On good $A_1$ subgroups, Springer maps, and overgroups of distinguished unipotent elements in reductive groups

Abstract

Suppose $G$ is a simple algebraic group defined over an algebraically closed field of good characteristic $p$. In 2018 Korhonen showed that if $H$ is a connected reductive subgroup of $G$ which contains a distinguished unipotent element $u$ of $G$ of order $p$, then $H$ is $G$-irreducible in the sense of Serre. We present a short and uniform proof of this result under an extra hypothesis using so-called good $A_1$ subgroups of $G$, introduced by Seitz. In the process we prove some new results about good $A_1$ subgroups of $G$ and their properties. We also formulate a counterpart of Korhonen's theorem for overgroups of $u$ which are finite groups of Lie type. Moreover, we generalize both results above by removing the restriction on the order of $u$ under a mild condition on $p$ depending on the rank of $G$, and we present an analogue of Korhonen's theorem for Lie algebras.

17 pages; v2: 26 pages: substantially rewritten, fixed problem with proof of Thm 1.1 in v1; discussion of Springer maps, new results about good A_1 subgroups included, new title to reflect changes; to appear in PJM