Heisenberg characters, unitriangular groups, and Fibonacci numbers

Let \UT_n(\FF_q) denote the group of unipotent $n\times n$ upper triangular matrices over a finite field with $q$ elements. We show that the Heisenberg characters of \UT_{n+1}(\FF_q) are indexed by lattice paths from the origin to the line $x+y=n$ using the steps $(1,0), (1,1), (0,1), (1,1)$, which are labeled in a certain way by nonzero elements of \FF_q. In particular, we prove for $n\geq 1$ that the number of Heisenberg characters of \UT_{n+1}(\FF_q) is a polynomial in $q-1$ with nonnegative integer coefficients and degree $n$, whose leading coefficient is the $n$th Fibonacci number. Similarly, we find that the number of Heisenberg supercharacters of \UT_n(\FF_q) is a polynomial in $q-1$ whose coefficients are Delannoy numbers and whose values give a $q$-analogue for the Pell numbers. By counting the fixed points of the action of a certain group of linear characters, we prove that the numbers of supercharacters, irreducible supercharacters, Heisenberg supercharacters, and Heisenberg characters of the subgroup of \UT_n(\FF_q) consisting of matrices whose superdiagonal entries sum to zero are likewise all polynomials in $q-1$ with nonnegative integer coefficients.Comment: 25 pages; v2: material significantly revised and condensed; v3: minor corrections, final versio

Supercharacters, symmetric functions in noncommuting variables, and related Hopf algebras

We identify two seemingly disparate structures: supercharacters, a useful way of doing Fourier analysis on the group of unipotent uppertriangular matrices with coefficients in a finite field, and the ring of symmetric functions in noncommuting variables. Each is a Hopf algebra and the two are isomorphic as such. This allows developments in each to be transferred. The identification suggests a rich class of examples for the emerging field of combinatorial Hopf algebras. (C) 2012 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved

The combinatorics of normal subgroups in the unipotent upper triangular group

Describing the conjugacy classes of the unipotent upper triangular groups $\mathrm{UT}_{n}(\mathbb{F}_{q})$ uniformly (for all or many values of $n$ and $q$) is a near impossible task. This paper takes on the related problem of describing the normal subgroups of $\mathrm{UT}_{n}(\mathbb{F}_{q})$. For $q$ a prime, a bijection will be established between these subgroups and pairs of combinatorial objects with labels from $\mathbb{F}_{q}^{\times}$. Each pair comprises a loopless binary matroid and a tight splice, an apparently new kind of combinatorial object which interpolates between nonnesting partitions and shortened polyominoes. For arbitrary $q$, the same approach describes a natural subset of normal subgroups: those which correspond to the ideals of the Lie algebra $\mathfrak{ut}_{n}(\mathbb{F}_{q})$ under an approximation of the exponential map.Comment: 31 pages, 1 figur

On the characters of the Sylow p-subgroups of untwisted Chevalley groups Y_n(p^a)

Let $UY_n(q)$ be a Sylow p-subgroup of an untwisted Chevalley group $Y_n(q)$ of rank n defined over $\mathbb{F}_q$ where q is a power of a prime p. We partition the set $Irr(UY_n(q))$ of irreducible characters of $UY_n(q)$ into families indexed by antichains of positive roots of the root system of type $Y_n$. We focus our attention on the families of characters of $UY_n(q)$ which are indexed by antichains of length 1. Then for each positive root $\alpha$ we establish a one to one correspondence between the minimal degree members of the family indexed by $\alpha$ and the linear characters of a certain subquotient $\overline{T}_\alpha$ of $UY_n(q)$. For $Y_n = A_n$ our single root character construction recovers amongst other things the elementary supercharacters of these groups. Most importantly though this paper lays the groundwork for our classification of the elements of $Irr(UE_i(q))$, $6 \le i \le 8$ and $Irr(UF_4(q))$