Unipotent normal subgroups of algebraic groups (Q6862615)

Any affine algebraic group over a field contains a largest smooth connected unipotent normal subgroup - its unipotent radical. The paper begins by obtaining an analogue of this fact in the following form.\N\NLet \(k\) be a field and \(G\) be an affine algebraic \(k\)-group. There exists a largest unipotent normal subgroup \(\mathrm{Rad}_u(G)\) of \(G\) (Theorem~1.1).\N\NNext, it is shown that \(\mathrm{Rad}_u(G)\) contains all unipotent subgroups of \(G\) if at least one of the following holds: (i) \(G\) is trigonalisable over an algebraic closure \(\overline{k}\) of \(k\); (ii) \(G \cong \overline{G}/Z(\overline{G})\), for some nilpotent connected algebraic \(k\)-group \(\overline{G}\) (Theorem~1.2).\N\NIt turns out that in many important situations the fact that \(G\) contains no non-trivial unipotent subgroups implies that \(G\) is commutative. More precisely, the following is true (Theorem~1.3).\N\NLet \(G\) be a connected affine algebraic \(k\)-group. Suppose \(G\) contains no non-trivial unipotent subgroups. Then \(G\) is commutative in each of the following cases: (a) \(k\) is algebraically closed; (b) \(k\) is perfect and \(G\) is solvable; (c) \(G\) is trigonalisable over \(\overline{k}\).\N\NTheorems~1.2 and 1.3 are illustrated with several examples of affine algebraic \(k\)-groups which contain no non-trivial unipotent subgroups and yet are neither nilpotent nor trigonalisable over \(\overline{k}\). A number of consequences of these theorems are then investigated. In particular, it is shown that if \(G\) is a solvable smooth connected affine \(k\)-group then \(\mathrm{Rad}_u(G)\) contains all unipotent subgroups of \(G\) (Corollary~1.4).