\(\mathrm{SO}(2n, \mathbb{C})\)-character varieties are not varieties of characters (Q515595)

Consider a complex reductive algebraic group \(G\) acting by conjugation on the representation variety \(\mathrm{Rep}(\Gamma, G)\) for a finitely generated discrete group \(\Gamma\) of \(G\). The categorical quotient is the \(G\)-character variety \(X_{G}(\Gamma)=\mathrm{Rep}(\Gamma, G)/\!/G\). This paper under review studies the generators problem for the coordinate ring \(\mathbb{C}[X_{G}(\Gamma)]\) of \(G\)-character variety \(X_{G}(\Gamma)\) for \(G=\mathrm{SO}\), the special orthogonal group of even degree \(2n\) over \(\mathbb{C}\). In the previous work [J. Pure Appl. Algebra 217, No. 11, 2076--2087 (2013; Zbl 1286.14014)], the author has proved that the coordinate ring \(\mathbb{C}[X_{G}(\Gamma)]\) is generated by trace functions for many classical groups \(G\), for example, the special linear group \(\mathrm{SL}(n,\mathbb{C})\), the symplectic group \(\mathrm{Sp}(n,\mathbb{C})\) and the special orthogonal group \(\mathrm{SO}(2n+1,\mathbb{C})\) of odd degree. However, this paper (Theorem 1) shows that (generalized) trace functions can not generate the coordinate ring \(\mathbb{C}[X_{\mathrm{SO}}(\Gamma)]\) for any subgroup \(\Gamma\) of corank \(\geqslant 2\) and all \(n\geqslant 2\). Some examples of non-conjugate completely reducible representations undistinguishable by generalized trace functions were presented.