Crossed S-matrices and Character Sheaves on Unipotent Groups

TL;DR

This paper studies character sheaves on unipotent groups over finite fields, describing their associated matrices as crossed S-matrices and deriving formulas for irreducible representation dimensions using modular categorical data.

Contribution

It introduces the concept of crossed S-matrices for character sheaves on unipotent groups and provides formulas for representation dimensions, extending results to possibly disconnected groups.

Findings

Character sheaves form an orthonormal basis of class functions.

Block matrices relating character sheaves to irreducible characters are described as crossed S-matrices.

Derived formulas connect representation dimensions to modular categorical data.

Abstract

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" functions associated with $F$-stable character sheaves on $G$ form an orthonormal basis of the space of class functions on $G_0(\mathbb{F}_q)$ and that the matrix relating this basis to the basis formed by the irreducible characters of $G_0(\mathbb{F}_q)$ is block diagonal with "small" blocks. In this paper we describe these block matrices and interpret them as certain "crossed $S$-matrices". We also derive a formula for the dimensions of the irreducible representations of $G_0(\mathbb{F}_q)$ that correspond to one such block in terms of certain modular categorical data associated with that block. In fact we will formulate and prove more general results which hold for possibly disconnected groups $G$ such that $G^\circ$ is unipotent. To prove our results, we will establish a formula (which holds for any algebraic group $G$) which expresses the inner product of the "trace of Frobenius" function of any $F$-stable object of $\mathscr{D}_G(G)$ with any character of $G_0(\mathbb{F}_q)$ (or of any of its pure inner forms) in terms of certain categorical operations.