The exponential image of simple complex lie groups of exceptional type

Let G be a connected reductive complex Lie group. Let E _G be the image of the exponential map of G and E' _G its complement in G. We give a purely algebraic characterization of the set E _G and also describe an algorithm for finding all conjugacy classes of G in E' _G . We are mainly interested in the case when the Lie algebra of G is simple and exceptional. Full details are provided for groups G of type G ₂, F ₄, and E ₆. If G is of type G ₂ then there are only two such conjugacy classes.This work was supported by NSERC Grant A-5285.