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Assume you have an almost connected simple Lie group G with trivial center. (In particular excluding non-algebraic examples such as the universal cover of SL_2(R).)

Such a group should automatically be an algebraic group over the reals resp. the complex numbers.

Is this true and why?

Can we in addition conclude (EDIT: under a good choice of the field and possibly additional assumptions?) that G is absolutely almost simple as an algebraic group?

EDIT: Asking this I do not want to regard a complex Lie group as a real algebraic group.

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# Are certain simple Lie groups linear algebraic groups?

Assume you have an almost connected simple Lie group G with trivial center. (In particular excluding non-algebraic examples such as the universal cover of SL_2(R).)

Such a group should automatically be an algebraic group over the reals resp. the complex numbers.

Is this true and why?

Can we in addition conclude that G is absolutely almost simple as an algebraic group?