Irreducibility of disconnected subgroups of exceptional algebraic groups

This dissertation is concerned with the study of irreducible embeddings of simple algebraic groups of exceptional type. It is motivated by the role of such embeddings in the study of positive dimensional closed subgroups of classical algebraic groups. The classification of the maximal closed connected subgroups of simple algebraic groups was carried out by E. B. Dynkin, G. M. Seitz and D. M. Testerman. Their analysis for the classical groups was based primarily on a striking result: if G is a simple algebraic group and ø : G → SL(V ) is a tensor indecomposable irreducible rational representation then, with specified exceptions, the image of G is maximal among closed connected subgroups of one of the classical groups SL(V), Sp(V ) or SO(V ). In the case of closed, not necessarily connected, subgroups of the classical groups, one is interested in considering irreducible embeddings of simple algebraic groups and their automorphism groups: given a simple algebraic group Y defined over an algebraically closed field K, one is led to study the embeddings G < Aut(Y ), where G and Aut(Y ) are closed subgroups of SL(V ) and V is an irreducible rational KY -module on which G acts irreducibly. A partial analysis of such embeddings in the case of classical algebraic groups Y was carried out by B. Ford. We purpose to classify all triples (G, Y, V ) where Y is a simple algebraic group of exceptional type, defined over an algebraically closed field K of characteristic p > 0, G is a closed non-connected positive dimensional subgroup of Y and V is a nontrivial irreducible rational KY -module such that V|G is irreducible. We obtain a precise description of such triples (G, Y, V ).