A unipotent algebraic group admits a faithful linear representation in which every group element is a unipotent matrix. For , invertibility is the nonvanishing condition . Therefore is a nonempty Zariski-open subset of the vector space .
Take a Krull-Schmidt decomposition , with pairwise nonisomorphic indecomposable modules. The Fitting lemma makes each a local endomorphism ring. Its residue division algebra is : over an algebraically closed field, every element of a finite-dimensional division algebra has an eigenvalue and hence must be scalar. The semisimple quotient of a module endomorphism algebra consequently gives, for the Jacobson radical ,
is surjective with kernel . The nilpotence of makes finite and each unipotent. The kernel is closed and normal. Acting on the multiplicity spaces embeds the product of general linear groups back into and splits this quotient. This proves the Levi decomposition of a quiver automorphism group
Since is the unipotent radical, a nonzero is indecomposable exactly when : the product has a single factor of size one.
For the base change action on quiver representations, the orbit map is . Substituting , with , shows its differential is
Its kernel is . The stabilizer is smooth because it is open in that vector space. Hence the differential has rank , and its image is the Zariski tangent space . The normal space to a quiver orbit is therefore
The ambient quiver representation space is an irreducible affine space, and orbits are locally closed. An orbit is open exactly when its dimension equals that ambient dimension, equivalently when . This proves that rigid quiver representations have open orbits. Such an orbit is dense and unique, since two nonempty open subsets of an irreducible space intersect.
An algebraic group is connected when its underlying Zariski topology is a connected space. An unipotent algebraic group is a linear algebraic group whose elements, in a faithful matrix realization, satisfy that is nilpotent. A reductive algebraic group, in the connected convention, is a connected linear algebraic group whose unipotent radical is trivial: it has no nontrivial connected normal unipotent algebraic subgroup.
Let . It is a finite-dimensional associative algebra, and . The latter is the nonempty open subset where the determinant on is nonzero. Since the affine space is irreducible, this open subset is irreducible and hence connected. It is a linear algebraic group: within it is cut out by the linear equations of preserving the vertex summands and commuting with the arrow maps. Thus the automorphism group is connected.
By the Krull–Schmidt theorem, write , with pairwise nonisomorphic indecomposables . The Fitting lemma makes each a local algebra. Its residue division algebra is : every element of a finite-dimensional division algebra over the algebraically closed field has an eigenvalue for left multiplication, and subtracting that scalar gives a noninvertible element, hence zero.
The standard radical description of the endomorphism algebra of a Krull-Schmidt decomposition therefore gives
Concretely, maps between nonisomorphic summands lie in the radical, while on each isotypic block one reduces all entries modulo the local radical. The off-diagonal rule follows because a composition cannot be a unit for : it would split off the indecomposable , forcing an isomorphism. The finite-dimensional radical description then identifies the kernel of this block reduction with . Put . The Jacobson radical of the finite-dimensional algebra is nilpotent, so every is a unit and is unipotent on . Also is closed, being the translate of the linear subspace , and normal, being the kernel of
This map has an explicit algebraic section: after fixing the direct-sum decomposition, a matrix acts on the copies by . These block actions give a subgroup with trivial intersection with . Every unit is uniquely a product of an element of and one of . Hence
This Levi decomposition of a quiver automorphism group holds in every characteristic; the section is constructed directly from the multiplicity spaces.