arXiv subjects

Alastair Litterick

Publications and source records attributed to Alastair Litterick.

10 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2026

Capturing properties of planar diagrams in Lean proof assistant software

Automated proof assistants are a technology pre-empting mistakes in mathematics. In our practice we have seen that reasoning about planar diagrams is difficult to both humans and computers. One example that has led to wrong statements in publications is that an orientation-preserving mapping is not always defined by how it acts on triples of elements. In this paper we formalise orientation-preserving mappings in proof assistant software Lean and report on our take-aways.

math.CO↗

arXiv2025

$G$-complete reducibility and saturation

Let $H \subseteq G$ be connected reductive linear algebraic groups defined over an algebraically closed field of characteristic $p> 0$. In our first main theorem we show that if a closed subgroup $K$ of $H$ is $H$-completely reducible, then it is also $G$-completely reducible in the sense of Serre, under some restrictions on $p$, generalising the known case for $G = GL(V)$. Our proof uses R.W. Richardson's notion of reductive pairs to reduce to the $GL(V)$ case. We study Serre's notion of saturation and prove that saturation behaves well with respect to products and regular subgroups. Our second main theorem shows that if $K$ is $H$-completely reducible, then the saturation of $K$ in $G$ is completely reducible in the saturation of $H$ in $G$ (which is again a connected reductive subgroup of $G$), under suitable restrictions on $p$, again generalising the known instance for $G = GL(V)$. We also study saturation of finite subgroups of Lie type in $G$. We show that saturation is compatible with standard Frobenius endomorphisms, and we use this to generalise a result due to Nori from 1987 in case $G = GL(V)$.

math.RT↗

arXiv2023

Condorcet Domains of Degree at most Seven

In this paper we give the first explicit enumeration of all maximal Condorcet domains on $n\leq 7$ alternatives. This has been accomplished by developing a new algorithm for constructing Condorcet domains, and an implementation of that algorithm which has been run on a supercomputer. We follow this up by the first survey of the properties of all maximal Condorcet domains up to degree 7, with respect to many properties studied in the social sciences and mathematical literature. We resolve several open questions posed by other authors, both by examples from our data and theorems. We give a new set of results on the symmetry properties of Condorcet domains which unify earlier works. Finally we discuss connections to other domain types such as non-dictatorial domains and generalisations of single-peaked domains. All our data is made freely available for other researches via a new website.

cs.DM↗

arXiv2021

Complete reducibility of subgroups of reductive algebraic groups over nonperfect fields IV: An $F_4$ example

Let $k$ be a nonperfect separably closed field. Let $G$ be a connected reductive algebraic group defined over $k$. We study rationality problems for Serre's notion of complete reducibility of subgroups of $G$. In particular, we present the first example of a connected nonabelian $k$-subgroup $H$ of $G$ that is $G$-completely reducible but not $G$-completely reducible over $k$, and the first example of a connected nonabelian $k$-subgroup $H'$ of $G$ that is $G$-completely reducible over $k$ but not $G$-completely reducible. This is new: all previously known such examples are for finite (or non-connected) $H$ and $H'$ only.

math.GR↗

arXiv2021

Complete reducibility: Variations on a theme of Serre

In this note, we unify and extend various concepts in the area of $G$-complete reducibility, where $G$ is a reductive algebraic group. By results of Serre and Bate--Martin--Röhrle, the usual notion of $G$-complete reducibility can be re-framed as a property of an action of a group on the spherical building of the identity component of $G$. We show that other variations of this notion, such as relative complete reducibility and $σ$-complete reducibility, can also be viewed as special cases of this building-theoretic definition, and hence a number of results from these areas are special cases of more general properties.

math.GR↗

arXiv2020

Relative complete reducibility and normalised subgroups

We study a relative variant of Serre's notion of $G$-complete reducibility for a reductive algebraic group $G$. We let $K$ be a reductive subgroup of $G$, and consider subgroups of $G$ which normalise the identity component $K^{\circ}$. We show that such a subgroup is relatively $G$-completely reducible with respect to $K$ if and only if its image in the automorphism group of $K^{\circ}$ is completely reducible. This allows us to generalise a number of fundamental results from the absolute to the relative setting. We also derive analogous results for Lie subalgebras of the Lie algebra of $G$, as well as 'rational' versions over non-algebraically closed fields.

math.GR↗

arXiv2019

On relative complete reducibility

Let $K$ be a reductive subgroup of a reductive group $G$ over an algebraically closed field $k$. The notion of relative complete reducibility, introduced in previous work of Bate-Martin-Roehrle-Tange, gives a purely algebraic description of the closed $K$-orbits in $G^n$, where $K$ acts by simultaneous conjugation on $n$-tuples of elements from $G$. This extends work of Richardson and is also a natural generalization of Serre's notion of $G$-complete reducibility. In this paper we revisit this idea, giving a characterization of relative $G$-complete reducibility which directly generalizes equivalent formulations of $G$-complete reducibility. If the ambient group $G$ is a general linear group, this characterization yields representation-theoretic criteria. Along the way, we extend and generalize several results from the aforementioned work of Bate-Martin-Roehrle-Tange.

math.GR↗

arXiv2019

Rigid representations of triangle groups

We prove a generalization of a conjecture of C. Marion on generation properties of finite groups of Lie type, by considering geometric properties of an appropriate representation variety and associated tangent spaces.

math.GR↗

arXiv2018

Further Rigid Triples of Classes in $G_{2}$

We establish the existence of two rigid triples of conjugacy classes in the algebraic group $G_{2}$ in characteristic $5$, complementing results of the second author with Liebeck and Marion. As a corollary, the finite groups $G_{2}(5^n)$ are not $(2,4,5)$-generated, confirming a conjecture of Marion in this case.

math.GR↗

arXiv2017

On finite simple images of triangle groups

For a simple algebraic group G in characteristic p, a triple (a,b,c) of positive integers is said to be rigid for G if the dimensions of the subvarieties of G of elements of order dividing a,b,c sum to 2dim G. In this paper we complete the proof of a conjecture of the third author, that for a rigid triple (a,b,c) for G with p>0, the triangle group T_{a,b,c} has only finitely many simple images of the form G(p^r). We also obtain further results on the more general form of the conjecture, where the images G(p^r) can be arbitrary quasisimple groups of type G.

math.GR↗