No label defined (Q4948822)

Let \({\mathfrak g}\) be a finite-dimensional semisimple Lie algebra on an algebraically closed field \(k\). A nilpotent pair is a pair \({\mathfrak e} = (e_1, e_2)\) of commuting nilpotent elements of \({\mathfrak g}\) such that for each pair \((t_1, t_2) \in k^\times \times k^\times\) there exists an element \(g\) of the corresponding connected algebraic group \(G\) with \((g.e_1, g.e_2) = (t_1 e_1, t_2 e_2)\). Basic properties of nilpotent pairs have been studied by \textit{V. Ginzburg} in ``Principal nilpotent pairs in a semisimple Lie algebra'' (to appear in Invent. Math.). A crucial difficulty in the study of nilpotent pairs is that there is no analog of the Jacobson-Morozov Theorem, so one is looking for good replacements. The first step is to show that for each nilpotent pair there exists a characteristic, i.e., a pair \({\mathfrak h} = (h_1,h_2)\) of commuting semisimple elements in \({\mathfrak z}_{\mathfrak g}({\mathfrak e})^\bot\) satisfying \([h_i, e_j] = \delta_{ij} e_j\). In the first section of the paper under review it is shown that characteristics exist, that two are conjugate under the unipotent radical of \(Z_G({\mathfrak e})\), and that the \(h_j\) have rational eigenvalues. It is further shown that the number of \(G\)-orbits of characteristics of nilpotent pairs is finite and the paper contains a lot of information on the eigenvalues of \(\text{ ad} h_j\). Since the number of \(G\)-orbits of nilpotent pairs is infinite, they are not classified by the orbits of their characteristics. Therefore it is a natural question for which class of nilpotent pairs the orbit of the characteristic determines the orbit of the pair (in the subclass). In Section 2 the author introduces the class of wonderful nilpotent pairs which has the nice property that two wonderful pairs corresponding to the same characteristic \({\mathfrak h}\) are conjugate under \(Z_G({\mathfrak h})\). In Section 3 further properties of wonderful nilpotent pairs are studied, and Section 4 describes the characteristics of nilpotent pairs for which \(\dim {\mathfrak z}_{\mathfrak g}({\mathfrak e})\) equals \(\text{rank } {\mathfrak g}\) (principal pairs) or \(\dim {\mathfrak z}_{\mathfrak g}({\mathfrak e}) = \text{rank } {\mathfrak g} + 1\) (almost principal pairs).