Exotic symmetric space over a finite field. I (Q367140)

In the 1970's, Springer established a parametrization of the irreducible representations of the Weyl group in terms of unipotent conjugacy classes in reductive groups over an algebraically closed field. Since then, the Springer correspondence has been generalized in a number of ways. For instance, Lusztig's generalization of this correspondence depended on the construction of certain intersection cohomology complexes and led to the development of a theory of character sheaves. \noindent Let \(k\) be an algebraic closure of a finite field of odd characteristic. Let \(V\) be a \(k\)-vector space of dimension \(2n\). Let \(H\) be the symplectic group \(G^{\theta} \cong\mathrm{Sp}_{2n}\) where \(\theta\) is an involutive automorphism on \(G = \mathrm{GL}(V)\). If \(G_{\mathrm{uni}}^{-} := \{g \in G : g~ \text{unipotent},~ \theta(g)=g^{-1} \},\) then \(G_{\mathrm{uni}}^{-} \times V\) is known as Kato's exotic nilpotent cone. Kato showed that \(H\) acts on the exotic nilpotent cone with finitely many orbits and, the orbits are parametrized by the set \(P_n\) of double partitions of \(n\). The Springer correspondence between the irreducible representations of the Weyl group of type \(C_n\) and the \(H\)-orbits of the exotic nilpotent cone was established by Kato using Ginzburg's theory of affine Hecke algebras. \noindent In this paper, the authors develop a theory of character sheaves for the exotic symmetric space \(G/H \times V\) and give an alternate proof of Kato's result. More precisely, the authors prove the following version of the correspondence. Let \(B\) be a \(\theta\)-stable Borel subgroup of \(G\) and \(U\), its unipotent radical. Let \(M_1, \dots, M_n\) be a flag in \(V\) whose \(H\)-stabilizer is \(B^{\theta}\). If \[ G_{\mathrm{uni}}^{-} := \{g \in G : g~ \text{unipotent},~ \theta(g)=g^{-1} \}, \] then consider the variety \[ \chi_{\mathrm{uni}} := \{(x,v,hB^{\theta}) \in G_{\mathrm{uni}}^{-} \times V \times H/B^{\theta} : h^{-1}xh \in U^{-}, h^{-1}(v) \in M_n \}. \] Write \(\pi\) for the projection of \(\chi_{\mathrm{uni}}\) on the first two factors \(G_{\mathrm{uni}}^{-} \times V\), the exotic nilpotent cone. For each double partition \(\lambda\) of \(n\), let \(V_{\lambda}\) denote the irreducible representation of the Weyl group and let \(O_{\lambda}\) denote the corresponding \(H\)-orbit in the exotic nilpotent cone \(\mathcal{N}\). The Weyl group acts on the semisimple perverse sheaf \(\pi_{!} \overline{\mathbb{Q}_l}[\mathcal{N}]\); the authors prove the decomposition: \[ \pi_{!} \overline{\mathbb{Q}_l}[\mathcal{N}] \cong \oplus_{\lambda \in P_n} V(\lambda) \otimes IC(\bar{O_{\lambda}},\bar{\mathbb{Q}_l})[\dim O_{\lambda}]. \]