The Character of the Weil Representation

Let V be a symplectic vector space over a finite or local field. We compute the character of the Weil representation of the metaplectic group Mp(V). The final formulas are overtly free of choices (e.g. they do not involve the usual choice of a Lagrangian subspace of V). Along the way, in results similar to those of K. Maktouf, we relate the character to the Weil index of a certain quadratic form, which may be understood as a Maslov index. This relation also expresses the character as the pullback of a certain simple function from Mp(V\oplus V).Comment: 19 pages, accepted to appear in the Journal of the LMS. This final arXiv version is pre-proo

Representation and character theory in 2-categories

We define the character of a group representation in a 2-category C. For linear C, this notion yields a Hopkins-Kuhn-Ravenel type character theory defined on pairs of commuting elements of the group. We discuss some examples and prove a formula for the character of the induced representation.Comment: 34 pages, revised version, to appear in Advances in Mathematic

An explicit conductor formula for GLn×GL1{\rm GL}_n \times {\rm GL}_1

We prove an explicit formula for the conductor of an irreducible, admissible representation of ${\rm GL}_n(F)$ twisted by a character of $F^{\times}$ where the field $F$ is local and non-archimedean. As a consequence, we quantify the number of character twists of such a representation of fixed conductor