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David E Speyer
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Is every $p$-group the $\mathbb{F}_p$-points of a unipotent group

Let $\Gamma$ be a finite group of order $p^n$. Is there necessarily a unipotent algebraic group $G$ of dimension $n$, defined over $\mathbb{F}_p$, with $\Gamma \cong G(\mathbb{F}_p)$?

I have no real motivation for this question, it just came up in conversation and no one knew the answer. There does not appear to be any sort of uniqueness to $G$; both the groups $\mathbb{Z}/p^2 \mathbb{Z}$ and $(\mathbb{Z}/p \mathbb{Z})^2$ have infinitely many lifts to unipotent groups.

David E Speyer
  • 156.4k
  • 14
  • 422
  • 763