Let G be a connected reductive linear algebraic group defined over an algebraically closed field of characteristic p. Assume that p is good for G. In this note we consider particular classes of connected reductive subgroups H of G and show that the cocharacters of H that are associated to a given nilpotent element e in the Lie algebra of H are precisely the cocharacters of G associated to e that take values in H. In particular, we show that this is the case provided H is a connected reductive subgroup of G of maximal rank; this answers a question posed by J.C. Jantzen.
We prove that the nilpotent commuting variety of a reductive Lie algebra over an algebraically closed field of good characteristic is equidimensional. In characteristic zero, this confirms a conjecture of Vladimir Baranovsky. As a by-product, we obtain tat the punctual (local) Hilbert scheme parametrising the ideals of colength $n$ in $k[[X,Y]]$ is irreducible over any algebraically closed field $k$.
Let G be a complex reductive linear algebraic group and let K be a maximal compact subgroup of G. Given a nilpotent group Γgenerated by r elements, we consider the representation spaces Hom(Γ,G) and Hom(Γ,K) with the natural topology induced from an embedding into G^r and K^r respectively. The goal of this paper is to prove that there is a strong deformation retraction of Hom(Γ,G) onto Hom(Γ,K). We also obtain a strong deformation retraction of the geometric invariant theory quotient Hom(Γ,G)//G onto Hom(Γ,K)/K.
This paper is about nilpotent orbits of reductive groups over local non-Archimedean fields. In this paper we will try to identify for which groups there are only finitely many nilpotent orbits, for which groups the nilpotent orbits are separable and for which groups Howe's conjecture holds. For general reductive groups we get some partial results. For split reductive groups we get a classification in terms of the root data and the characteristic of the underlying local field.
We check that the connected centralisers of nilpotent elements in the orthogonal and symplectic groups have Levi decompositions in even characteristic. This provides a justification for the identification of the isomorphism classes of the reductive quotients as stated in [Liebeck, Seitz; Unipotent and Nilpotent Classes in Simple Algebraic Groups and Lie Algebras].
The nilpotent bicone of a finite dimensional complex reductive Lie algebra g is the subset of elements in g x g whose subspace generated by the components is contained in the nilpotent cone of g. The main result of this note is that the nilpotent bicone is a complete intersection. This affirmatively answers a conjecture of Kraft-Wallach concerning the nullcone. In addition, we introduce and study the characteristic submodule of g. The properties of the nilpotent bicone and the characteristic submodule are known to be very important for the understanding of the commuting variety and its ideal o…
Let $G$ be a connected reductive group over an algebraically closed field $\Bbbk$. Under mild restrictions on the characteristic of $\Bbbk$, we show that any $G$-module with a good filtration also has a good filtration as a module for the reductive part of the centralizer of a nilpotent element $x$ in its Lie algebra.
We consider the conjugation-action of an arbitrary upper-block parabolic subgroup of ${\rm GL}_n(\mathbf{C})$, especially of the Borel subgroup $B$ and of the standard unipotent subgroup $U$ of the latter on the nilpotent cone of complex nilpotent matrices. We obtain generic normal forms of the orbits and describe generating (semi-) invariants for the Borel semi-invariant ring as well as for the $U$-invariant ring. The latter is described in more detail in terms of algebraic quotients by a special toric variety closely related. The study of a GIT-quotient for the Borel-action is initiated.
In this paper we study the derived category of sheaves on the affine Grassmannian of a complex reductive group G, contructible with respect to the stratification by G(C[[x]])-orbits. Following ideas of Ginzburg and Arkhipov-Bezrukavnikov-Ginzburg, we describe this category (and a mixed version) in terms of coherent sheaves on the nilpotent cone of its Langlands dual reductive group. We also show, in the mixed case, that restriction to the nilpotent cone of a Levi subgroup corresponds to hyperbolic localization on affine Grassmannians.
In the representation theory of reductive $p$-adic groups $G$, the issue of reducibility of induced representations is an issue of great intricacy. It is our contention, expressed as a conjecture in [3], that there exists a simple geometric structure underlying this intricate theory. We will illustrate here the conjecture with some detailed computations in the principal series of $G_2$. A feature of this article is the role played by cocharacters $h_c$ attached to two-sided cells $c$ in certain extended affine Weyl groups. The quotient varieties which occur in the Bernstein programme are repla…
Let \mathfrak{g}=\mathfrak{g}_{\bar{0}}\oplus\mathfrak{g}_{\bar{1}} be a basic classical Lie superalgebra over an algebraically closed field \mathbb{K} whose characteristic p>0 is a good prime for \mathfrak{g}. Let G_{\bar{0}} be the reductive algebraic group over \mathbb{K} such that \mathrm{Lie}(G_{\bar{0}})=\mathfrak{g}_{\bar{0}}. Suppose e\in\mathfrak{g}_{\bar{0}} is nilpotent. Write \mathfrak{g}^{e} for the centralizer of e in \mathfrak{g} and \mathfrak{z}(\mathfrak{g}^{e}) for the centre of \mathfrak{g}^{e}. We calculate a basis for \mathfrak{g}^{e} and \mathfrak{z}(\mathfrak{g}^{e}) by …
Let $G$ be a simple simply-connected algebraic group over an algebraically closed field $k$ of characteristic $p>0$ with $\mathfrak{g}={\rm Lie}(G)$. We discuss various properties of nilpotent orbits in $\mathfrak{g}$, which have previously only been considered over $\mathbb{C}$. Using a combination of theoretical and computational methods, we extend to positive characteristic various calculations of de Graaf with nilpotent orbits in exceptional Lie algebras. In particular, we classify those orbits which are reachable, those which satisfy a certain related condition due to Panyushev, and deter…
We study in this paper the jet schemes of the closure of nilpotent orbits in a finite-dimensional complex reductive Lie algebra. For the nilpotent cone, which is the closure of the regular nilpotent orbit, all the jet schemes are irreducible. This was first observed by Eisenbud and Frenkel, and follows from a strong result of Mustautca (2001). Using induction and restriction of "little" nilpotent orbits in reductive Lie algebras, we show that for a large number of nilpotent orbits, the jet schemes of their closure are reducible. As a consequence, we obtain certain geometrical properties of the…
In this paper, we construct and classify the special unipotent representations of a real reductive group attached to the principal nilpotent orbit. We give formulas for the $\mathbf{K}$-types, associated varieties, and Langlands parameters of all such representations.
The index of a finite-dimensional Lie algebra $g$ is the minimum of dimensions of stabilisers $g_α$ of elements $α\in g^*$. Let $g$ be a reductive Lie algebra and $z(x)$ a centraliser of a nilpotent element $x\in g$. Elashvili has conjectured that the index of the centraliser $z(x)$ equals the index of $g$, i.e., the rank of $g$. Here Elashvili's conjecture is proved for reductive Lie algebras of classical type. It is shown that in cases $g=gl_n$ and $g=sp_{2n}$ the coadjoint action of $z(x)$ has a generic stabiliser. Also, we give an example of a nilpotent element $x\in so_8$ such that the co…
We define and study several equivariant stratifications of the isotropy and coisotropy representations of a parabolic subgroup in a complex reductive group.
A linear étale representation of a complex algebraic group $G$ is given by a complex algebraic $G$-module $V$ such that $G$ has a Zariski-open orbit on $V$ and $\dim G=\dim V$. A current line of research investigates which étale representations can occur for reductive algebraic groups. Since a complete classification seems out of reach, it is of interest to find new examples of étale representations for such groups. The aim of this note is to describe two classical constructions of Vinberg and of Bala & Carter for nilpotent orbit classifications in semisimple Lie algebras, and to determine whi…
We prove that generic higher Deligne-Lusztig representations over truncated formal power series are non-nilpotent, when the parameters are non-trivial on the biggest reduction kernel of the centre; we also establish a relation between the orbits of higher Deligne-Lusztig representations of $\mathrm{SL}_n$ and of $\mathrm{GL}_n$. Then we introduce a combinatorial analogue of Deligne-Lusztig construction for general and special linear groups over local rings; this construction generalises the higher Deligne--Lusztig representations and affords all the nilpotent orbit representations, and for $\m…
Let $g_e$ be the centraliser of a nilpotent element $e$ in a finite dimensional simple Lie algebra $g$ of rank $l$ over an algebraically closed field of characteristic 0. We investigate the algebra $S(g_e)^{g_e}$ of symmetric invariants of $g_e$ and prove that if $g$ is of type $A$ or $C$, then $S(g_e)^{g_e}$ is always a graded polynomial algebra in $l$ variables. We show that this continues to hold for some nilpotent elements in the Lie algebras of other types. In type $A$ we prove that $S(g_e)^{g_e}$ is freely generated by a regular sequence in $S(g_e)$ and describe the tangent cone at $e$ t…
Let $Γ$ be a finitely generated nilpotent group and let G be a complex reductive algebraic group. The representation variety $\mathrm{Hom}(Γ,G)$ and the character variety $\mathrm{Hom}(Γ,G)//G$ each carry a natural topology, and we describe the topology of their connected components in terms of representations factoring through quotients of $Γ$ by elements of its lower central series.
We consider two types of nilpotent invariants associated to smooth representations, namely generalized Whittaker models, and associated characters (in the case of a real reductive group). We survey some recent results on the behavior of these nilpotent invariants under local theta correspondence, and highlight the special role of a certain double fiberation of moment maps.
We compute special unipotent Arthur packets for real reductive groups in many cases. We list the cases that lead to incomplete answers, and in those cases, provide a suitable set of representations that could lead to a complete description of the special Arthur packet. In the process of achieving this goal we classify theta forms of a given even complex nilpotent orbit, and find methods to compute the associated varieties of irreducible group representations.
Let $F$ be a $p$-adic field and let $G$ be a connected reductive group defined over $F$. We assume $p$ is big. Denote $\mathfrak{g}$ the Lie algebra of $G$. To each vertex $s$ of the reduced Bruhat-Tits' building of $G$, we associate as usual a reductive Lie algebra $\mathfrak{g}_{s}$ defined over the residual field ${\mathbb F}_{q}$. We normalize suitably a Fourier-transform $f\mapsto \hat{f}$ on $C_{c}^{\infty}(\mathfrak{g}(F))$. We study the subspace of functions $f\in C_{c}^{\infty}(\mathfrak{g}(F))$ such that the orbital integrals of $f$ and of $\hat{f}$ are $0$ for each element of $ \mat…
We introduce a new notion of rank for unitary representations of semisimple groups over a local field of characteristic zero. The theory is based on Kirillov's method of orbits for nilpotent groups over local fields. When the semisimple group is classical, we prove that the new theory is essentially equivalent to Howe's theory of N-rank.
Let U be the unipotent radical of a Borel subgroup of a connected reductive algebraic group G, which is defined over an algebraically closed field k. In this paper, we extend work by Goodwin-Röhrle concerning the commuting variety of Lie(U) for char(k)=0 to fields, whose characteristic is good for G
Let $g$ be a finite dimensional complex reductive Lie algebra and <.,.> an invariant non degenerated bilinear form on $g\times g$ which extends the Killing form of $[g,g]$. We define a subcomplex $E\_{\bullet}(g)$ of the canonical complex $C\_{\bullet}(g)$ of $g$. There exists a well defined sub-module $B\_{g}$ of the module of polynomial maps from $g\times g$ to $g$ which is free of rank equal to the dimension b of the borel subalgebras of $g$. Moreover, $B\_{g}$ is contained in the space of cycles of the canonical complex of $g$. The complex $E\_{\bullet}(g)$ is the ideal of $C\_{\bullet}(g)…
Let $G$ be a connected reductive algebraic group over an algebraically closed field $\mathbf{k}$, and let Lie$(G)$ be its associated Lie algebra. In his series of papers on unipotent elements in small characteristic, Lusztig defined a partition of the unipotent variety of $G$. This partition is very useful when working with representations of $G$. Equivalently, one can consider certain subsets of the nilpotent variety of Lie$(G)$ called pieces. This approach appears in Lusztig's article from 2011. The pieces for the exceptional groups of type $G_2$, $F_4$, $E_6$, $E_7$, and $E_8$ in bad charac…
Let $\mathcal{N}_{\mathfrak{g}^*}$ be the variety of nilpotent elements in the dual of the Lie algebra of a reductive algebraic group over an algebraically closed field. In \cite{Lu2} Lusztig proposes a definition of a partition of $\mathcal{N}_{\mathfrak{g}^*}$ into smooth locally closed subvarieties (which are indexed by the unipotent classes in the corresponding group over complex numbers) and gives explicit results in types $A$, $C$ and $D$. We discuss type $B$ in this note.
Let $G$ be a complex, connected, reductive, algebraic group, and $χ:\mathbb{C}^\times \to G$ be a fixed cocharacter that defines a grading on $\mathfrak{g}$, the Lie algebra of $G$. Let $G_0$ be the centralizer of $χ(\mathbb{C}^\times)$. In this paper, we study $G_0$-equivariant parity sheaves on $\mathfrak{g}_n$, under some assumptions on the field $\Bbbk$ and the group $G$. The assumption on $G$ holds for $GL_n$ and for any $G$, it recovers results of Lusztig in characteristic $0$. The main result is that every parity sheaf occurs as a direct summand of the parabolic induction of some cuspid…
We give an apriori description of a set of irreducible representations of a Weyl group which parametrize the nilpotent orbits in the Lie algebra of a connected reductive group in arbitrary characteristic. We also answer a question of Serre concerning the conjugacy class of a power of a unipotent element in a connected reductive group.
It is known that there is a bijection between dominant weights of a complex reductive Lie group $G$ and the set $\mathcal{N}_{\mathcal{O},r}$ whose elements are of the form $(\mathcal{O},ρ)$, where $\mathcal{O}$ is a nilpotent orbit and $ρ$ is an irreducible, algebraic representation of the stabilizer group $G^e$ of an element $e$ in the nilpotent orbit $\mathcal{O}$. We would like to study the above bijection when $G$ is classical and $ρ$ corresponds to a local system of $\mathcal{O}$. In particular, we will prove Conjecture 3.1 in \cite{AS} and Conjecture 7.4' in \cite{Ac2} in the classical …
Let a complex algebraic reductive group $\bf G$ act on a complex algebraic manifold $\bf X$. For a $\bf G$-invariant subvariety $Ξ$ of the nilpotent cone $\mathcal{N}(\mathfrak{g}^*)\subset \mathfrak{g}^*$ we define a notion of $Ξ$-symplectic complexity of $\bf X$. This notion generalizes the notion of complexity defined in [Vin86]. We prove several properties of this notion, and relate it to the notion of $Ξ$-complexity defined in [AG] motivated by its relation with representation theory.
Let $F$ be either $\mathbb{R}$ or a finite extension of $\mathbb{Q}_p$, and let $G$ be a finite central extension of the group of $F$-points of a reductive group defined over $F$. Also let $π$ be a smooth representation of $G$ (Frechet of moderate growth if $F=\mathbb{R}$). For each nilpotent orbit $\mathcal{O}$ we consider a certain Whittaker quotient $π_{\mathcal{O}}$ of $π$. We define the Whittaker support WS$(π)$ to be the set of maximal $\mathcal{O}$ among those for which $π_{\mathcal{O}}\neq 0$. In this paper we prove that all $\mathcal{O}\in\mathrm{WS}(π)$ are quasi-admissible nilpotent…
We show that, for an arbitrary quasi-reductive Lie superalgebra with a triangular decomposition and a character $ζ$ of the nilpotent radical, the associated Backelin functor $Γ_ζ$ sends Verma modules to standard Whittaker modules provided the latter exist. As a consequence, this gives a complete solution to the problem of determining the composition factors of the standard Whittaker modules in terms of composition factors of Verma modules in the category $\mathcal O$. In the case of the ortho-symplectic Lie superalgebras, we show that the Backelin functor $Γ_ζ$ and its target category, respect…
An algebraic group is called semi-reductive if it is a semi-direct product of a reductive subgroup and the unipotent radical. Such a semi-reductive algebraic group naturally arises and also plays a key role in the study of modular representations of non-classical finite-dimensional simple Lie algebras in positive characteristic, and some other cases. Let $G$ ba a connected semi-reductive algebraic group over an algebraically closed field $\mathbb{F}$ and $\mathfrak{g}=Lie(G)$. It turns out that $G$ has many same properties as reductive groups, such as the Bruhat decomposition. In this note, we…
We consider a reductive dual pair (G, G') in the stable range with G' the smaller member and of Hermitian symmetric type. We study the theta lifting of nilpotent K'_C-orbits, where K' is a maximal compact subgroup of G' and we describe the precise K_C-module structure of the regular function ring of the closure of the lifted nilpotent orbit of the symmetric pair (G, K). As an application, we prove sphericality and normality of the closure of certain nilpotent K_C-orbits obtained in this way. We also give integral formulas for their degrees.
Let F be a local field with finite residue field of characteristic p and k an algebraic closure of the residue field. Let G be the group of F-points of a F-split connected reductive group. In the apartment corresponding to a chosen maximal split torus of T, we fix a hyperspecial vertex and denote by K the corresponding maximal compact subgroup of G. Given an irreducible smooth k-representation $ρ$ of K, we construct an isomorphism from the affine semigroup k-algebra of the dominant cocharacters of T onto the Hecke algebra $H(G, ρ)$. In the case when the derived subgroup of G is simply connecte…
Let $\mathfrak{g}$ be the $p$-dimensional Witt algebra over an algebraically closed field $k$ of characteristic $p>3$. Let $\mathscr{N}={x\in\ggg\mid x^{[p]}=0}$ be the nilpotent variety of $\mathfrak{g}$, and $\mathscr{C}(\mathscr{N}):=\{(x,y)\in \mathscr{N}\times\mathscr{N}\mid [x,y]=0\}$ the nilpotent commuting variety of $\mathfrak{g}$. As an analogue of Premet's result in the case of classical Lie algebras [A. Premet, Nilpotent commuting varieties of reductive Lie algebras. Invent. Math., 154, 653-683, 2003.], we show that the variety $\mathscr{C}(\mathscr{N})$ is reducible and equidimens…
Let G be a connected reductive group defined over an algebraically closed field k of characteristic p > 0. The purpose of this paper is two-fold. First, when p is a good prime, we give a new proof of the ``order formula'' of D. Testerman for unipotent elements in G; moreover, we show that the same formula determines the p-nilpotence degree of the corresponding nilpotent elements in the Lie algebra of G. Second, if G is semisimple and p is sufficiently large, we show that G always has a faithful representation (r,V) with the property that the exponential of dr(X) lies in r(G) for each p-nilpote…
We study some aspects of modular generalized Springer theory for a complex reductive group $G$ with coefficients in a field $\mathbb k$ under the assumption that the characteristic $\ell$ of $\mathbb k$ is rather good for $G$, i.e., $\ell$ is good and does not divide the order of the component group of the centre of $G$. We prove a comparison theorem relating the characteristic-$\ell$ generalized Springer correspondence to the characteristic-$0$ version. We also consider Mautner's characteristic-$\ell$ `cleanness conjecture'; we prove it in some cases; and we deduce several consequences, inclu…
In this paper, we study the index for several natural classes of non-reductive subalgebras of semisimple Lie algebras. Namely, we look at parabolic subalgebras, centralisers of nilpotent elements, and the normalisers of the centralisers. We discuss a conjecture of Elashvili to the effect that the index of any centraliser is equal to the rank of the semisimple algebra in question. It is shown that Elashvili's conjecture is true for `small' and `large' orbits. Some properties of the index for the normaliser of the centraliser are proved. In particular, we prove that, for a regular nilpotent elem…
The main result of this paper is a new parameterization of the orbits of a symmetric subgroup on a partial flag variety. The parameterization is in terms of certain Spaltenstein varieties, on one hand, and certain nilpotent orbits, on the other. One of the motivations is related to enumerating special unipotent representations of real reductive groups. Another motivation is understanding (a portion of) the closure order on the set of nilpotent coadjoint orbits.
We prove that cuspidal automorphic D-modules have non-vanishing Whittaker coefficients, generalizing known results in the geometric Langlands program from GL_n to general reductive groups. The key tool is a microlocal interpretation of Whittaker coefficients. We establish various exactness properties in the geometric Langlands context that may be of independent interest. Specifically, we show Hecke functors are t-exact on the category of tempered D-modules, strengthening a classical result of Gaitsgory (with different hypotheses) for GL_n. We also show that Whittaker coefficient functors are t…
The flag variety of a complex reductive linear algebraic group G is by definition the quotient G/B by a Borel subgroup. It can be regarded as the set of Borel subalgebras of Lie(G). Given a nilpotent element e in Lie(G), one calls Springer fiber the subvariety formed by the Borel subalgebras which contain e. Springer fibers have in general a complicated structure (not irreducible, singular). Nevertheless, a theorem by C. De Concini, G. Lusztig, and C. Procesi asserts that, when G is classical, a Springer fiber can always be paved by finitely many subvarieties isomorphic to affine spaces. In th…
Let $G_{\mathbb R}$ be the set of real points of a complex linear reductive group and $\hat G_λ$ its classes of irreducible admissible representations with infinitesimal integral regular character $λ$. In this case each cell of representations is associated to a \emph{special} nilpotent orbit. This helps organize the corresponding set of irreducible Harish-Chandra modules. The goal of this paper is to is to describe algorithms for identifying the special nilpotent orbit attached to a cell in terms of descent sets appearing in the cell.
In a recent paper we found conditions for a nilpotent Lie group $N$ to have a filtration by normal subgroups whose successive quotients have square integrable representations, and such that these square integrable representations fit together nicely to give an explicit construction of Plancherel almost all representations of $N$. That resulted in explicit character formulae, Plancherel formulae and multiplicity formulae. We also showed that nilradicals $N$ of minimal parabolic subgroups $P = MAN$ enjoy that "stepwise square integrable" property. Here we extend those results to direct limits of…
We study the conditions for a nilpotent Lie group to be foliated into subgroups that have square integrable (relative discrete series) unitary representations, that fit together to form a filtration by normal subgroups. Then we use that filtration to construct a class of "stepwise square integrable" representations on which Plancherel measure is concentrated. Further, we work out the character formulae for those stepwise square integrable representations, and we give an explicit Plancherel formula. Next, we use some structure theory to check that all these constructions and results apply to ni…
Let $(G,\tilde{G})$ be a reductive dual pair over a local field ${\Fontauri k}$ of characteristic 0, and denote by $V$ and $\tilde{V}$ the standard modules of $G$ and $\tilde{G}$, respectively. Consider the set $Max Hom(V,\tilde{V})$ of full rank elements in $Hom(V,\tilde{V})$, and the nilpotent orbit correspondence $\mathcal{O} \subset \mathfrak{g}$ and $Θ(\mathcal{O})\subset \tilde{\mathfrak{g}}$ induced by elements of $Max Hom(V,\tilde{V})$ via the moment maps. Let $(π,\mathscr{V})$ be a smooth irreducible representation of $G$. We show that there is a correspondence of the generalized Whit…
