Shintani descent for special linear groups (Q1379071)

Let \(H\) be a connected algebraic group over a finite field \(\mathbb{F}_q\) with two commuting Frobenius maps \(F\) and \(F'\); then \(F\) acts on the subgroup \(H^{F'}\) of \(F'\)-fixed points in \(H\). Two elements \(x,y\in H^{F'}\) are called \(F\)-twisted conjugate, if \(x=z^{-1}yF(z)\) with \(z\in H^{F'}\). Let \(C(H^{F'}\backslash\backslash_F)\) denote the space of \(\overline{\mathbb{Q}_\ell}\)-valued functions on the set of \(F\)-twisted conjugate classes of \(H^{F'}\) and let \(C(H^F\backslash\backslash)\) denote the usual \(\overline{\mathbb{Q}_\ell}\)-space of class functions of \(H^F\). There is a linear map \(Sh_{F^m/F}\colon C(H^{F^m}\backslash\backslash_F)\to C(H^f\backslash\backslash)\) which is called the Shintani descent map from \(H^{F^m}\) to \(H^F\). In this paper, Shintani descent for irreducible characters is determined for \(H=\text{SL}_n(q)\) and \(H^{F^m}=\text{SL}_n(q^m)\), where \(q\) is an arbitrary power of a prime \(p\). The results are obtained by applying modified generalized Gelfand-Graev characters of \(\text{SL}_n(q)\), which were proposed by Kawanaka to parametrize irreducible characters of reductive groups in general. One of the main results of this paper is, that for \(\text{SL}_n\) and sufficiently divisible \(m\), the map \(Sh_{F^m/F}\) induces an isomorphism from \(C^{(\overline s)}(H^{F^m}\backslash\backslash_F)\) to \(C^{(\overline s)}(H^F\backslash\backslash)\). Here \((\overline s)\) denotes a semisimple \(F\)-stable conjugacy class of the dual group and the superscript \({^{(\overline s)}}\) indicates subspaces spanned by irreducible characters in the \((\overline s)\)-Lusztig series. Using `Shintani descent identities', the results in this paper can also be used to obtain a description of the decomposition of Lusztig's twisted induction functors \(R^G_P\).