Constituents of supercharacters and Kirillov functions. (Q971869)

Supercharacters and Kirillov functions have been proposed as two related constructions that mimic the characters of certain \(p\)-groups. The irreducible constituents of these functions are intimately linked; specifically, irreducible constituents of a Kirillov function are constituents of the corresponding supercharacter. We give the details: Let \(F\) be a finite field, let \(J\) be a finite-dimenisonal, nilpotent \(F\)-algebra. Then \(G=\{1+x\mid x\in J\}\) is a group with multiplication defined by \((1+x)(1+y)=1+(x+y+xy)\). The element \((1+x)^{-1}\) is well-defined, belonging to \(G\), as \(J\) is nilpotent. \(G\) works on \(J\) on the right and on the left of \(J\) in the expected way. Write \(J^*\) for the dual space of \(J\). If \(\lambda\in J^*\), write \(\lambda G\), \(G\lambda G\), \(O_\lambda\) for the right, two-sided, and conjugation orbits, respectively, of \(\lambda\). [Details are to be found in the paper.] Fix a non-trivial group homomorphism -- from the additive group of \(F\) to the group of \(\mathbb{C}\setminus\{0\}\). Given \(\mu\in J^*\), define maps \(\widetilde\mu\colon J\to\mathbb{C}\) and \(\widehat\mu\colon G\to\mathbb{C}\) by \(\widetilde\mu(x)=\widetilde{\mu(x)}\) and \(\widehat\mu(1+x)=\widetilde\mu(x)\). Then, for each \(\lambda\in J^*\), the supercharacter \(\chi_\lambda\) and the Kirillov function \(\psi_\lambda\) are maps from \(G\) to \(\mathbb{C}\) given by \[ \chi_\lambda={|\lambda G|\over|G\lambda G|}\sum_{\mu\in G\lambda G}\widehat\mu\quad\text{and}\quad\psi_\lambda={1\over\sqrt{|O_\lambda|}}\sum_{\mu\in O_\lambda}\widehat\mu. \] Each two-sided orbit \(G\lambda G\) is the disjoint union of the conjugation orbits \(O_\mu\), where the \(\mu\) are in \(G\lambda G\), and so each supercharacter is a positive linear combination of Kirillov functions. Thus every irreducible constituent of \(\chi_\lambda\) shows up as a constituent of some \(\psi_\mu\) where \(\mu\) is an element of \(G\lambda G\). -- The main result of this paper is that the converse is true, i.e. every constituent of \(\psi_\lambda\) is a constituent of the corresponding supercharacter \(\chi_\lambda\).