Irreducible characters of Sylow subgroups of symplectic and unitary groups. (Q2509280)

Let \(p\) be a prime and let \(q=p^a\), where \(a\) is a positive integer. Let \(\text{Sp}(2n,q)\) denote the symplectic group of degree \(2n\) over the field of order \(q\) and let \(\text{U}(2n,q^2)\) denote the unitary group of degree \(2n\) over the field of order \(q^2\). Let \(l\) be defined to equal \(q\) in the symplectic case and \(q^2\) in the unitary case. Let \(P\) denote a Sylow \(p\)-subgroup of either of these linear groups. In each case, \(P\) is a split extension of an elementary Abelian subgroup \(C\), say, by a subgroup \(L\) isomorphic to a Sylow \(p\)-subgroup of the general linear group of degree \(n\) over the field of order \(l\). It is natural to use Clifford theory to investigate the characters of \(P\) by studying the action of \(L\) on the characters of \(C\). This method is unlikely to give complete information about all the characters of \(P\), as the structure of the stabilizer subgroups generally becomes too complicated to allow of an inductive approach. Nonetheless, the method can describe possible characters degrees, especially those of maximum degree. In this paper, the author describes a class of linear characters of \(C\) when \(l\) is odd in the symplectic case and arbitrary in the unitary case. He describes the orbits of \(L\) on these characters and is then able to deduce the existence of various irreducible complex characters of \(P\) of degree \(l^{n-i}\), where \(1\leq i\leq n\). He also shows that \(P\) has at least \((l-1)^n\) irreducible characters of maximum possible degree \(l^{n(n-1)/2}\), and raises the question if this is the exact number of such characters. In the case of \(\text{Sp}(2n,q)\), the answer is no, as shown in the 1997 National University of Ireland Ph.D. dissertation of M. Marjoram. If \(m\) denotes the integer part of \(n/2\), the number of characters of \(P\) of maximum degree is \[ \sum_{k=m}^n{k+1\choose n-k}(q-1)^k. \] We note also that when \(q\) is a power of 2, the reviewer, \textit{M. Marjoram} and \textit{A. Previtali} determined the number of irreducible characters of maximum possible degree in a Sylow 2-subgroup of \(\text{Sp}(2n,q)\) [J. Algebra 241, No. 1, 393-409 (2001; Zbl 0989.20015)].