Unipotent elements of nonprime order in representations of the classical algebraic groups: two big Jordan blocks. (Q2255509)

For irreducible rational representations of the classical algebraic groups in characteristic \(p>2\), which are not equivalent to the composition of a group morphism and the standard representation, it is proved that usually the image of a unipotent element of order \(p^{s+1}>p\) has at least two Jordan blocks of size \(>p^s\); all exceptions are indicated explicitly. As a corollary, irreducible rational representations of these groups whose images contain unipotent elements with just one Jordan block of size \(>1\) are classified. The results of this paper can be easily transferred to representations of finite groups of Lie type in defining characteristic.