A probabilistic approach to conjugacy classes in the finite symplectic and orthogonal groups (Q1841823)

This paper is concerned with the groups \(\text{Sp}(2n,q)\) and \(O^\pm(n,q)\), where \(q\) is an odd prime-power. For brevity, attention will be confined here to the symplectic case. The conjugacy class of an element of \(\text{Sp}(2n,q)\) is determined by (a) its elementary divisors and (b) certain signs associated with the elementary divisors \((z\pm 1)^m\). Since these signs are not involved in the author's main results, they will be largely passed over here. If \(\phi(z)\) (\(\neq z\)) is a monic irreducible polynomial over \({\mathcal F}_q\), then the corresponding elementary divisors \(\phi^{m_1},\phi^{m_2},\dots\) of \(x\in\text{Sp}(2n,q)\) are specified by the partition \(\Lambda_\phi(x):=(m_1,m_2,\dots)\). The operator \(\Lambda_\phi\) defined on \(\text{Sp}(2n,q)\), extends in the obvious way to the disjoint union \(S=\bigcup_{n\geq 0}\text{Sp}(2n,q)\). The author defines a discrete probability measure on \(S\) by assigning to each element of \(\text{Sp}(2n,q)\) the weight \(u^{2n}(1-u^2)|\text{Sp}(2n,q)|^{-1}\), where \(u\) is a fixed number such that \(0<u<1\). The equation \(M_{\phi,u}(\lambda)=\text{Prob}(\Lambda_q(x)=\lambda)\) then defines a discrete probability measure \(M_{\phi,u}\) on partitions. These probabilities (and indeed the more general ones that take signs into account) are evaluated in Theorem 1. When \(\phi(z)\neq(z\pm 1)\), the measures \(M_{\phi,u}\) are specializations of those for general linear and unitary groups treated in the author's earlier paper [J. Algebra 212, No. 2, 557-590 (1999; see the preceding review Zbl 0980.20036)]. The present paper is therefore chiefly concerned with \(M_{\text{Sp},u}:=M_{z+1,u}=M_{z-1,u}\), which is in fact a measure on those partitions for which the odd parts have even multiplicity. The central result is a description of \(M_{\text{Sp},u}\) in terms of two Markov chains \(K_1\), \(K_2\) on the natural numbers. Given in advance are the transition probabilities \(K_1(a,b)\), \(K_2(a,b)\) and a certain measure \(P_{\text{Sp},u}\) on the natural numbers. Let \(\lambda'\), with parts \(\lambda_1'\geq\lambda_2'\cdots\) be the conjugate of the partition \(\lambda\). Theorem 4: Starting with \(\lambda_1'\) distributed according to \(P_{\text{Sp},u}\), define in succession \(\lambda_2',\lambda_3',\dots\) according to the rules that, if \(\lambda_i'=a\), then \(\lambda_{i+1}'=b\) with probability \(K_1(a,b)\) if \(i\) is odd and probability \(K_2(a,b)\) if \(i\) is even. Then the resulting partition \(\lambda\) is distributed according to \(M_{\text{Sp},u}\). Various explicit formulae are established in the course of the paper. One application is to prove the (known) result that the number of unipotent elements in \(\text{Sp}(2n,q)\) is \(q^{2n^2}\).