenings of this property and investigate them in several classes of groups including semisimple Lie groups, arithmetic groups and linear algebraic groups. We provide applications to Hamiltonian dynamics.

Overgroups of regular unipotent elements in simple algebraic 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.

Torsors for difference algebraic groups

We introduce a cohomology set for groups defined by algebraic difference equations and show that it classifies torsors under the group action. This allows us to compute all torsors for large classes of groups. We also present an application to the Galois theory of differential equations depending on a discrete parameter.