Character sheaves on symmetric spaces

Inspired by the work of Lusztig, we apply the theory of character sheaves on a symmetric space (h la Ginzburg and Grojnowski) to the problem of determining the spherical functions (averages of the irreducible characters) of the associated symmetric space over a finite field. A crucial result about the filtration of character sheaves by cells enables us to compute the spherical functions explicitly in the cases GLn((Fq2)/GLn(]Fq) and GL2n(1Fq)/Sp2n((Fq), as well as other closely related examples. We include partial results about the symmetric space GLn/(GLm x GLn-m), to illustrate some of the obstacles to further generalization.

Department dc:contributor.department

Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Dept. of Mathematics.

Grantor dc:publisher

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Year dc:date.issued

2001

Author dc:creator

• Henderson, Anthony, 1976-

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• George Lusztig.

• Mathematics.

Statement dc:rights

• M.I.T. theses are protected by copyright. They may be viewed from this source for any purpose, but reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without written permission. See provided URL for inquiries about permission.

Licence dc:rights.uri

• http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/7582

Language dc:language.iso

eng

Handle dc:identifier.uri

http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/8638

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:dspace.mit.edu:1721.1/8638