English

Generically free representations II: irreducible representations

Representation Theory 2020-08-17 v3 Group Theory

Abstract

We determine which faithful irreducible representations VV of a simple linear algebraic group GG are generically free for Lie(GG), i.e., which VV have an open subset consisting of vectors whose stabilizer in Lie(GG) is zero. This relies on bounds on dimV\dim V obtained in prior work (part I), which reduce the problem to a finite number of possibilities for GG and highest weights for VV, but still infinitely many characteristics. The remaining cases are handled individually, some by computer calculation. These results were previously known for fields of characteristic zero, although new phenomena appear in prime characteristic; we provide a shorter proof that gives the result with very mild hypotheses on the characteristic. (The few characteristics not treated here are settled in part III.) These results are related to questions about invariants and the existence of a stabilizer in general position.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.1711.06400,
  title  = {Generically free representations II: irreducible representations},
  author = {Skip Garibaldi and Robert M. Guralnick},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1711.06400},
  year   = {2020}
}

Comments

Part I is arxiv preprint 1711.05502. Part III is arxiv preprint 1801.06915. v2: minor text changes to align with part III; v3: updated to align with v3 of Part I. Supporting Magma code available at http://garibaldibros.com

R2 v1 2026-06-22T22:48:58.211Z