Maximal subalgebras of Cartan type in the exceptional Lie algebras

Abstract

In this paper we initiate the study of the maximal subalgebras of exceptional simple classical Lie algebras \g over algebraically closed fields k of positive characteristic p, such that the prime characteristic is good for \g. In this paper we deal with what is surely the most unnatural case; that is, where the maximal subalgebra in question is a simple subalgebra of non-classical type. We show that only the first Witt algebra can occur as a subalgebra of \g and give explicit details on when it may be maximal in \g.