I was browsing MO and stumbled upon this post, and I got very curious. I searched for about half an hour and could not find a proof for the statement that any polynomial group homomorphism $\mathrm{Gl}_n(\Bbbk)\to\Bbbk^\times$ is a power of the determinant. Now this is certainly classic, so could someone point me to a good reference? I would prefer a proof that can be presented to graduate students with a mild background in classical algebraic geometry.
Edit: I was also wondering about the following: If $G$ is an affine algebraic group (i.e. an affine $\Bbbk$-variety with compatible group structure), then there is a closed immersion of $\iota:G\hookrightarrow\mathrm{Gl}_n(\Bbbk)$. From such an immersion, I get a "determinant" on $G$, namely $\iota^\sharp(\det)$. Is this, by any chance, independent of the embedding up to taking powers?
I was browsing MO and stumbled upon this post, and I got very curious. I searched for about half an hour and could not find a proof for the statement that any polynomial group homomorphism $\mathrm{Gl}_n(\Bbbk)\to\Bbbk^\times$ is a power of the determinant. Now this is certainly classic, so could someone point me to a good reference? I would prefer a proof that can be presented to graduate students with a mild background in classical algebraic geometry.