Simply Connected, Adjoint and Universal Groups of Lie Type (Q4487503)

The special linear group \(\text{SL}_{n+1}(K)\) is the simply connected group and the projective linear group \(\text{PGL}_{n+1}(K)\) the adjoint group of Lie type \(A_n\). They are distinguished sections of the (reductive) general linear group \(\text{GL}_{n+1}(K)\) (admitting the same root system). We shall introduce corresponding connected algebraic groups resp. finite groups for each Lie type (to indecomposable root systems). These will be called universal (or general) groups of the given type. The universal groups involve the simply connected and adjoint groups and, in certain respects, appear to be better behaved (automorphisms, Schur multipliers, character tables). For example, the general linear group \(\text{GL}_{n+1}(q)\), the unitary group \(\text{U}_{n+1}(q)\), the conformal symplectic group \(\text{CSp}_{2n}(q)\), the special Clifford group \(\text{G}^+_{2n+1}(q)\) to the nonsingular quadratic form of dimension \(2n+1\) and Witt index \(n\) (over the finite field \(K=\mathbb{F}_q\) with \(q\) elements) are the universal groups of type \(A_n\), \({^2A_n}\), \(C_n\), \(B_n\), respectively. For other types one obtains new ``classical groups''. When \(K\) is algebraically closed, the universal groups are characterized in terms of the related simply connected and adjoint groups, as reductive groups with connected centres. In the finite case the groups are constructed via certain canonical Frobenius morphisms. Here, a corresponding group-theoretic description is more intricate (even for the general linear group). The underlying building presents a geometric link between related groups, the group of automorphisms generated by the root groups being understood as the nucleus of the family of groups of Lie type.