Forced gradings and the Humphreys-Verma conjecture

Let $G$ be a semisimple, simply connected algebraic group defined and split over a prime field ${\mathbb F}_p$ of positive characteristic. For a positive integer $r$, let $G_r$ be the $r$th Frobenius kernel of $G$. Let $Q$ be a projective indecomposable (rational) $G_r$-module. The well-known Humprheys-Verma conjecture (cf. \cite{Ballard}) asserts that the $G_r$-action on $Q$ lifts to an rational action of $G$ on $Q$. For $p\geq 2h-2$ (where $h$ is the Coxeter number of $G$), this conjecture was proved by Jantzen in 1980, improving on early work of Ballard. However, it remains open for general characteristics. In this paper, the authors establish several graded analogues of the Humphreys-Verma conjecture, valid for all $p$. The most general of our results, proved in full here, was announced (without proof) in an earlier paper. Another result relates the Humphreys-Verma conjecture to earlier work of Alperin, Collins, and Sibley on finite group representation theory. A key idea in all formulations involves the notion of a forced grading. The latter goes back, in particular, to the recent work of the authors, relating graded structures and $p$-filtrations. The authors anticipate that the Humphreys-Verma conjecture results here will lead to extensions to smaller characteristics of these earlier papers

Extensions, Levi subgroups and character formulas

This paper consists of three interconnected parts. Parts I,III study the relationship between the cohomology of a reductive group and that of a Levi subgroup. For example, we provide a necessary condition, arising from Kazhdan-Lusztig theory, for the natural map on Ext-groups of irreducible modules to be surjective. In cohomological degree 1, the map is always an isomorphism, under our hypothesis. These results were inspired by recent work of Hemmer obtained for general linear groups, and they both extend and improve upon his work when our condition is met. Part II obtains results on Lusztig character formulas for reductive groups, obtaining new necessary and sufficient conditions for such formulas to hold. In the special case of general linear groups, these conditions can be recast in a striking way completely in terms of explicit representation theoretic properties of the symmetric group (and the results improve upon the sufficient cohomological conditions established recently in the authors)