The number of regular semisimple elements for Chevalley groups of classical type (Q1210084)

Let \(G\) be a connected reductive simply connected algebraic group over an algebraically closed field \(K\) of characteristic \(p > 0\). Let \(G^ F\) be the group of fixed points under a Frobenius endomorphism \(F\). In this important paper the authors give detailed information on the numbers of regular semisimple conjugacy classes for the simply connected groups of classical type, i.e. \(A_ l(q)\), \(^ 2 A_ l (q^ 2)\), \(B_ l\), \(C_ l\), \(D_ l\), \(^ 2 D_ l(q^ 2)\). In each case they describe deterministic algorithms for computing these numbers explicitly. They are monic polynomials in \(q\) of degree \(l\). Their computation depends on suitable Möbius inversions of posets of certain subsystems of the root system \(\Phi\) of \(G\). These formulae are easy to implement on a computer. This has been done by the authors. Explicit examples are explained in the appendix.