Finiteness of z-classes in reductive groups

Abstract

Let k be a perfect field such that for every n there are only finitely many field extensions, up to isomorphism, of k of degree n. If G is a reductive algebraic group defined over k, whose characteristic is very good for G, then we prove that G(k) has only finitely many z-classes. For each perfect field k which does not have the above finiteness property we show that there exist groups G over k such that G(k) has infinitely many z-classes.