Steinberg modules and Donkin pairs

Abstract

We prove that in positive characteristic a module with good filtration for a group of type E6 restricts to a module with good filtration for a subgroup of type F4. (Recall that a filtration of a module for a semisimple algebraic group is called good if its layers are dual Weyl modules.) Our result confirms a conjecture of Brundan for one more case. The method relies on the canonical Frobenius splittings of Mathieu. Next we settle the remaining cases, in characteristic not 2, with a computer-aided variation on the old method of Donkin.