Complete reducibility: variations on a theme of Serre (Q2148101)

This paper introduces or reviews some variations of the definition of \(G\)-complete reducibility, with \(G\) a reductive group over an algebraically closed field. The original definition for a subgroup \(H\) to be completely reducible requires \(H\) to be contained in a Levi subgroup of a parabolic whenever it is contained in the parabolic. One variation allows \(G\) to be disconnected (and then one considers R-parabolics); another one considers complete reducibility relative with respect to a given Steinberg endomorphism \(\sigma\) (and then one considers parabolic fixed under \(\sigma\)); a third one is relative to some reductive subgroup \(K\) of \(G\) (and then one uses a natural definition of complete reducibility in terms of cocharacters, restricting to those of \(K\)). For each of these more general cases, the authors show that they are equivalent to the fixed point set of a certain group (usually the given subgroup; in the second case above one adjoins \(\sigma\) to the subgroup) acting on a poset (usually the corresponding spherical building; in the disconnected case the poset of R-parabolics) being completely reducible, that is, each point has an opposite in the fixed point set. This connects all these variations back to the original definition of Jean-Pierre Serre.