Abelian unipotent subgroups of reductive groups (Q5957772)

Let \(G\) be a connected reductive group over an algebraically closed field \(k\) of characteristic \(p>0\). First, when \(p\) is a good prime, the author gives a new proof of the ``order formula'' of Testerman for unipotent elements in \(G\), and shows that the same formula determines the \(p\)-nilpotence degree of the corresponding nilpotent elements in the Lie algebra \(\mathfrak g\) of \(G\). Second, if \(G\) is semisimple and \(p\) is sufficiently large, the author shows that \(G\) always has a faithful representation \((\rho,V)\) with the property that the exponential of \(d\rho(X)\) lies in \(\rho(G)\) for each \(p\)-nilpotent \(X\in{\mathfrak g}\). This property allows a simplification of the description given by Suslin et al. of the (even) cohomology ring for the Frobenius kernels \(G_d\), \(d\geq 2\). It is known that the natural representation of a classical group has the above property (with no restriction on \(p\)). The author's methods apply to any Chevalley group and hence give the result also for quasisimple groups with ``exceptional type'' root systems. The methods give explicit sufficient conditions on \(p\); for an adjoint semisimple \(G\) with Coxeter number \(h\), the condition \(p>2h-2\) is always good enough.