A motivated introduction to character sheaves and the orbit method for unipotent groups in positive characteristic

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 ...

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 express...

We develop an approach to the character theory of certain classes of finite and profinite groups based on the construction of a Lie algebra associated to such a group, but without making use of the notion of a polarization which is central to the classical orbit method. Instead, Kirillov's character formula becomes the fundamental object of study. Our results are then used to produce an alternate proof of the orbit method classification of complex irreducible representations ...

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 f...

Let G(F_q) be the group of rational points of a simple algebraic group defined and split over a finite field F_q. In this paper we define a new basis for the Grothendieck group of unipotent representations of G(F_q).

Let $G$ be a simple algebraic group defined over a finite field of good characteristic, with associated Frobenius endomorphism $F$. In this article we extend an observation of Lusztig, (which gives a numerical relationship between an ordinary character of $G^F$ and its unipotent support), to the case where $Z(G)$ is disconnected. We then use this observation in some applications to the ordinary character theory of $G^F$.

This paper is an introduction, in a simplified setting, to Lusztig's theory of character sheaves. It develops a notion of character sheaves on reductive Lie algebras which is more general then such notion of Lusztig, and closer to Lusztig's theory of character sheaves on groups. The development is self contained and independent of the characteristic $p$ of the ground field. The results for Lie algebras are then used to give simple and uniform proofs for some of Lusztig's resu...

In the first chapters, this paper contains a survey on the theory of ordinary characters of finite reductive groups with non-connected centre. The last chapters are devoted to the proof of Lusztig's conjecture on characteristic functions of character sheaves for all finite reductive groups of type A, split or not.

Let G be a simple adjoint group and let K=k((\epsilon)) where k is an algebraic closure of a finite field F_q. In this paper we define some geometric objects on G(K) which are similar to the (cohomology sheaves of) the unipotent character sheaves on G(k). Using these geometric objects we define the unipotent almost characters of G(K_0) where K_0=F_q((\epsilon)) and state some conjectures relating them to the characters of unipotent representations of G(K_0).

We classify the unipotent character sheaves on a fixed connected component of a reductive algebraic group under a mild hypothesis on the characteristic of the ground field.