A problem of Kollár and Larsen on finite linear groups and crepant resolutions (Q2428713)

Let \(V=\mathbb C^d\). The following notion of \textit{age} of elements of \(\text{GL}(V)\) originates from the work of M. Reid: If an element \(g\in \text{GL}(V)\) is conjugate to \(\text{diag}(e^{2\pi i r_1},\ldots, e^{2\pi i r_d})\), where \(0\leqslant r_j<1\), then, by definition, \(\text{age}(g):=\sum_{j=1}^{d}r_j\). In this paper, the authors solve a problem raised by J. Kollár and M. Larsen on the structure of finite irreducible linear groups generated by elements of age \(\leqslant 1\). They prove the following theorems: Theorem 1.4. Let \(d\geqslant 11\) and let \(G<\text{GL}(V)\) be a finite irreducible subgroup. Assume that, up to scalars, \(G\) is generated by its elements with \(\text{age}\leqslant 1\). Then \(G\) contains a complex bireflection of order \(2\) or \(3\), and one on the following statements holds. (i) \(Z(G)\times {\mathsf A}_{d+1}\leqslant G\leqslant (Z(G)\times {\mathsf A}_{d+1})\cdot 2\), with \( {\mathsf A}_{d+1}\) acting on \(V\) as on its deleted natural permutation module. (ii) \(G\) preserves a decomposition \(V=V_1\oplus\cdots \oplus V_d\), with \(\dim V_i=1\) and \(G\) inducing either \({\mathsf S}_d\) or \({\mathsf A}_d\) while permuting the \(d\) subspaces \(V_1,\ldots, V_d\). (iii) \(2\,|\,d\), and \(G=D: {\mathsf S}_{d/2}< \text{GL}_2(\mathbb C)\wr {\mathsf S}_{d/2}\), a split extension of \(D<\text{GL}_2(\mathbb C)^{d/2}\) by \({\mathsf S}_{d/2}\). Furthermore, if \(g\in G\setminus D\) has \(\text{age}(g)\leqslant 1\), then \(g\) is a bireflection (and \(\text{age}(g)=1\)). Theorem 1.5. Let \(d\geqslant 9\) and let \(G<\text{GL}(V)\) be a finite irreducible subgroup. Assume that, up to scalars, \(G\) is generated by its elements with \(\text{age}\leqslant 1\), and that \(G\) contains a scalar multiple of a noncentral element \(g\) with \(\text{age}(g)<1\). Then one of the following statements holds. (i) One of the conclusions (i), (ii) of Theorem 1.4 holds, and \(G\) contains a scalar multiple of a complex reflection. (ii) The conclusion (iii) of Theorem 1.4 holds, and, modulo scalars, \(G\) cannot be generated by its elements of \(\text{age}<1\). More generally, the authors bound the dimension of finite irreducible linear groups generated by elements of bounded deviation. As a consequence, they derive some properties of symmetric spaces \(\text{GU}_d(\mathbb C)/G\) having shortest closed geodesics of bounded length, and of quotients \({\mathbb C}^d/G\) having a crepant resolution.