We construct an explicit realization of a minimal representation of G, where G is the conformal group of a real Jordan algebra N. We characterize spherical vectors for these representation and prove that they are closely related to the Bessel K-function $K_τ(z)$. The resulting construction can be used to study tensor powers of the minimal representation and establish an extension of the Howe duality correspondence to some exceptional groups.
We consider the groups G which arise from real semisimple Jordan algebras via the Tits-Koecher-Kantor construction. Such a G is characterized by the fact that it admits a parabolic subgroup P=LN which is conjugate to its opposite, and for which the nilradical N is abelian. In this situation, the Levi component L has a finite number of orbits on N; and each orbit carries a measure which transforms by a character under L. By Mackey theory the space of L2-functions on each orbit carries a natural irreducible unitary representation of P, and we consider the following two problems: (1) Extend this …
Let G be a special orthogonal group over an algebraically closed field of characteristic exponent p. In this paper we extend certain aspects of the Dynkin-Kostant theory of unipotent elements in G (when p=1) to the general case (including p=2).
Let G be an algebraic group over an algebraically closed field of positive characteristic such that its neutral connected component is a unipotent group. We consider a certain class of closed idempotents in the braided monoidal category (under convolution of complexes) D_G(G) known as Heisenberg idempotents. For such an idempotent e, we will prove certain results about the Hecke subcategory eD_G(G) conjectured by V. Drinfeld. In particular, we will see that it is the bounded derived category of a modular category.
In this paper we discuss some of Springer's work on unipotent elements in a reductive groups and on representations of Weyl groups. Among the topics considered are Springer's bijection from the unipotent variety to the nilpotent variety, Springer's example of nonrationality of certain representations of the Hecke algebras associated to a Weyl group and the Springer representation of the Weyl group associated to a unipotent element.
Let $F$ be a field with at least three elements and $G$ a locally finite group. This paper aims to show that if either $F$ is algebraically closed or the characteristic of $F$ is positive, then an element in the group algebra $FG$ is a product of unipotent elements if, and only if, it? lies in the first derived subgroup of the unit group of $FG$. In addition, it? is a product of at most three unipotent elements. Moreover, we explore some crucial properties satisfied by certain algebras like the connection between unipotent elements of index 2 and commutators as well as we investigate the unipo…
In this paper, we construct certain unipotent representations for the real orthogonal group and the metaplectic group in the sense of Vogan. Our construction is based on quantum induction which involves the compositions of even number of theta correspondences. In particular, our results imply that there are irreducible unitary representations attached to each special nilpotent orbit.
An irreducible ordinary character of a finite reductive group is called quadratic unipotent if it corresponds under Jordan decomposition to a semisimple element $s$ in a dual group such that $s^2=1$. We prove that there is a bijection between, on the one hand the set of quadratic unipotent characters of $GL(n,q)$ or $U(n,q)$ for all $n \geq 0$ and on the other hand, the set of quadratic unipotent characters of $Sp(2n,q)$ for all $n \geq 0$. We then extend this correspondence to $\ell$-blocks for certain $\ell$ not dividing $q$.
In a previous paper, "Generalized Green functions and unipotent classes for finite reductive groups, I", we have determined certain unknown scalars involved in the algorithm of computing generalized Green functions in the case of SL_n. In this paper, we consider a similar problem for the case of classical groups Sp_{2n}, SO_N with arbitrary characteristic. Our result enables us, in particular, to compute Green functions in bad characteristic case, which was not known before.
Lusztig's algorithm of computing generalized Green functions of reductive groups involves an ambiguity of certain scalars. In this paper, for reductive groups of classical type with arbitrary characteristic, we determine those scalars explicitly, and eliminate the ambiguity. Our results imply that all the generalized Green functions of classical type are computable.
Suppose $G$ is a real reductive group. The determination of the irreducible unitary representations of $G$ is one of the major unsolved problem in representation theory. There is evidence to suggest that every irreducible unitary representation of $G$ can be constructed through a sequence of well-understood operations from a finite set of building blocks, called the unipotent representations. These representations are `attached' (in a certain mysterious sense) to the nilpotent orbits of $G$ on the dual space of its Lie algebra. Inside this finite set is a still smaller set, consisting of the u…
We investigate support schemes for infinitesimal unipotent supergroups and their representations. Our main results provide a non-cohomological description of these schemes which generalizes the classical work of Suslin, Friedlander, and Bendel. As a consequence, support schemes in this setting have the desired features of such a theory, including naturality with respect to group homomorphisms, the tensor product property, and realizability. As an application of the theory developed here, we investigate support varieties for certain finite-dimensional Hopf subalgebras of the Steenrod algebra.
Let G(F_q) be the group of rational points of a split connected reductive group G defined over the finite field F_q. In this paper we show that the category of representations of G(F_q) which are finite direct sums of unipotent representations in a fixed two-sided cell is equivalent to the centre of a certain monoidal category of sheaves on the product of two copies of the flag manifold of G. We also consider a version of this for nonsplit groups.
Let $G$ be a connected reductive group over $F_q$, where $q$ is large enough and the center of $G$ is connected. We are concerned with Lusztig's theory of {\em character sheaves}, a geometric version of the classical character theory of the finite group $G(F_q)$. We show that under a certain technical condition, the restriction of a character sheaf to its {\em unipotent support} (as defined by Lusztig) is either zero or an irreducible local system. As an application, the generalized Gelfand-Graev characters are shown to form a $\Z$-basis of the $\Z$-module of unipotently supported virtual char…
It is generally believed (and for the most part is probably true) that Lie theory, in contrast to the characteristic zero case, is insufficient to tackle the representation theory of algebraic groups over prime characteristic fields. However, in this paper we show that, for a large and important class of unipotent algebraic groups (namely the unipotent upper triangular groups $U_n$), and under a certain hypothesis relating the characteristic $p$ to both $n$ and the dimension $d$ of a representation (specifically, $p \geq \text{max}(n,2d)$), Lie theory is completely sufficient to determine the …
Let $\mathtt{k}$ be an algebraic closure of a finite field $\mathbb{F}_{q}$ of characteristic $p$. Let $G$ be a connected unipotent group over $\mathtt{k}$ equipped with an $\mathbb{F}_q$-structure given by a Frobenius map $F:G\to G$. We will denote the corresponding algebraic group defined over $\mathbb{F}_q$ by $G_0$. Character sheaves on $G$ are certain objects in the triangulated braided monoidal category $\mathscr{D}_G(G)$ of bounded conjugation equivariant $\bar{\mathbb{Q}}_l$-complexes (where $l\neq p$ is a prime number) on $G$. Boyarchenko has proved that the "trace of Frobenius" funct…
Let $G(q)$ be a Chevalley group over a finite field $F_q$. By Lusztig's and Shoji's work, the problem of computing the values of the unipotent characters of $G(q)$ is solved, in principle, by the theory of character sheaves; one issue in this solution is the determination of certain scalars relating two types of class functions on $G(q)$. We show that this issue can be reduced to the case where $q$ is a prime, which opens the way to use computer algebra methods. Here, and in a sequel to this article, we use this approach to solve a number of cases in groups of exceptional type which seemed hit…
Soit G un groupe algebrique reductif sur la cloture algebrique d'un corps fini F_q et defini sur ce dernier. L'existence du support unipotent d'un caractere irreductible du groupe fini G(F_q), ou d'un faisceau caractere de G, a ete etablie dans differents cas par Lusztig, Geck et Malle, et le second auteur. Dans cet article, nous demontrons que toute classe unipotente sur laquelle la restriction du faisceau caractere ou du caractere donne est non nulle est contenue dans l'adherence de Zariski de son support unipotent. Pour etablir ce resultat, nous etudions certaines representations des groupe…
A nonabelian Fourier transform for tempered unipotent representations, II
Sorbonne Université and Université Paris Cité, CNRS, Institut de Mathématiques de Jussieu – Paris Rive Gauche（索邦大学与巴黎西岱大学，法国国家科学研究中心，儒勒·德·阿让松数学研究所-巴黎左岸）；Mathematical Institute, University of Oxford（牛津大学数学研究所）；Department of Mathematics, King’s College London（伦敦国王学院数学系）
We derive a Murnaghan--Nakayama type formula for the values of unipotent characters of finite classical groups on regular semisimple elements. This relies on Asai's explicit decomposition of Lusztig restriction. We use our formula to show that most complex irreducible characters vanish on some $\ell$-singular element for certain primes $\ell$. As an application we classify the simple endotrivial modules of the finite quasi-simple classical groups. As a further application we show that for finite simple classical groups and primes $\ell\ge3$ the first Cartan invariant in the principal $\ell$-bl…
Francois Rodier proved that it is possible to view smooth representations of certain totally disconnected abelian groups (the underlying additive group of a finite-dimensional p-adic vector space, for example) as sheaves on the Pontryagin dual group. For nonabelian totally disconnected groups, the appropriate dual space necessarily includes representations which are not one-dimensional, and does not carry a group structure. The general definition of the topology on the dual space is technically unwieldy, so we provide three different characterizations of this topology for a large class of tota…
In this paper we start a classification of certain global integrals. First, we use the language of unipotent orbits to write down a family of global integrals. We then classify all those integrals which satisfy the dimension equation we set. After doing so, we check which of these integrals are global unipotent integrals. We do all this for groups of type $A_n$, and using all this we derive a certain interesting conjecture about the length of these integrals.
The principle of tannakian duality states that any neutral tannakian category is tensorially equivalent to the category Rep_k G of finite dimensional representations of some affine group scheme G and field k, and conversely. Originally motivated by an attempt to find a first-order explanation for generic cohomology of algebraic groups, we study neutral tannakian categories as abstract first-order structures and, in particular, ultraproducts of them. One of the main theorems of this dissertation is that certain naturally definable subcategories of these ultraproducts are themselves neutral tann…
With a view to determining character values of finite reductive groups at unipotent elements, we prove a number of results concerning inner products of generalised Gelfand-Graev characters with characteristic functions of character sheaves, here called Lusztig functions. These are used to determine projections of generalised Gelfand-Graev characters to the space of unipo- tent characters, and to the space of characters with a given wave front set. Such projections are expressed largely in terms of Weyl group data. We show how the values of characters at their unipotent support or wave front se…
Our goal is to classify all generically transitive actions of commutative unipotent groups on flag varieties up to conjugation. We establish relationship between this problem and classification of multiplications with certain properties on Lie algebra representations. Then we classify multiplications with the desired properties and solve the initial classification problem.
Let $\mathcal{U}$ be the unipotent variety of a complex reductive group $G$. Fix opposed Borel subgroups $B_\pm \subseteq G$ with unipotent radicals $U_\pm$. The map that sends $x_+x_- \mapsto x_+x_-x_+^{-1}$ for all $x_\pm \in U_\pm$ restricts to a map from $U_+U_- \cap gB_+$ into $\mathcal{U} \cap gB_+$, for any $g$. We conjecture that the restricted map forms half of a homotopy equivalence between these varieties, and thus, induces a weight-preserving isomorphism between their compactly-supported cohomologies. Noting that the map is equivariant with respect to certain actions of $B_+ \cap g…
Let A be a character sheaf on a reductive connected group G over an algebraically closed field. Assuming that the characteristic is not bad, we show that for certain conjugacy classes D in G the restriction of A to D is a local system up to shift; we also give a parametrization of unipotent cuspidal character sheaves on G in terms of restrictions to conjugacy classes. Without restriction on characteristic we define canonical bijections from the set of unipotent character sheaves on G (and from the set of unipotent representations of the corresponding split reductive group over a finite field) …
A good knowledge of the Jordan canonical form (JCF) for a tensor product of `Jordan blocks' is key to understanding the actions of $p$-groups of matrices in characteristic $p$. The JCF corresponds to a certain partition which depends on the characteristic $p$, and the study of these partitions dates back to Aitken's work in 1934. Equivalently each JCF corresponds to a certain permutation $π$ introduced by Norman in 1995. These permutations $π= π(r,s,p)$ depend on the dimensions $r$, $s$ of the Jordan blocks, and on $p$. We give necessary and sufficient conditions for $π(r,s,p)$ to be trivial, …
H. Miyachi and W. Turner have independently proved that Broue's Abelian Defect Group Conjecture holds for certain unipotent blocks of the finite general linear group, the so-called Rouquier blocks. This together with A. Marcus and J. Chuang and R. Rouquier proves that the conjecture holds for all blocks of such groups. We prove that other finite classical groups also possess unipotent Rouquier blocks at linear primes.
With this work we initiate a study of the representations of a unipotent group over a field of characteristic zero from the modular point of view. Let $G$ be such a group. The stack of all representations of a fixed finite dimension $n$ is badly behaved. We introduce an invariant, $w$, of $G$, its \textit{width}, as well as a certain nondegeneracy condition on representations, and we prove that nondegenrate representations of dimension $n \le w+1$ form a quasi-projective variety. Our definition of the width is opaque; as a first attempt to elucidate its behavior, we prove that it is bounded by…
S.-Y. Pan decomposes the uniform projection of the Weil representation of a finite symplectic-odd orthogonal dual pair, in terms of Deligne-Lusztig virtual characters, assuming that the order of the finite field is large enough. In this paper we use Pan's decomposition to study the theta correspondence for this kind of dual pairs, following the approach of Adams-Moy and Aubert-Michel-Rouquier. Our results give the theta correspondence between unipotent representations and certain quadratic unipotent representations.
In a previous paper I have defined a new basis for the representation ring of a Weyl group. In this paper we show that the new basis is related to the standard basis by an upper triangular unipotent matrix. We also give a new parametrization of representations in a fixed family by certain pairs of subgroups of a finite group attached to the family. We outline an extension to the case of unipotent representations of a finite Chevalley group.
We apply M. Ratner's theorem on closures of unipotent orbits to the study of three families of prehomogeneous vector spaces. As a result, we prove analogues of the Oppenheim Conjecture for simultaneous approximation by values of certain alternating bilinear forms in an even number of variables and certain alternating trilinear forms in six and seven variables.
The results in this paper provide a comparison between the $K$-structure of unipotent representations and regular sections of bundles on nilpotent orbits. Precisely, let $\widetilde{G_0} =\widetilde{Spin}(a,b)$ with $a+b=2n$, the nonlinear double cover of $Spin(a,b)$, and let $\widetilde{K}=Spin(a, \mathbb C)\times Spin(b, \mathbb C)$ be the complexification of the maximal compact subgroup of $\widetilde{G_0}$. We consider the nilpotent orbit $\mathcal O_c$ parametrized by $[3 \ 2^{2k} \ 1^{2n-4k-3}]$ with $k>0$. We provide a list of unipotent representations that are genuine, and prove that t…
We compare two important bases of an irreducible representation of the symmetric group: the web basis and the Specht basis. The web basis has its roots in the Temperley-Lieb algebra and knot-theoretic considerations. The Specht basis is a classic algebraic and combinatorial construction of symmetric group representations which arises in this context through the geometry of varieties called Springer fibers. We describe a graph that encapsulates combinatorial relations between each of these bases, prove that there is a unique way (up to scaling) to map the Specht basis into the web representatio…
Let X be a scheme of finite type over a Noetherian base scheme S admitting a dualizing complex, and let U be an open subset whose complement has codimension at least 2. We extend the Deligne-Bezrukavnikov theory of perverse coherent sheaves by showing that a coherent middle extension (or intersection cohomology) functor from perverse sheaves on U to perverse sheaves on X may be defined for a much broader class of perversities than has previously been known. We also introduce a derived category version of the coherent middle extension functor. Under suitable hypotheses, we introduce a construct…
In this paper we introduce geometric crystals and unipotent crystals which are algebro-geometric analogues of Kashiwara's crystal bases. Given a reductive group G, let I be the set of vertices of the Dynkin diagram of G and T be the maximal torus of G. The structure of a geometric G-crystal on an algebraic variety X consists of a rational morphism γ:X-->T and a compatible family e_i:G_m\times X-->X, i\in I of rational actions of the multiplicative group G_m satisfying certain braid-like relations. Such a structure induces a rational action of W on X. Quite surprisingly, many interesting ration…
We show that the theta representations on certain covers of general linear groups support certain types of unique functionals. The proof involves two types of Fourier coefficients. The first are semi-Whittaker coefficients, which generalize coefficients introduced by Bump and Ginzburg for the double cover. The covers for which these coefficients vanish identically (resp. do not vanish for some choice of data) are determined in full. The second are the Fourier coefficients associated with general unipotent orbits. In particular, we determine the unipotent orbit attached, in the sense of Ginzbur…
We determine the unipotent orbits attached to degenerate Eisenstein series on general linear groups. This confirms a conjecture of David Ginzburg. This also shows that any unipotent orbit of general linear groups does occur as the unipotent orbit attached to a specific automorphic representation. The key ingredient is a root-theoretic result. To prove it, we introduce the notion of the descending decomposition, which expresses every Weyl group element as a product of simple reflections in a certain way. It is suitable for induction and allows us to translate the question into a combinatorial s…
Let $U_n$ denote the group of $n\times n$ unipotent upper-triangular matrices over a fixed finite field $\FF_q$, and let $U_\cP$ denote the pattern subgroup of $U_n$ corresponding to the poset $\cP$. This work examines the superclasses and supercharacters, as defined by Diaconis and Isaacs, of the family of normal pattern subgroups of $U_n$. After classifying all such subgroups, we describe an indexing set for their superclasses and supercharacters given by set partitions with some auxiliary data. We go on to establish a canonical bijection between the supercharacters of $U_\cP$ and certain $\…
In an earlier paper by Kazhdan and the author, a map from the set of unipotent classes in a reductive connected group over C to the conjugacy classes in the Weyl group was defined. Here we present some experimental evidence for a possibly alternative definition of that map in terms of the pieces in certain partitions of the flag manifold.
In this paper we consider some global constructions of liftings of automorphic representations attached to some commuting pairs in the exceptional group $F_4$. We consider two families of integrals. The first uses the minimal representation on the double cover of $F_4$, and in the second we consider examples of integrals of descent type associated with unipotent orbits of $F_4$.
We use the progenerator constructed in our previous paper to give a necessary condition for a simple module of a finite reductive group to be cuspidal, or more generally to obtain information on which Harish-Chandra series it can lie in. As a first application we show the irreducibility of the smallest unipotent character in any Harish-Chandra series. Secondly, we determine a unitriangular approximation to part of the unipotent decomposition matrix of finite orthogonal groups and prove a gap result on certain Brauer character degrees.
In this paper, we begin with the classification of Harish-Chandra imprimitive representations in non-defining characteristic. We recall the connection of this problem to certain generalizations of Iwahori-Hecke algebras and show that Harish-Chandra induction is compatible with the Morita equivalence by Bonnafé and Rouquier, thus reducing the classification problem to quasi-isolated blocks. Afterwards, we consider imprimitivity of unipotent representations of certain classical groups. In the case of general linear and unitary groups, our reduction methods then lead to results for arbitrary Lusz…
The general linear group GL(n, K) over a field K contains a particularly prominent subgroup U(n, K), consisting of all the upper triangular unipotent elements. In this paper we are interested in the case when K is the finite field F_q, and our goal is to better understand the representation theory of U(n, F_q). The complete classification of the complex irreducible representations of this group has long been known to be a difficult task. The orbit method of Kirillov, famous for its success when K has characteristic 0, is a natural source of intuition and conjectures, but in our case the relati…
We prove vanishing of distributions on a split real reductive group which change according to a non-degenerate character under the left action of the unipotent radical of the Borel subgroup, and are equivariant under the right action of a spherical subgroup, and eigen with respect to the center of the universal enveloping algebra of the Lie algebra of G. This is a generalization of a result by Shalika, that concerned the group case. Shalika's result was crucial in the proof of his multiplicity one theorem. We view our result as a step in the study of multiplicities of quasi-regular representat…
