Essential dimension of exceptional groups, including bad characteristic

Skip Garibaldi, Robert M. Guralnick

Published 2015-12-30Version 1

We give upper bounds on the essential dimension of some simple algebraic groups that hold regardless of the characteristic. Along the way, we calculate the stabilizer of the a generic element in the Lie algebra of an adjoint simple algebraic group over a field; if the field has characteristic 2, the stabilizer need not be connected.