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

We discuss various computational issues around the problem of determining the character values of finite Chevalley groups, in the framework provided by Lusztig's theory of character sheaves. Some of the remaining open questions (concerning certain roots of unity) for the cuspidal unipotent character sheaves of groups of exceptional type are resolved.

Let $\mathbf{G}$ be a connected reductive algebraic group over an algebraic closure $\overline{\mathbb{F}_p}$ of the finite field of prime order $p$ and let $F : \mathbf{G} \to \mathbf{G}$ be a Frobenius endomorphism with $G = \mathbf{G}^F$ the corresponding $\mathbb{F}_q$-rational structure. One of the strongest links we have between the representation theory of $G$ and the geometry of the unipotent conjugacy classes of $\mathbf{G}$ is a formula, due to Lusztig, which decomp...

These notes provide a concise introduction to the representation theory of reductive algebraic groups in positive characteristic, with an emphasis on Lusztig's character formula and geometric representation theory. They are based on the first author's notes from a lecture series delivered by the second author at the Simons Centre for Geometry and Physics in August 2019. We intend them to complement more detailed treatments.

In this paper we provide a geometric framework for the study of characters of depth-zero representations of unramified groups over local fields with finite residue fields which is built directly on Lusztig's theory of character sheaves for groups over finite fields and uses ideas due to Schneider-Stuhler. Specifically, we introduce a class of coefficient systems on Bruhat-Tits buildings of perverse sheaves sheaves on affine algebraic groups over an algebraic closure of a fini...

This paper concerns character sheaves of connected reductive algebraic groups defined over non-Archimedean local fields and their relation with characters of smooth representations. Although character sheaves were devised with characters of representations of finite groups of Lie type in mind, character sheaves are perfectly well defined for reductive algebraic groups over any algebraically closed field. Nevertheless, the relation between character sheaves of an algebraic gro...

In this article we extend independent results of Lusztig and H\'ezard concerning the existence of irreducible characters of finite reductive groups, (defined in good characteristic and arising from simple algebraic groups), satisfying a strong numerical relationship with their unipotent support. Along the way we obtain some results concerning quasi-isolated semisimple elements.

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'adh...

Assume $G$ is a connected reductive algebraic group defined over $\bar{\mathbb{F}_p}$ such that $p$ is good prime for $G$. Furthermore we assume that $Z(G)$ is connected and $G/Z(G)$ is simple of classical type. Let $F$ be a Frobenius endomorphism of $G$ admitting an $\mathbb{F}_q$-rational structure $G^F$. This paper is one of a series whose overall goal is to compute explicitly the multiplicity $< D_0745664 {G^F}(\Gamma_u),\chi>$ where: $\chi$ is an irreducible character of...

If A is a finite dimensional nilpotent associative algebra over a finite field k, the set G=1+A of all formal expressions of the form 1+a, where a is an element of A, has a natural group structure, given by (1+a)(1+b)=1+(a+b+ab). A finite group arising in this way is called an algebra group. One can also consider G as a unipotent algebraic group over k. We study representations of G from the point of view of ``geometric character theory'' for algebraic groups over finite fiel...

We begin the study of character sheaves on a not necessarily connected reductive group, extending the known theory for connected groups.