Complete reducibility of subgroups of reductive algebraic groups over nonperfect fields III

Let G be a reductive group over a nonperfect field k. We study rationality problems for Serre’s notion of complete reducibility of subgroups of G. In our previous work, we constructed examples of subgroups H of G that are G-completely reducible but not G-completely reducible over k (and vice versa). In this article, we give a theoretical underpinning of those constructions. Then using Geometric Invariant Theory, we obtain a new result on the structure of G(k)-(and G-) orbits in an arbitrary affine G-variety. We discuss several related problems to complement the main results.