Generation of relative commutator subgroups in Chevalley groups.

DOI10.1017/S0013091515000188MaRDI QIDQ2806123zbMATH OpenOpenAlexFDO

Authors Zuhong Zhang, R. Hazrat, Nikolai Vavilov

Publication date 13 May 2016

Published in Proceedings of the Edinburgh Mathematical Society. Series II (Search for Journal in Brave)

Full work available at URL https://arxiv.org/abs/1212.5432

zbMATH Keywords

Chevalley groupsgenerating setsirreducible root systemsmixed commutator subgroupsrelative elementary subgroups

Mathematics Subject Classification ID

Generators, relations, and presentations of groups (20F05) Commutator calculus (20F12) Linear algebraic groups over adèles and other rings and schemes (20G35)

Abstract: Let $Phi$ be a reduced irreducible root system of rank $ge2$, let $R$ be a commutative ring and let $I,J$ be two ideals of $R$. In the present paper we describe generators of the commutator groups of relative elementary subgroups $$ both as normal subgroups of the elementary Chevalley group $E(Phi,R)$, and as groups. Namely, let $x_a(xi)$, $ainPhi$, $xiinR$, be an elementary generator of $E(Phi,R)$. As a normal subgroup of the absolute elementary group $E(Phi,R)$, the relative elementary subgroup is generated by $x_a(xi)$, $ainPhi$, $xiinI$. Classical results due to Michael Stein, Jacques Tits and Leonid Vaserstein assert that as a group $E(Phi,R,I)$ is generated by $z_a(xi,eta)$, where $ainPhi$, $xiinI$, $etainR$. In the present paper, we prove the following birelative analogues of these results. As a normal subgroup of $E(Phi,R)$ the relative commutator subgroup $$ is generated by the following three types of generators: i) $$, ii) $$, and iii) $x_{alpha}(xizeta)$, where $alphainPhi$, $xiinI$, $zetainJ$, $etainR$. As a group, the generators are essentially the same, only that type iii) should be enlarged to iv) $z_{alpha}(xizeta,eta)$. For classical groups, these results, with much more computational proofs, were established in previous papers by the authors. There is already an amazing application of these results, namely in the recent work of Alexei Stepanov on relative commutator width.

Review text

Let \(\Phi\) be a reduced irreducible root system of rank greater than or equal to \(2\), let \(R\) be a commutative ring with \(1\) and let \(G(\Phi,R)\) be a Chevalley group of type \(\Phi\) over \(R\). Let \(x_\alpha(\xi)\) be a root unipotent elementary with respect to a fixed maximal split torus in \(G(\Phi,R)\), where \(\alpha\in\Phi\), \(\xi\in R\). The \textit{elementary subgroup} of \(G(\Phi,R)\), \(E(\Phi,R)\), is that generated by all \(x_\alpha(\xi)\). Finally, for each \(R\)-ideal \(I\) the relative elementary subgroup \(E(\Phi,R,I)\) is defined to be the \textit{normal} subgroup of \(E(\Phi,R)\) generated by all \(x_\alpha(\xi)\), where \(\xi\in I\).NEWLINENEWLINE This paper is concerned with the mixed commutator subgroup NEWLINE\[NEWLINEM=[E(\Phi,R,I),E(\Phi,R,J)].NEWLINE\]NEWLINE By means of extensive computations the authors are able (subject to minor restrictions on \(\Phi\)) to provide two simple sets of generators \(S_1,S_2\) for \(M\). \(S_1\) is a generating set for \(M\) as a \textit{normal} subgroup of \(E(\Phi,R)\) while \(S_2\) is a set of generators of \(M\) as a group. Surprisingly \(S_1\) and \(S_2\) differ only slightly. These extend many previous results including some of the authors for classical groups.NEWLINENEWLINE Recently Stepanov has used these results to prove the following remarkable result. Every commutator \([x,y]\), where \(x\in G(\Phi,R,I)\) and \(y\in E(\Phi,R,J)\) is the product of at most \(N\) elements in \(S_2\), where the constant \(N=N(\Phi)\) depends \textit{only} on \(\Phi\) (and is \textit{independent} of the choice of \(R\) and any of its ideals \(I,J\)). (\(G(\Phi,R,I)\) is the \textit{congruence subgroup} of level \(I\) of \(G(\Phi,R)\).)

Recommendations

• Generation of relative commutator subgroups in Chevalley groups. II.
• Commutators of elementary subgroups: curiouser and curiouser
• Relative subgroups in Chevalley groups.
• Relative commutator calculus in Chevalley groups.
• Commutator width in Chevalley groups.

Cites work

• \(K\)-theory and stable algebra
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• A further note on subgroups of GL(n,A) which are generated by commutators
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Cited in

(18)

• Commutator structure of some subgroups of Chevalley groups
• Commutator width of Chevalley groups over rings of stable rank 1
• Commutators of congruence subgroups in the arithmetic case
• Commutators of relative and unrelative elementary groups, revisited
• The yoga of commutators: further applications.
• Commutators with some special elements in Chevalley groups.
• Unrelativized standard commutator formula
• The commutators of classical groups
• Relative commutator calculus in Chevalley groups.
• Commutators of elementary subgroups: curiouser and curiouser
• Generators of Chevalley Groups over Z
• scientific article; zbMATH DE number 3685739 (Why is no real title available?)
• Decompositions of congruence subgroups of Chevalley groups
• Generation of relative commutator subgroups in Chevalley groups. II.
• Non-abelian K-theory for Chevalley groups over rings.
• Commutators of relative and unrelative elementary unitary groups
• Calculations in exceptional groups, an update.
• Structure of Chevalley groups over rings via universal localization.

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