A conjecture about characters of finite pattern groups (Q6146421)

Let \(U_{n}(q)\) denote the set of \(n\times n\) unitriangular matrices over \(\mathbb{F}_{q}\). From a result by \textit{I. M. Isaacs} [J. Algebra 177, No. 3, 708--730 (1995; Zbl 0839.20010)], it follows that \(U_{n}(q)\) is a \(q\)-power degree group (that is every irreducible representation of \(U_{n}(q)\) is of degree a power of \(q\)). Let \(N_{n,e}(q)\) be the number of irreducible representations of \(U_{n}(q)\) with degree \(q^{e}\). In [loc. cit.], Isaacs conjectured that \(N_{n,e}(q)\) is a polynomial in \(q-1\) with non-negative integer coefficients, for all \(e \in \mathbb{Z}\). Isaacs' conjecture generalizes two previous conjectures due to \textit{G. Higman} [Proc. Lond. Math. Soc., III. Ser. 10, 24--30 (1960; Zbl 0093.02603)] and \textit{G. I. Lehrer} [Compos. Math. 28, 9--19 (1974; Zbl 0306.20007)]. In the paper under review, the author, inspired by the orbital methods by \textit{A. A. Kirillov} [Bull. Am. Math. Soc., New Ser. 36, No. 4, 433--488 (1999; Zbl 0940.22013)], provides an explicit construction of characters for some finite pattern groups via coadjoint orbits. In particular, he classifies irreducible characters for \(G_{n}(\mathbb{F}_{q})\), a generalization of the Heisenberg group. As a consequence, he proves that the analogous conjectures of Higman, Lehrer and Isaacs holds for \(G_{n}(\mathbb{F}_{q})\).