Representation growth in positive characteristic and conjugacy classes of maximal subgroups. (Q662419)

Let \(\mathbb F\) be an algebraically closed field of characteristic \(p>0\). The main results of the paper are the following. (i) If \(\mathcal G\) is a simple algebraic group over \(\mathbb F\), and \(R_n(\mathcal G)\) is the number of restricted irreducible representations of \(\mathbb F\mathcal G\) of degree \(\leq n\), then \(R_n(\mathcal G)\leq n\) if \(p=2\), \(R_n(\mathcal G)\leq n^{3.8}\) if \(p>2\) and \(\mathcal G\) is of type \(A_r\), and \(R_n(\mathcal G)\leq n^{2.5}\) otherwise. (ii) If \(G\) is a covering group for a symmetric or alternating group of degree \(r\) (where \(r\geq 5\)), then the number of irreducible representations of \(\mathbb FG\) of degree \(\leq n\) is bounded by \(n^{2.5}\). A number of interesting corollaries follow from these results. Let \(m(G)\) denote the number of conjugacy classes of maximal subgroups in \(G\). Then, for some absolute constants \(a\) and \(d\), if \(G\) is a finite almost simple group whose socle is a finite simple group of Lie type and rank \(r\) over a field of \(q\) elements, we have \(m(G)<ar^6+dr\log\log q\) (the authors conjecture that \(m(G)<dr(1+\log\log q)\) for a suitable constant \(d\)). For any finite almost simple group \(G\) we have \(m(G)=O((\log|G|)^3)=O((\log k(G))^6)\) where \(k(G)\) is the number of conjugacy classes of elements of \(G\) (it is conjectured by \textit{M. Aschbacher} and \textit{R. Guralnick}, [J. Algebra 77, 189-201 (1982; Zbl 0485.20012)] that \(m(G)<k(G)\) for all finite groups). If \(\mathcal G\) is a simple algebraic group of rank \(r\) over \(\mathbb F\), then the number of conjugacy classes of maximal closed subgroups of \(\mathcal G\) is \(O(r^5)\).