Linear maps on algebraic groups (Q1183189)

Let \(S\) be a subset of the algebra \(M(n,K)\) of all \(n\times n\) matrices over a field \(K\), and let \(Fix(S)\) denote the set of all \(K\)-linear transformations of \(M(n,K)\) into itself which map \(S\) into \(S\). A long series of papers by various authors have shown that for a surprisingly large class of sets, \(Fix(S)\) consists of transformations of the form (*) \(A\mapsto PAQ\) or \(A\mapsto PA^ \top Q\) where \(P\) and \(Q\) are invertible matrices and \(A^ \top\) is the transpose of \(A\). In particular, it was shown by \textit{J. D. Dixon} [Can. J. Math. 29, 384-391 (1977; Zbl 0332.20016)] that this is true when \(K\) is a subfield of the complex numbers, \(n>3\), and \(S\) is an absolutely irreducible simple algebraic subgroup of \(SL(n,K)\), with two possible classes of exceptions. In the present paper, the author eliminates one of these classes by showing that when \(S\) is an absolutely irreducible representation of \(SL(2,K)\), and \(K\) is a subfield of the complex numbers, then \(Fix(S)\) has the expected form.