English

Roots of elements for groups over local fields

Number Theory 2025-03-24 v1 Group Theory

Abstract

Let F\mathbb F be a local field and GG be a linear algebraic group defined over F\mathbb F. For kNk\in\mathbb N, let ggkg\to g^k be the kk-th power map PkP_k on G(F)G(\mathbb F). The purpose of this article is two-fold. First, we study the power map on real algebraic group. We characterise the density of the images of the power map PkP_k on G(R)G(\mathbb R) in terms of Cartan subgroups. Next we consider the linear algebraic group GG over non-Archimedean local field F\mathbb F with any characteristic. If the residual characteristic of F\mathbb F is pp, and an element admits pkp^k-th root in G(F)G(\mathbb F) for each kk, then we prove that some power of the element is unipotent. In particular, we prove that an element gG(F)g\in G(\mathbb F) admits roots of all orders if and only if gg is contained in a one-parameter subgroup in G(F)G(\mathbb F). Also, we extend these results to all linear algebraic groups over global fields.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2503.16987,
  title  = {Roots of elements for groups over local fields},
  author = {Parteek Kumar and Arunava Mandal},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2503.16987},
  year   = {2025}
}
R2 v1 2026-06-28T22:29:30.530Z