On conjugacy classes in a reductive group

Abstract

Let G be a connected reductive group over an algebraically closed field. We define a decomposition of G into finitely many strata such that each stratum is a union of conjugacy classes of fixed dimension; the strata are indexed by a set defined in terms of the Weyl group which is independent of the characteristic. In the case where $G$ is replaced by the corresponding loop group we define an analogous decomposition of the set of regular semisimple compact elements into countably many strata.