Elements of specified order in simple algebraic groups.

In this paper we let $G$ be a simple algebraic group and $r$ be a natural number, and consider the codimension in $G$ of the variety of elements $g\in G$ satisfying $g^r=1$. We shall obtain a lower bound for this codimension which is independent of characteristic, and show that it is attained if $G$ is of adjoint type. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]