Supercharacters of unipotent groups defined by involutions. (Q2254134)

The history of the theory of supercharacters and superclasses begins with the works of \textit{C. A. M. André} [J. Algebra 175, No. 1, 287-319 (1995; Zbl 0835.20052); Proc. Am. Math. Soc. 130, No. 7, 1943-1954 (2002; Zbl 1005.20034)] and \textit{N. Yan} [``Representations of finite unipotent linear groups by the method of clusters'', (2010) \url{arXiv:1004.2674v1}], who described a special set of characters of the group of upper unitriangular matrices \(U_n(q)\) over the finite field \(\mathbb F_q\). These characters can effectively be computed (in contrast to the set of irreducible characters of \(U_n(q)\), which is known to be a wild problem), they can be parametrized in a combinatorial way (like the irreducible characters of the symmetric groups), and which proved to be useful in practice. Note that the two authors used different constructions, but get the same set of characters. The ideas of Yan were generalized by \textit{P. Diaconis} and \textit{I. M. Isaacs} [Trans. Am. Math. Soc. 360, No. 5, 2359-2392 (2008; Zbl 1137.20008)], who extended the supercharacter theory of \(U_n(q)\) for every finite algebra group, i.e. a group of the form \(G=1+J\), where \(J\) is a finite nilpotent algebra over a finite field. The paper under review provides a supercharacter theory for special subgroups of \(U_n(q)\) defined by some involutive antiisomorphisms of \(U_n(q)\). The author of the paper uses a method similar to that of Diaconis and Isaacs. In that way, he is able to construct a supercharacter theory for the maximal unipotent subgroups of the finite symplectic, orthogonal and unitary groups over a field of odd characteristic, and for many of their subgroups. Note that for the symplectic and orthogonal case, the resulting theory agrees with that of \textit{C. A. M. André} and \textit{A. M. Neto} [J. Algebra 305, No. 1, 394-429 (2006; Zbl 1104.20041); Pac. J. Math. 239, No. 2, 201-230 (2009; Zbl 1172.20006); J. Algebra 322, No. 4, 1273-1294 (2009; Zbl 1176.20006)].