Centralizer of the elementary subgroup of an isotropic reductive group

Abstract

Let G be an isotropic reductive algebraic group over a commutative ring R. Assume that, for any maximal ideal M of R, the rank of the relative root system of G_{R_M} is greater or equal than 2. We show that under this assumption the centralizer of E(R) in G(R) coincides with the abstract group-theoretic center of G(R) and with Cent(G)(R). This generalizes a result of E. Abe and J. Hurley.