Overgroups of exterior powers of an elementary group. Levels

Abstract

We prove a first part of the standard description of groups $H$ lying between an exterior power of an elementary group $\bigwedge^m E_n(R)$ and a general linear group $GL_{n \choose m}(R)$ for a commutative ring $R$, $2\in R^*$ and $n\geqslant 3m$. The description uses the classical notion of a level: for every group $H$ we find a unique ideal $A$ of the ground ring $R$ which describes $H$.