A sharp upper bound for the size of Lusztig series (Q2657652)

Let \(\mathbf{G}\) be a simple algebraic group of rank \(n\) of adjoint type in defining characteristic \(p>0\), \(F\) be a Frobenius endomorphism, and \(G:=\mathbf{ G}^{F}\) a finite reductive group. Let \(G^{\ast }\) be the dual group of \(G\). Then, the irreducible characters of \(G\) can be partitioned into a union of subsets \(\mathcal{E}_{s}\) where \(s\) runs over a set of representatives of the geometric conjugacy classes of semisimple elements in \(G^{\ast }\); the subsets \(\mathcal{E}_{s}\) are called Lusztig series (see [\textit{F. Digne} and \textit{J. Michel}, Representations of finite groups of Lie type. Cambridge etc.: Cambridge University Press (1991; Zbl 0815.20014)]). It is known that \( \left\vert \mathcal{E}_{s}\right\vert \leq \left\vert W\right\vert \) where \(W \) is the Weyl group of \(\mathbf{G}\) (see [\textit{M. W. Liebeck} and \textit{A. Shalev}, Proc. Lond. Math. Soc. (3) 90, No. 1, 61--86 (2005; Zbl 1077.20020); \textit{P. Spiga} and \textit{A. Zalesski}, Contemp. Math. 611, 169--187 (2014; Zbl 1295.20010)]). In the present paper, this bound is tightened to show that for all \(s\) we have \(\left\vert \mathcal{E}_{s}\right\vert \leq c\cdot 5^{n/4}\) for some constant \(c\) where \(c<1.5\) (type \(A_{n}\)); \(15\) (type \( B_{n}\) with \(p\) even); \(6\) (type \(D_{n}\) with \(p\) even); \(95\) (type \(B_{n}\) with \(p\) odd); \(209\) (type \(C_{n}\) with \(p\) odd); and \(44\) (type \(D_{n}\) with \(p\) odd) where the bounds for \(c\) are best possible. Moreover, \( \left\vert \mathcal{E}_{s}\right\vert \leq 5^{n/4}\) if \(G=\mathrm{GL}_{n}(q)\) or \( U_{n}(q)\), and various other bounds are given for particular cases.