Counting conjugacy classes in the unipotent radical of parabolic subgroups of GL_n(q).

DOI10.2140/PJM.2010.245.47MaRDI QIDQ848762zbMATH OpenOpenAlexFDO

Authors Simon M. Goodwin, Gerhard Röhrle

Publication date 23 February 2010

Published in Pacific Journal of Mathematics (Search for Journal in Brave)

Full work available at URL https://arxiv.org/abs/0901.0667

zbMATH Keywords

general linear groupsHigman conjecturenumbers of conjugacy classesparabolic subgroupsunipotent radicals

Mathematics Subject Classification ID

Arithmetic and combinatorial problems involving abstract finite groups (20D60) Conjugacy classes for groups (20E45) Linear algebraic groups over finite fields (20G40)

Abstract: Let $q$ be a power of a prime $p$. Let $P$ be a parabolic subgroup of the general linear group $G{L}_n(q)$ that is the stabilizer of a flag in $F{F}_q^n$ of length at most 5, and let $U=O_p(P)$. In this note we prove that, as a function of $q$, the number $k(U)$ of conjugacy classes of $U$ is a polynomial in $q$ with integer coefficients.

Review text

Let \(G=\mathrm{GL}_n(q)\) be the general linear group over the field \(\mathbb{F}_q\) with \(q\) elements, where \(q\) is a power of a prime \(p\). It has been conjectured by \textit{G. Higman} [Proc. Lond. Math. Soc., III. Ser. 10, 24-30 (1960; Zbl 0093.02603)] that the number of conjugacy classes of a Sylow \(p\)-subgroup of \(G\) is given by a polynomial in \(q\) with integer coefficients. In this note the authors consider a natural extension of this question: given a parabolic subgroup \(P\) of \(G\), let \(U=O_p(P)\) denote the largest normal \(p\)-subgroup of \(P\). Then is the number of conjugacy classes in \(U\) given by a polynomial in \(q\) with integer coefficients (Higman's original conjecture is the case where \(P\) is a Borel subgroup of \(G\))? The main result of the paper is an affirmative answer to this question when the parabolic subgroup \(P\) is the stabilizer of a flag in \(\mathbb{F}_q^n\) of length at most \(5\). The proof of this result relies on translating the problem into a representation theoretic setting, where conjugacy classes in \(U\) correspond to a class of modules for a certain algebra. Also essential is a result of \textit{L. Hille} and \textit{G. Röhrle} [Transform. Groups 4, No. 1, 35-52 (1999; Zbl 0924.20035)] about the action by conjugation of a parabolic subgroup \(\mathbf P\) of \(\mathrm{GL}_n(\overline\mathbb{F}_q)\) on its unipotent radical \(\mathbf U\), where \(\overline\mathbb{F}_q\) denotes the algebraic closure of \(\mathbb{F}_q\). This result says that the number of \(\mathbf P\)-classes in \(\mathbf U\) is finite precisely when \(\mathbf P\) is the stabilizer of a flag of length at most \(5\) in \(\overline\mathbb{F}_q^n\); moreover, in these cases, the parameterization of the classes is independent of \(q\). This is the reason for the restriction on the length of flags in the main result.

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Cited in

(10)

• A classification of parabolic subgroups of classical groups with a finite number of orbits on the unipotent radical
• Combinatorics related to Higman's conjecture. I: Parallelogramic digraphs and dispositions
• Characters of unipotent radicals of standard parabolic subgroups with 3 parts
• Parabolic conjugacy in general linear groups.
• Rational points on generalized flag varieties and unipotent conjugacy in finite groups of Lie type
• Counting conjugacy classes for unitriangular matrices.
• Calculating conjugacy classes in Sylow p-subgroups of finite Chevalley groups of rank six and seven.
• Conjugacy classes in maximal parabolic subgroups of general linear groups
• Characters of the Sylow \(p\)-subgroups of the Chevalley groups \(D_4(p^n)\).
• Counting conjugacy classes in symmetric spaces over \(\mathbb{F}_q\)

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