Automorphisms of unipotent subgroups of Lie type groups of small ranks (Q1174053)

The author studies the automorphisms and central series of the maximal unipotent subgroups \(UG(K)\) of Chevalley groups \(G(K)\) of twisted type over commutative rings \(K\) with identity for the root systems of type \(A_3\), \(D_4\), \(E_6\), \(F_4\), and \(G_2\). The automorphisms and commutators of \(UG(K)\) for \(K\) a field of characteristic other than 2 or 3 have been studied by \textit{J. Gibbs} [J. Algebra 14, 203--228 (1970; Zbl 0191.02001)], by the author in earlier papers [Sib. Mat. Zb. 24, 64--80 (1983; Zbl 0525.20031), XIX All-Union Algebra Conf., L'vov, (1987; Zbl 0699.00006), Akad. Nauk Ukr. SSR, Inst. Prikl. Probl. Mekh. Mat. 161 (1987)]. For groups of rank 1 such study was part of much earlier work of \textit{M. Suzuki} [Ann. Math. (2) 75, 105--145 (1962; Zbl 0106.24702)] and \textit{H. Ward} [Trans. Am. Math. Soc. 121, 62--89 (1966; Zbl 0139.24902)]. The author's results are in the spirit of those of Gibbs, who showed that every automorphism of \(UG(K)\) for the fields \(K\) mentioned above is decomposable into the product of a standard automorphism and one of the form \(x_q(t)\mapsto x_q(t)x_s(dt)x_{s+q}(t^\lambda)\), where \(q\) is a simple root, \(s\) is a root such that \(q+s\) is a maximal root, and \(d=c_{sq}(\lambda(2)-2\lambda(1))\) for \(\lambda\) transformation of \(K\) such that \(\lambda(z+t)=\lambda(z)+\lambda(t)+c_{sq}dzt\). (By a standard automorphism, we mean one that is a product of inner, central, diagonal, ring, and in the twisted case graph automorphisms.) The author generally states results of this type, in which the form of the nonstandard automorphism is more complicated. For a twisted group of type \(F_4\) over a field, however, Theorem 6 is that every automorphism is the product of diagonal, ring, inner, and central automorphisms. He also gives (Corollary 1) the upper and lower central series of the group \(UG_2(K)\) over a field \(K\).