On the Top Degree of Coinvariants

For a finite group $G$ acting faithfully on a finite dimensional $F$-vector space $V$, we show that in the modular case, the top degree of the vector coinvariants grows unboundedly: $\lim_{m\to\infty} \topdeg F[V^{m}]_{G}=\infty$. In contrast, in the non-modular case we identify a situation where the top degree of the vector coinvariants remains constant. Furthermore, we present a more elementary proof of Steinberg's theorem which says that the group order is a lower bound for the dimension of the coinvariants which is sharp if and only if the invariant ring is polynomial.