On abstract representations of the groups of rational points of algebraic groups in positive characteristic (Q2520690)

Let \(K\) be an algebraically closed field and \(\mathrm{Var}/K\), the category of reduced schemes of finite type over \(K\). An algebraic ring over \(K\) (originally introduced by \textit{M. J. Greenberg} [Ann. Math. (2) 73, 624--648 (1961; Zbl 0115.39004)]) is defined to be a `ring object' \(A\) in \(\mathrm{Var}/K\) whose underlying scheme is affine (irreducibility of the underlying scheme is not required), i.e., \(A\) additionally comes with an addition map \(\alpha : A\times A\to A\) and a multiplication map \(\mu : A\times A\to A\) which give it the structure of an associative ring. Every finite dimensional associative \(K\)-algebra \(B\) naturally gives rise to an algebraic ring structure \(\tilde{B}\) on the underlying \(K\)-vector space of \(B\) by virtue of its addition and multiplication operations. Note that \(\tilde{B}(K) = B\). If \(\mathrm{char}(K)=0\), it was shown by \textit{M. J. Greenberg} [Trans. Am. Math. Soc. 111, 472--481 (1964; Zbl 0135.21503)] that all algebraic rings arise in this fashion. However, if \(\mathrm{char}(K)=p>0\), there exist algebraic rings which do not come from \(K\) algebras as shown by the motivating example of \(A = \mathrm{G}_a\oplus \mathrm{G}_a\) with the twisted multiplication given by \((x,y)\star (a,b) = (xa, x^pb+a^py)\). However, the algebra of dual numbers \(B=K[t]/(t^2)\) gives rise to a closely related algebraic ring \(\tilde{B}=\mathbb{G}_a\oplus \mathbb{G}_a\) with the multiplication given by \((x,y)\cdot (a,b)=(xa, xb+ay)\), the connection given by the algebraic ring homomorphism \(\psi : \tilde{B}\to A\) sending \((x,y)\mapsto (x,y^p)\) which induces an isomorphism of abstract rings \(\tilde{B}(K) = B\to A(K)\) at the \(K\)-points level. The authors show that this phenomenon holds true more generally (after imposing some mild conditions on \(A\)), namely that every algebraic ring is closely related to a finite-dimensional associative \(K\) algebra up to an inseparable isogeny (Theorem 1.1). The proof (given in Section 3) proceeds by investigating the structure of commutative \textit{perfect} algebraic rings in char \(p\) and using Greenberg's \textit{perfectization} functor to study the general case. As an application, rigidity questions for representations of Chevalley groups over rings are studied. Let \(\phi\) be a reduced, irreducible root system of rank at least \(2\) and \(G = G(\phi)\), the associated \textit{universal Chevalley Demazure group scheme} defined over \(\mathbb{Z}\). For every root \(\alpha\in \phi\), there is a canonical morphism \(e_{\alpha} : \mathbb{G}_a\to G\) which induces a group homomorphism \(e_{\alpha}: (R, +)\to G(R)\) for every commutative ring \(R\). The subgroup generated by \(e_{\alpha}(R)\) for all roots \(\alpha\in \phi\) is called the \textit{elementary subgroup} \(E(\phi, R)\) of \(G(R)\). In [the second author, Proc. Lond. Math. Soc. (3) 102, No. 5, 951--983 (2011; Zbl 1232.20049)], abstract representations \(\rho : E(\phi, R)\to \mathrm{GL}_n(K)\) were analyzed when \(\mathrm{char}(K)=0\). In this paper, the same is studied in the positive characteristic setting, leading to Theorem (1.2) which shows that under mild assumptions on \(R\), every abstract finite dimensional representation \(\rho : E(\phi, R)\to \mathrm{GL}_n(K)\) can be essentially factored as follows: There exists a commutative finite dimensional \(K\) algebra \(B\), a ring homomorphism \(f : R \to B\) with Zariski-dense image, and a morphism of algebraic groups \(\sigma : G(B)\to \overline{\rho(E(\phi, R))}\) such that for a suitable finite index subgroup \(\Gamma\) of \(E(\phi,R)\) we have \(\rho|_{\Gamma} = (\sigma\circ F)|_{\Gamma}\) where \(F : E(\phi, R) \to G(B)\) is the group homomorphism induced by \(f\). As a further application of this theorem, the authors give a different proof to recover the following result of Seitz (Proposition 4.3), namely: Given an infinite perfect field \(k\) of characteristic \(p > 0\), \(K\) any algebraically closed field of char \(p\), \(\phi\) a reduced irreducible root system of rank at least \(2\), \(G=G(\phi)\) its universal Chevalley Demazure group scheme, \(Y\) an algebraic group over \(K\), and \(\rho : G(k)\to Y (K)\) a nontrivial abstract homomorphism, then \(\rho\) can be factored as \(G( k ) \to^{\sigma} G ( K ) \times \dots \times G ( K ) \to^{\psi} Y ( K )\) where \(\psi\) is a morphism of algebraic groups and \(\sigma\) is a \textit{twisted diagonal embedding}, i.e. each component \(G(k)\to G(K)\) of \(\sigma\) arises from a field homomorphism \(k\to K\).