 Hilbert-Mumford criterion for projective stability

For a complex reductive algebraic group acting linearly on $V$, decompose a nonzero vector into weights for each algebraic one-parameter subgroup. With the displayed sign convention, semistability is equivalent to $\mu \ge 0$ for every such subgroup, and stability is equivalent to strict positivity for every nontrivial subgroup. One must test conjugates of the subgroups as well as those diagonal in a single fixed coordinate system.