Algebraic Geometry – Is Every Zariski Closed Subgroup a Stabilizer?

ag.algebraic-geometryalgebraic-groupsrt.representation-theory

Let $ G $ be a linear algebraic group. Is it true that a subgroup $ H $ of $ G $ is Zariski closed if and only if there exists a representation $ \pi: G \to \mathrm{GL}(V) $ and a vector $ v \in V $ such that the stabilizer $ G_v:=\{g \in G: \pi(g)v=v \} $ is equal to $ H $?

I think one implication is clear since $ G_v $ is certainly a subgroup and the equation $ \pi(g)v=v $ is polynomial in the matrix entries. Thus any stabilizer must be Zariski closed.

I am not sure of the reverse implication. Is it really true that every Zariski closed subgroup of $ G $ arises as the stabilizer of some vector in some representation?

Best Answer

Chevalley's theorem (see Theorem 4.19 in Milne) is very close to this. It says

Let $G$ be a linear algebraic group and let $H$ be a Zariski closed subgroup. Then there is a representation $V$ of $G$ and a one dimensional subspace $L$ of $V$ such that $H$ is the stabilizer of $\mathbb{P}(L)$ in the action of $G$ on $\mathbb{P}(V)$.

So this is close to what you asked for, but uses projective rather than linear representations.

To see that you can't get exactly what you asked for, work over a field of characteristic zero, take $G = \text{SL}_2$ and let $H$ be the Borel subgroup $B:=\left[ \begin{smallmatrix} \ast & \ast \\ 0 & \ast \end{smallmatrix} \right]$. The classification of $\text{SL}_2$-representations is well known, and we see that $V^B = V^{\text{SL}_2}$ for any $\text{SL}_2$-representation $V$.