Steinberg groups and simplicity of elementary groups defined by Jordan pairs (Q1125885)

The author continues the study of the projective elementary group of a Jordan pair begun in \textit{J. B. Faulkner} [Geom. Dedicata 14, 177-188 (1983; Zbl 0519.17012)] and \textit{O. Loos} [K-Theory 9, 77-116 (1994; Zbl 0835.17021)]. Let \(V\) be a simple nondegenerate Jordan pair with descending chain condition on principal inner ideals. The main results of the paper are: - With exactly three exceptions over the Galois fields \(F_2\) and \(F_3\), the projective elementary group \(PE(V)\) is simple; - With three classes of exceptions, again over \(F_2\) and \(F_3\), the central quotient of the elementary automorphism group \(EA(V)\) is simple or the product of two simple groups. The proofs are unified and do not use classification. They rely on Iwasawa's simplicity criterion. A Steinberg-type group \(St(V)\) associated with the Jordan pair \(V\) appears in the proof as a technical device; the author studies these groups in a separate paper. As an application the author shows that the classical simplicity theorems for elementary orthogonal groups, hyperbolic unitary groups over division rings, and algebraic groups admitting parabolic subgroups with commutative unipotent radical are all special cases of his simplicity results. On the other hand, elementary unitary but not hyperbolic groups and algebraic groups of type \(G_2,\;F_4\), and \(E_8\) are not covered by the author's result.