The study of finite subgroups of a simple algebraic group $G$ reduces in a sense to those which are almost simple. If an almost simple subgroup of $G$ has a socle which is not isomorphic to a group of Lie type in the underlying characteristic of $G$, then the subgroup is called non-generic. This paper considers non-generic subgroups of simple algebraic groups of exceptional type in arbitrary characteristic.

This paper is a contribution to the study of the subgroup structure of excep-tional algebraic groups over algebraically closed fields of arbitrary characteristic. Following Serre, a closed subgroup of a semisimple algebraic group G is called irreducible if it lies in no proper parabolic subgroup of G. In this paper we com-plete the classification of irreducible connected subgroups of exceptional algebraic groups, providing an explicit set of representatives for the conjugacy classes of such subgroups. Many consequences of this classification are also given. These include results concerning the representations of such subgroups on various G-modules: for example, the conjugacy classes of irreducible connected subgroups are determined by their composition factors on the adjoint module of G, with one exception. A result of Liebeck and Testerman shows that each irreducible connected sub-group X of G has only finitely many overgroups and hence the overgroups of X form a lattice. We provide tables that give representatives of each conjugacy class of connected overgroups within this lattice structure. We use this to prove results concerning the subgroup structure of G: for example, when the characteristic is 2, there exists a maximal connected subgroup of G containing a conjugate of every irreducible subgroup A1 of G.

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This volume contains 19 articles written by speakers at the Advanced Study Institute on 'Modular representations and subgroup structure of al gebraic groups and related finite groups' held at the Isaac Newton Institute, Cambridge from 23rd June to 4th July 1997. We acknowledge with gratitude the financial support given by the NATO Science Committee to enable this ASI to take place. Generous financial support was also provided by the European Union. We are also pleased to acknowledge funds given by EPSRC to the Newton Institute which were used to support the meeting. It is a pleasure to thank the Director of the Isaac Newton Institute, Professor Keith Moffatt, and the staff of the Institute for their dedicated work which did so much to further the success of the meeting. The editors wish to thank Dr. Ross Lawther and Dr. Nick Inglis most warmly for their help in the production of this volume. Dr. Lawther in particular made an invaluable contribution in preparing the volume for submission to the publishers. Finally we wish to thank the distinguished speakers at the ASI who agreed to write articles for this volume based on their lectures at the meet ing. We hope that the volume will stimulate further significant advances in the theory of algebraic groups.

The author analyzes the abstract structure of algebraic groups over an algebraically closed field . For of characteristic zero and a given connected affine algebraic Q -group, the main theorem describes all the affine algebraic Q -groups such that the groups and are isomorphic as abstract groups. In the same time, it is shown that for any two connected algebraic Q -groups and , the elementary equivalence of the pure groups and implies that they are abstractly isomorphic. In the final section, the author applies his results to characterize the connected algebraic groups, all of whose abstract automorphisms are standard, when is either Q or of positive characteristic. In characteristic zero, a fairly general criterion is exhibited.

The automorphisms of a two-generator free group F acting on the space of orientation-preserving isometric actions of F on hyperbolic 3-space defines a dynamical system. Those actions which preserve a hyperbolic plane but not an orientation on that plane is an invariant subsystem, which reduces to an action of a group on by polynomial automorphisms preserving the cubic polynomial and an area form on the level surfaces .

Conformal nets provide a mathematical model for conformal field theory. The authors define a notion of defect between conformal nets, formalizing the idea of an interaction between two conformal field theories. They introduce an operation of fusion of defects, and prove that the fusion of two defects is again a defect, provided the fusion occurs over a conformal net of finite index. There is a notion of sector (or bimodule) between two defects, and operations of horizontal and vertical fusion of such sectors. The authors' most difficult technical result is that the horizontal fusion of the vacuum sectors of two defects is isomorphic to the vacuum sector of the fused defect. Equipped with this isomorphism, they construct the basic interchange isomorphism between the horizontal fusion of two vertical fusions and the vertical fusion of two horizontal fusions of sectors.

The authors consider the full irrotational water waves system with surface tension and no gravity in dimension two (the capillary waves system), and prove global regularity and modified scattering for suitably small and localized perturbations of a flat interface. An important point of the authors' analysis is to develop a sufficiently robust method (the “quasilinear I-method”) which allows the authors to deal with strong singularities arising from time resonances in the applications of the normal form method (the so-called “division problem”). As a result, they are able to consider a suitable class of perturbations with finite energy, but no other momentum conditions. Part of the authors' analysis relies on a new treatment of the Dirichlet-Neumann operator in dimension two which is of independent interest. As a consequence, the results in this paper are self-contained.

Given n general points p1,p2,…,pn∈Pr, it is natural to ask when there exists a curve C⊂Pr, of degree d and genus g, passing through p1,p2,…,pn. In this paper, the authors give a complete answer to this question for curves C with nonspecial hyperplane section. This result is a consequence of our main theorem, which states that the normal bundle NC of a general nonspecial curve of degree d and genus g in Pr (with d≥g+r) has the property of interpolation (i.e. that for a general effective divisor D of any degree on C, either H0(NC(−D))=0 or H1(NC(−D))=0), with exactly three exceptions.

This paper is an interval dynamics counterpart of three theories founded earlier by the authors, S. Smirnov and others in the setting of the iteration of rational maps on the Riemann sphere: the equivalence of several notions of non-uniform hyperbolicity, Geometric Pressure, and Nice Inducing Schemes methods leading to results in thermodynamical formalism. The authors work in a setting of generalized multimodal maps, that is, smooth maps f of a finite union of compact intervals Iˆ in R into R with non-flat critical points, such that on its maximal forward invariant set K the map f is topologically transitive and has positive topological entropy. They prove that several notions of non-uniform hyperbolicity of f|K are equivalent (including uniform hyperbolicity on periodic orbits, TCE & all periodic orbits in K hyperbolic repelling, Lyapunov hyperbolicity, and exponential shrinking of pull-backs). They prove that several definitions of geometric pressure P(t), that is pressure for the map f|K and the potential −tlog|f′|, give the same value (including pressure on periodic orbits, “tree” pressure, variational pressures and conformal pressure). Finally they prove that, provided all periodic orbits in K are hyperbolic repelling, the function P(t) is real analytic for t between the “condensation” and “freezing” parameters and that for each such t there exists unique equilibrium (and conformal) measure satisfying strong statistical properties.