On the Normal Subgroups of G₂(A)

DOI10.1090/S0002-9947-99-02231-XMaRDI QIDQ4269104zbMATH OpenFDO

Authors Douglas L. Costa, Gordon E. Keller

Publication date 31 October 1999

Published in Transactions of the American Mathematical Society (Search for Journal in Brave)

Full work available at URL https://doi.org/10.1090/S0002-9947-99-02231-X

admissible pairs of ideals arithmetic Dedekind domains classical linear groups congruence subgroup problem generic subgroups normal subgroups principal congruence subgroups simple Chevalley-Demazure group-schemes subgroups generated by elementary matrices subgroups normalized by elementary matrices

Mathematics Subject Classification ID

Subgroup theorems; subgroup growth (20E07) Chains and lattices of subgroups, subnormal subgroups (20E15) Linear algebraic groups over adèles and other rings and schemes (20G35) Unimodular groups, congruence subgroups (group-theoretic aspects) (20H05)

Review text

The problem of classifying the normal subgroups of a classical linear group $G$ over a commutative ring $A$ has attracted a great deal of attention for many years. Much of this work has been motivated by the celebrated congruence subgroup problem which is concerned with the case where the underlying ring is an arithmetic Dedekind domain (for example, $A=\mathbb{Z}$). Let $E(A)$ be the subgroup of $G(A)$ generated by the elementary, unipotent matrices. To establish a ``standard classification theorem for $G(A)$, one seeks to prove that a subgroup $S$ of $G(A)$ is normalized by $E(A)$ if and only if $S$ is sandwiched between a pair of so-called generic subgroups. Generic subgroups of $G(A)$ are defined in terms of special types of (additively closed) subsets of $A$. (For example, when $A$ is of arithmetic type, the principal congruence subgroups of $G(A)$, defined by the $A$-ideals, are generic.) It is known that, if the rank of $G$ is sufficiently high, then such a classification holds for any commutative $A$, using the $A$-ideals to define generic subgroups (for example, $G(A)=\text{SL}_n(A)$, where $n\geq 3$). Complications usually arise however when the rank of $G$ is low. For a classification theorem to hold in this case, for any $A$, it is often necessary to introduce $A$-subsets of a more general type. Moreover for some low rank $G$ and some $A$ it seems impossible to establish any such classification (for example, $G(A)=\text{SL}_2(\mathbb{Z})$). In these cases restrictions are normally imposed on $A$ to ensure that it contains ``many units. The paper is the latest of a series in which the authors fill in gaps in existing classification theorems. In Ann. Math., II. Ser. 134, No. 1, 159-188 (1991; Zbl 0743.20048) they complete the classification of the $E_2(A)$-normalized subgroups of $\text{SL}_2(A)$, where $A$ is any ring with ``many units. This involves the introduction of a new type of subset of $A$ called a radix. Radices are used in J. Reine Angew. Math. 427, 51-105 (1992; Zbl 0739.20023) to classify the $Ep_{2n}(A)$-normalized subgroups of the symplectic group $\text{Sp}_{2n}(A)$, where $A$ is any commutative ring and $n\geq 2$. In the paper under review the authors are concerned with another (low rank) simple Chevalley-Demazure group-scheme $G(A)$ over an arbitrary commutative ring $A$, namely $G=G_2$. Here, building on and extending previous results of Abe and Vaserstein, they classify the $E(A)$-normalized subgroups of $G_2(A)$, using a pair of $A$-ideals (a so-called admissible pair) to define each generic subgroup. A crucial feature of their proof is the representation of $G_2(A)$ as a subgroup of $\text{GL}_8(A)$.

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