Topological generation of exceptional algebraic groups

DOI10.1016/J.AIM.2020.107177MaRDI QIDQ2182270zbMATH OpenOpenAlexFDO

Authors Timothy C. Burness, Spencer Gerhardt, Robert Guralnick

Publication date 23 May 2020

Published in Advances in Mathematics (Search for Journal in Brave)

Full work available at URL https://arxiv.org/abs/1909.02752

zbMATH Keywords

exceptional algebraic groupsrandom generationtopological generation

Mathematics Subject Classification ID

Conjugacy classes for groups (20E45) Representation theory for linear algebraic groups (20G05) Exceptional groups (20G41) Probabilistic methods in group theory (20P05)

Abstract: Let $G$ be a simple algebraic group over an algebraically closed field $k$ and let $C_1,ldots,C_t$ be non-central conjugacy classes in $G$. In this paper, we consider the problem of determining whether there exist $g_{i}in{C}_i$ such that $langle{g}_1,ldots,g_{t}angle$ is Zariski dense in $G$. First we establish a general result, which shows that if $Omega$ is an irreducible subvariety of $G^t$, then the set of tuples in $Omega$ generating a dense subgroup of $G$ is either empty or dense in $Omega$. In the special case $Omega=C_{1}imescdotsimes{C}_t$, by considering the dimensions of fixed point spaces, we prove that this set is dense when $G$ is an exceptional algebraic group and $tgeqslant5$, assuming $k$ is not algebraic over a finite field. In fact, for $G=G_2$ we only need $tgeqslant4$ and both of these bounds are best possible. As an application, we show that many faithful representations of exceptional algebraic groups are generically free. We also establish new results on the topological generation of exceptional groups in the special case $t=2$, which have applications to random generation of finite exceptional groups of Lie type. In particular, we prove a conjecture of Liebeck and Shalev on the random $(r,s)$-generation of exceptional groups.

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