Generic direct summands of tensor products for simple algebraic groups and quantum groups at roots of unity

Let G be either a simple linear algebraic group over an algebraically closed field of characteristic l>0 or a quantum group at an l-th root of unity. The category Rep(G) of finite-dimensional G-modules is non-semisimple. In this thesis, we develop new techniques for studying Krull-Schmidt decompositions of tensor products of G-modules. More specifically, we use minimal complexes of tilting modules to define a tensor ideal of singular G-modules, and we show that, up to singular direct summands, taking tensor products of G-modules respects the decomposition of Rep(G) into linkage classes. In analogy with the classical translation principle, this allows us to reduce questions about tensor products of G-modules in arbitrary l-regular linkage classes to questions about tensor products of G-modules in the principal block of G. We then identify a particular non-singular indecomposable direct summand of the tensor product of two simple G-modules in the principal block (with highest weights in two given l-alcoves), which we call the generic direct summand because it appears generically in Krull-Schmidt decompositions of tensor products of simple G-modules (with highest weights in the given l-alcoves). We initiate the study of generic direct summands, and we use them to prove a necessary condition for the complete reducibility of tensor products of simple G-modules, when G is a simple algebraic group of type A_n.