Characters of the norm-one units of local division algebras of prime degree (Q504323)

Let \(K\) be a local field of odd residual characteristic \(p\) with ring of integers \(\mathfrak{o}\), and \(D\) be a central division algebra over \(K\) of degree \(\ell\). In this paper, assuming that \(\ell\) is a prime number different from \(p\), the author studies the irreducible complex characters of the group \(\mathrm{SL}_1(D)\), the subgroup of elements of reduced norm \(1\) in \(D^\times\). Let \(\mathfrak O\) be the ring of integers in \(D\), and \(\mathfrak P\) be its maximal ideal. One defines the level of a character \(\varphi\) of \(\mathrm{SL}_1(D)\) to be the minimal integer \(m\in \mathbb {Z}_{\geq 0}\) such that \(\varphi\) is trivial on \(\mathrm{SL}_1(D)\cap (1+\mathfrak P^m)\). Based on the study of regular representations of \(\mathrm{GL}_d(\mathfrak{o})\), the author gives an explicit construction of all irreducible complex characters of \(\mathrm{SL}_1(D)\). In particular, for any \(m\in \mathbb {Z}_{\geq 0}\), the author computes the degree of the level-\(m\) irreducible characters of \(\mathrm{SL}_1(D)\), and determines the number of distinct such characters. As a direct application, the author gives an explicit formula for the representation zeta function of \(\mathrm{SL}_1(D)\), that is, \[ \begin{aligned} &\quad\;\;\zeta_{\mathrm{SL}_1(D)}(s)=\sum_{\chi\in \mathrm{Irr}(\mathrm{SL}_1(D))} \chi(1)^{-s}\\ &=\frac{\frac{q^\ell-1}{q-1}(1-q^{-\begin{pmatrix} \ell \\ 2 \end{pmatrix}}s)+\left(\frac{q^\ell-1}{\mathrm{gcd}(q-1,\ell)\cdot(q-1)}\right)^{-s}\cdot \mathrm{gcd}(q-1,\ell)^2\cdot (q-1)\cdot\left(\sum_{\lambda=0}^{\ell-2} q^{\lambda(1-\frac{\ell-1}{2}\cdot s)}\right)} {1-q^{(\ell-1)-\begin{pmatrix} \ell \\ 2 \end{pmatrix}}s},\end{aligned} \] here \(s\in \mathbb C\). This formula generalizes previous works in the case of \(\ell=2\) and \(3\).