Representations of elementary abelian \(p\)-groups and finite subgroups of fields (Q1713022)

The classification of \(2\)-dimensional representations of an elementary abelian \(p\)-group over a field \(\mathbb{F}\) of characteristic \(p\) is closely related to the classification of equivalence classes of finite subgroups of the additive group \((\mathbb{F},+)\), where the subgroups \(E,E'\) of \((\mathbb{F},+)\) are said to be equivalent if \(E=\alpha E'\) for some \(\alpha\in\mathbb{F}^{\times}\). A point \(c=(c_1,\dots,c_r)\in \mathbb{F}^r\) determines the finite subgroup \(E=\mathrm{Span}_{\mathbb{F}_p}\{c_1,\dots,c_r\}\) in \((\mathbb{F},+)\) (where \(\mathbb{F}_p\) stands for the prime subfield of \(\mathbb{F}\)). This group is an elementary abelian \(p\)-group, and it has rank \(r\) if and only if \(c\) belongs to the complement \(U\) in \(\mathbb{F}^r\) of the zero locus of the top Dickson invariant \(d_{r,r}\). The points \(c,c'\in U\) determine the same subgroup if and only if they belong to the same orbit under the natural action of \(GL_r(\mathbb{F}_p)\) on \(\mathbb{F}^r\). So the equivalence classes of rank \(r\) elementary abelian \(p\)-subgroups in \((\mathbb{F},+)\) are in a natural bijection with the \(G\)-orbits in \(U\), where \(G=GL_r(\mathbb{F}_p)\times \mathbb{F}^{\times}\) acting in the obvious way on \(\mathbb{F}^r\). Assume that \(\mathbb{F}\) is algebraically closed, and denote by \(d_{1,r},\dots,d_{r,r}\) the Dickson invariants, i.e. the well-known generators of the subring of \(GL_r(\mathbb{F}_p)\)-invariants in the polynomial ring \(\mathbb{F}_p[x_1,\dots,x_r]\). The authors explain that elements of the algebra \(\mathbb{F}[d_{1,r},\dots,d_{r-1,r},d_{r,r}^{-1}]^{\mathbb{F}^{\times}}\) (these are rational functions on \(\mathbb{F}^r\) everywhere defined on \(U\)) separate the \(G\)-orbits in \(U\). For the cases when \(r\) is a prime or \(r\le 12\) they present an explicit finite separating set. For \(r=3,4,5\) they construct a finite generating system of the algebra \(\mathbb{F}[d_{1,r},\dots,d_{r-1,r},d_{r,r}^{-1}]^{\mathbb{F}^{\times}}\). For a rank \(r\) finite subgroup \(E\) of \((\mathbb{F},+)\) denote by \(\lambda(E)=(\lambda_1,\dots,\lambda_s)\) the lexicographically largest partition of \(r\) such that \(E\) has a direct sum decomposition \(E=E_1\oplus\cdots\oplus E_s\) such that \(E_j\) is equivalent to the subgroup \(\mathbb{F}_{p^{\lambda_j}}\) of \((\mathbb{F},+)\). Some results on getting information about \(\lambda(E)\) from values of the above rational invariants at \(E\) are also proved.