Unipotent blocks of finite reductive groups of a given type (Q1321001)

If \({\mathbf G}\) is a reductive group and \(F\) is an endomorphism of \({\mathbf G}\) with finite group of fixed points \({\mathbf G}^ F\), one looks at the \(\ell\)-blocks (\(\ell\) a prime different from the characteristic of \({\mathbf G}\)) of \({\mathbf G}^ F\) containing a unipotent character. The situation is well understood when \({\mathbf G}^ F\) is one of the classical groups (work of Fong-Srinivasan). In this paper, the authors show how the situation for arbitrary \({\mathbf G}\) reduces to the adjoint group, essentially by an isomorphism of block algebras over \(\ell\)-adic integers. This relates the problem of the distribution of unipotent characters into \(\ell\)-blocks to the known cases of types \({\mathbf A}\), \({\mathbf B}\), \({\mathbf C}\), \({\mathbf D}\). The case of \(\ell=2\) or type \({\mathbf A}(q)\) with \(\ell\) dividing \(q-1\) is shown to be different, then all unipotent characters are in the same (principal) block.