ag.algebraic geometry - Deformation theory of representations of an algebraic group

For an algebraic group G and a representation V, I think it's a standard result (but I don't have a reference) that

• the obstruction to deforming V as a representation of G is an element of H²(G,V⊗V^*)


• if the obstruction is zero, isomorphism classes of deformations are parameterized by H¹(G,V⊗V^*)


• automorphisms of a given deformation (as a deformation of V; i.e. restricting to the identity modulo your square-zero ideal) are parameterized by H⁰(G,V⊗V^*)

where the Hⁱ refer to standard group cohomology (derived functors of invariants). The analogous statement, where the algebraic group G is replaced by a Lie algebra g and group cohomology is replaced by Lie algebra cohomology, is true, but the only proof I know is a big calculation. I started running the calculation for the case of an algebraic group, and it looks like it works, but it's a mess. Surely there's a long exact sequence out there, or some homological algebra cleverness, that proves this result cleanly. Does anybody know how to do this, or have a reference for these results? This feels like an application of cotangent complex ninjitsu, but I guess that's true about all deformation problems.

While I'm at it, I'd also like to prove that the obstruction, isoclass, and automorphism spaces of deformations of G as a group are H³(G,Ad), H²(G,Ad), and H¹(G,Ad), respectively. Again, I can prove the Lie algebra analogues of these results by an unenlightening calculation.

Background: What's a deformation? Why do I care?

I may as well explain exactly what I mean by "a deformation" and why I care about them. Last things first, why do I care? The idea is to study the moduli space of representations, which essentially means understanding how representations of a group behave in families. That is, given a representation V of G, what possible representations could appear "nearby" in a family of representations parameterized by, say, a curve? The appropriate formalization of "nearby" is to consider families over a local ring. If you're thinking of a representation as a matrix for every element of the group, you should imagine that I want to replace every matrix entry (which is a number) by a power series whose constant term is the original entry, in such a way that the matrices still compose correctly. It's useful to look "even more locally" by considering families over complete local rings (think: now I just take formal power series, ignoring convergence issues). This is a limit of families over Artin rings (think: truncated power series, where I set xⁿ=0 for large enough n).

So here's what I mean precisely. Suppose A and A' are Artin rings, where A' is a square-zero extension of A (i.e. we're given a surjection f:A'→A such that I:=ker(f) is a square-zero ideal in A'). A representation of G over A is a free module V over A together with an action of G. A deformation of V to A' is a free module V' over A' with an action of G so that when I reduce V' modulo I (tensor with A over A'), I get V (with the action I had before). An automorphism of a deformation V' of V as a deformation is an automorphism V'→V' whose reduction modulo I is the identity map on V. The "obstruction to deforming" V is something somewhere which is zero if and only if a deformation exists.

I should add that the obstruction, isoclass, and automorphism spaces will of course depend on the ideal I. They should really be cohomology groups with coefficients in V⊗V^*⊗I, but I think it's normal to omit the I in casual conversation.