text:
# Conjugacy class properties of the extension of 𝐺𝐿(𝑛,𝑞) generated by the inverse transpose involution

## 1. Introduction

Let $`F`$ be a field and $`G=GL(n,F)=GL(V)`$. Let $`g^{}`$ denote the transpose of $`g`$ and let $`g^\tau =(g^{})^1`$. Let $`G^+=G,\tau `$ (so $`\tau `$ is an involution with $`\tau g\tau =g^\tau `$). In the case of a finite field $`F_q`$ of size $`q`$, we will write $`GL(n,q)`$ or $`G^+(n,q)`$.

The problem of counting the number of solutions to $`gg^\tau =h`$ where $`gGL(n,q)`$ and $`h`$ is a fixed element of $`GL(n,q)`$ has been addressed in several papers. It was proved by Gow \[Go1\] in odd characteristic and later by Howlett and Zworestine \[HZ\] in general that the number of solutions to this equation is equal to

$$\underset{\chi Irr(GL(n,q))}{}\chi (h),$$

where the sum is over all irreducible characters of $`GL(n,q)`$. For the special case when $`h`$ is the identity, it was proved by Gow \[Go1\] in odd characteristic and later by Macdonald \[M\] (pages 289-290) in general that this sum is equal to

$$(q1)q^2(q^31)q^4(q^51)\mathrm{}$$

with $`n`$ factors altogether.

One of the main results of this paper is a generalization of the formula of Gow and Macdonald to arbitrary elements $`h`$ in $`GL(n,q)`$. This question is of intrinsic interest since studying the conjugacy class statistics of $`gg^\tau `$ with $`g`$ random in $`GL(n,q)`$ is a natural cousin of studying conjugacy statistics of random elements in finite classical groups. The study of conjugacy classes of random elements in finite classical groups is a fascinating subject (see the survey \[F1\]) and was crucial to our recent proof (see the series of papers beginning with \[FG1\] and cited there) of a conjecture of Shalev stating that a finite simple group acting nontrivially on a finite set has at least a proportion of $`\delta `$ derangements (i.e. fixed point free elements) where $`\delta >0`$ is a universal constant (see also the paper \[B\] of Boston et al asking a similar question). The validity of Shalev’s conjecture has applications to maps between varieties over finite fields and to random generation of groups. It led us to investigate the proportion of derangements in almost simple groups (that is groups $`H`$ with $`GHAut(G)`$ where $`G`$ is simple) and more particularly to the proportion of derangements in a given coset of the simple group. One very special case of this set-up is when $`H`$ is $`G^+(n,q)`$ (or more precisely the quotient of $`G^+`$ modulo scalars). Then certainly if $`g\tau `$ is not a derangement in the action of $`G^+(n,q)`$ on a finite set $`X`$, then neither is $`(g\tau )^2=gg^\tau `$ (and if $`gg^\tau `$ has an odd number of fixed points, then $`g\tau `$ has a fixed point). Hence understanding the behavior of $`gg^\tau `$ is important for the derangement problem. Another reason our enumeration is useful for the derangement problem is that in Section 6 we obtain as a corollary a lower bound for the centralizer sizes of elements of $`G^+(n,q)`$. The sequel \[FG2\] applies results in this article to the analog of Shalev’s conjecture for almost simple groups, classifying (in a precise and quantitative way) how and when it fails. However here (Section 10) we at least give a few examples of how the tools in this paper can be used to study derangements, including examples where the proportion of derangements goes to $`0`$ as $`q\mathrm{}`$.

In fact both for intrinsic interest and for applications to the derangement problem, it is useful to understand the asymptotics of conjugacy classes of $`gg^\tau `$ where $`g`$ is random in $`GL(n,q)`$. By this we mean the following. Recall \[He\] that the conjugacy classes of $`GL(n,q)`$ are parameterized by rational canonical form (i.e. an analog of Jordan form over finite fields): that is to each monic irreducible polynomial $`\varphi `$ with coefficients in $`F_q`$, there is a association a partition $`\lambda _\varphi `$ of size at most $`n`$ and conjugacy classes of $`GL(n,q)`$ corresponding to collections of partitions $`\{\lambda _\varphi \}`$ satisfying the conditions that $`|\lambda _z|=0`$ and $`_\varphi deg(\varphi )|\lambda _\varphi |=n`$. Here $`|\lambda |`$ denotes the size of a partition and $`deg`$ denotes the degree of the polynomial $`\varphi `$. We show that for any fixed finite collection of polynomials $`S`$, keeping $`q`$ fixed and letting $`n\mathrm{}`$, the partitions $`\lambda _\varphi (gg^\tau )`$ for $`g`$ random in $`GL(n,q)`$ are asymptotically independent for different polynomials in $`S`$, and we calculate their limit distributions. We find (quite remarkably) that these limit distributions are essentially those defined and studied in \[F2\] for the finite symplectic and orthogonal groups; this is one sense in which $`gg^\tau `$ behaves like a hybrid of symplectic and orthogonal groups. We also show that $`gg^\tau `$ with $`g`$ random in $`GL(n,q)`$ has a cycle-index generating function. Both of these facts are crucial for asymptotic analysis.

There are several ingredients in our method for evaluating the sum

$$\underset{\chi Irr(GL(n,q))}{}\chi (h).$$

First, we use work of Klyachko \[Kl\] (see also \[IS\]) on models of irreducible characters of $`GL(n,q)`$; that is a set of (not necessarily irreducible) representations $`\mathrm{\Theta }_1,\mathrm{},\mathrm{\Theta }_r`$ of $`GL(n,q)`$ such that $`\mathrm{\Theta }_1+\mathrm{}+\mathrm{\Theta }_r`$ is equivalent to the sum of all irreducible representations of $`GL(n,q)`$, each occurring exactly once. The difficult step in computing this sum in fact lies with unipotent elements. We solve this problem by translating it into the language of Hall-Littlewood polynomials $`P_\lambda (x;t)`$, and then establishing some new identities about these polynomials. For example we prove that

$$\underset{\lambda }{}\frac{c_\lambda (t)P_\lambda (x;t)}{t^{o(\lambda )/2+|\lambda |/2}}=\underset{i1}{}\frac{1+x_i/t}{1+x_i}\underset{ij}{}\frac{1x_ix_j}{1x_ix_j/t},$$

where the sum is over all partitions of all natural numbers in which the even parts occur with even multiplicity and all other notation is defined in Section 2. We also give a simple combinatorial proof of Kawanaka’s identity \[Ka\]

$$\underset{\lambda }{}\frac{c_\lambda (t)t^{o(\lambda )/2}P_\lambda (x;t)}{t^{|\lambda |/2}}=\underset{ij}{}\frac{1x_ix_j}{1x_ix_j/t},$$

where the sum is over all partitions of all natural numbers in which the odd parts occur with even multiplicity. (Kawanaka’s argument used Green’s functions and work of Lusztig on symmetric spaces).

For the special case of unipotent elements $`h`$, there is another way (using representation theory of $`GL(n,q)`$ but nothing about models of irreducible representations) to compute the number of $`g`$ such that $`gg^\tau =h`$. This is a generalization of Macdonald’s approach \[M\]. Our enumeration then follows from the new identity mentioned in the previous paragraph. One nice aspect of this approach is that it implies that when $`h`$ is unipotent, the formula for the number of $`g`$ such that $`gg^\tau =h`$ is independent of whether the characteristic is even or odd (we in fact use this observation in the argument of the previous paragraph).

Section 5 studies a character sum

$$\underset{\genfrac{}{}{0pt}{}{\chi Irr(GL(2n,q))}{\chi even}}{}\chi (h)$$

where the sum is over a subset of all irreducible characters of $`GL(n,q)`$, defined more precisely in Section 5. It follows from \[IS\] or \[BKS\] that this sum of irreducible characters is equal to the character obtained by inducing the trivial character of $`Sp(2n,q)`$ to $`GL(2n,q)`$. This induced character essentially tells us the proportion of elements of $`Sp(2n,q)`$ with a given rational canonical form (as an element of $`GL(2n,q)`$). Formulas for this proportion also follow from work of Wall \[Wal\] on sizes of conjugacy classes in symplectic groups (see \[Ka\] or \[F2\] for a discussion of odd characteristic). However it is not obvious from Wall’s treatment that when $`h`$ is unipotent, this proportion has the same form (as a function of $`q`$) in odd and even characteristic. A main result of Section 5 is a proof of this fact.

The second part of this paper shifts to the viewpoint of linear algebra. Using bilinear forms, we give another approach to enumerating $`g`$ so that $`gg^\tau `$ is equal to a given $`h`$. While this approach is not easy to work with in all cases (for instance if $`h`$ is unipotent), it is more conceptual and (as with the combinatorial approach) leads in all cases to lower bounds on centralizer sizes of elements of $`G^+(n,q)`$ in the coset $`GL(n,q)\tau `$. It is also quite convenient for treating a variation for $`SL`$. We give explicit and useful (\[FG2\]) upper bounds on the number of conjugacy classes in $`G^+(n,q)`$ and also for the split extension of $`SL(n,q)`$ generated by $`\tau `$.

The precise organization of this paper is as follows. Section 2 gives background on Hall-Littlewood polynomials and proves a number of identities about them. We obtain a new identity and also give an entirely combinatorial proof of an identity of Kawanaka on symmetric functions, avoiding work of Lusztig and Green’s functions. Section 3 generalizes Macdonald’s approach to enumerating $`g`$ such that $`gg^\tau =h`$ in the case that $`h`$ is unipotent; for this purpose the identities of Section 2 are crucial. Section 4 enumerates for arbitrary $`h`$, the number of $`g`$ satisfying $`gg^\tau =h`$. It does this by using models of irreducible representations of $`GL(n,q)`$, converting the problem to one about Hall-Littlewood polynomials and using results from Section 2. We emphasize that Section 4 is independent of Section 3 in odd characteristic, and that the only fact used from Section 3 is that the enumeration for $`h`$ unipotent is independent (as a function of $`q`$) of whether the characteristic is even or odd. Section 5 applies the same circle of ideas to the study of unipotent conjugacy classes in finite symplectic groups. Section 6 focuses on another corollary (very useful for the derangement problem), namely a lower bound on the centralizer size of an element of $`G^+(n,q)`$. Section 7 shows that the enumeration of Section 4 works well with both cycle index generating functions and asymptotics, and gives connections with the theory of random partitions. Section 8 consider the enumeration of $`g`$ such that $`gg^\tau =h`$ and its corollaries from the viewpoint of bilinear forms. This gives an alternative proof of the enumeration for some $`h`$ and gives a different approach to lower bounds on centralizer sizes in Section 6. Section 9 provides an explicit upper bound on the number of $`G^+(n,q)`$ conjugacy classes in the coset $`GL(n,q)\tau `$ and also for the number of $`SL(n,q)`$ classes. Section 10 gives a few examples of how tools in this paper can be used to study derangements in actions of $`G^+(n,q)`$.

## 2. Identities for Hall-Littlewood Polynomials

To begin we collect some notation about partitions, much of it standard \[M\]. Let $`\lambda `$ be a partition of some nonnegative integer $`|\lambda |`$ into parts $`\lambda _1\lambda _2\mathrm{}`$. The symbol $`m_i(\lambda )`$ will denote the number of parts of $`\lambda `$ of size $`i`$, and $`\lambda ^{}`$ is the partition dual to $`\lambda `$ in the sense that $`\lambda _i^{}=m_i+m_{i+1}+\mathrm{}`$. Let $`n(\lambda )=_i\left(\genfrac{}{}{0pt}{}{\lambda _i^{}}{2}\right)`$. Let $`l(\lambda )`$ denote the number of parts of $`\lambda `$ and $`o(\lambda )`$ the number of odd parts of $`\lambda `$.

It is often helpful to view partitions diagrammatically. The diagram associated to $`\lambda `$ is the set of ordered pairs $`(i,j)`$ of integers such that $`1j\lambda _i`$. We use the convention that the row index $`i`$ increases as one goes downward and the column index $`j`$ increases as one goes across. So the diagram of the partition $`(5,4,4,1)`$ is

$$\begin{array}{ccccc}& & & & \\ & & & & \\ & & & & \\ & & & & \end{array}$$

If a partition $`\lambda `$ contains a partition $`\mu `$, then $`\lambda \mu `$ denotes the boxes in $`\lambda `$ which are not in $`\mu `$. One calls $`\lambda \mu `$ a vertical strip if all of its boxes are in different rows.

Let $`s`$ denote some box in the diagram of the partition of $`\lambda `$. Then $`a_\lambda (s)`$ (the arm of $`s`$) will denote the number of boxes in the diagram of $`\lambda `$ in the same row as $`s`$ and to the east of $`s`$. Similarly $`l_\lambda (s)`$ (the leg of $`s`$) will denote the number of boxes in the diagram of $`\lambda `$ in the same column of $`s`$ and to the south of $`s`$. When the partition $`\lambda `$ is clear from context we sometimes omit the $`\lambda `$. Then one defines

$$c_\lambda (t)=\underset{s\lambda :a(s)=0,l(s)even}{}(1t^{l(s)+1})$$

where the product is over boxes $`s`$ in $`\lambda `$ with $`a(s)=0`$ and $`l(s)`$ even.

This paper shall use the Hall-Littlewood polynomials $`P_\lambda (x_1,x_2,\mathrm{};t)`$. We often abbreviate this as $`P_\lambda (x;t)`$. They interpolate between Schur functions ($`t=0`$) and monomial symmetric functions ($`t=1`$). These are discussed thoroughly in Chapter 3 of \[M\]. For the convenience of the reader we recall the definition of these polynomials and several properties of them which will be needed. Let $`\lambda `$ be a partition with $`n`$ parts (some of which may equal 0). Letting $`v_\lambda (t)=_{i0}_{j=1}^{m_i(\lambda )}\frac{1t^j}{1t}`$, define

$$P_\lambda (x_1,\mathrm{},x_n;t)=\frac{1}{v_\lambda (t)}\underset{wS_n}{}w\left(x_1^{\lambda _1}\mathrm{}x_n^{\lambda _n}\underset{i<j}{}\frac{x_itx_j}{x_ix_j}\right).$$

The Hall-Littlewood polynomial is what one obtains by letting the number of variables go to infinity. We also recall that any symmetric function has an expansion in terms of the Hall-Littlewood polynomials.

We shall also need the notion of a Hall polynomial. The Hall polynomial $`g_{\mu ,\nu }^\lambda (p)`$ is the number of subgroups $`H`$ of an abelian p-group $`G`$ of type $`\lambda `$ such that $`H`$ has type $`\mu `$ and $`G/H`$ has type $`\nu `$. This is a polynomial in $`p`$ when $`\lambda ,\mu ,\nu `$ are fixed. For further discussion, see Chapter 2 of \[M\]. The elementary symmetric function $`e_r(x)=_{i_1<\mathrm{}<i_r}x_{i_1}\mathrm{}x_{i_r}`$ will be used. The notation $`\left[\genfrac{}{}{0pt}{}{n}{m}\right]`$ denotes the $`q`$-binomial coefficient $`\frac{(q^n1)\mathrm{}(q1)}{(q^m1)\mathrm{}(q1)(q^{nm}1)\mathrm{}(q1)}`$.

The following facts about Hall-Littlewood polynomials are needed. We emphasize that the proofs of these lemmas are entirely combinatorial.

###### Lemma 2.1.

(\[M\], Section 3.3)

$$t^{n(\mu )}P_\mu (x;t)t^{n(\nu )}P_\nu (x;t)=\underset{\lambda }{}g_{\mu ,\nu }^\lambda (1/t)t^{n(\lambda )}P_\lambda (x;t)$$

where the sum is over all partitions $`\lambda `$.

###### Lemma 2.2.

(\[M\], page 219)

$$\underset{\lambda }{}t^{n(\lambda )}\underset{j=1}{\overset{l(\lambda )}{}}(1+t^{1j}y)P_\lambda (x;t)=\underset{j1}{}\frac{1+x_jy}{1x_j}$$

where the sum is over all partitions $`\lambda `$.

###### Lemma 2.3.

(\[M\], page 231)

$$\underset{\mu }{}P_\mu (x;t)=\underset{i}{}\frac{1}{1x_i^2}\underset{i<j}{}\frac{1tx_ix_j}{1x_ix_j}$$

where the sum is over partitions $`\mu `$ with all parts even.

We shall also employ the following Pieri type formula which says how to multiply a Hall-Littlewood polynomial by an elementary symmetric function.

###### Lemma 2.4.

(\[M\], page 341)

$`P_\mu (x;t)e_r(x)`$
$`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \underset{\lambda }{}}P_\lambda (x;t){\displaystyle \underset{j1}{}}{\displaystyle \frac{(t^{\lambda _j^{}\lambda _{j+1}^{}}1)\mathrm{}(t1)}{(t^{\lambda _j^{}\mu _j^{}}1)\mathrm{}(t1)(t^{\mu _j^{}\lambda _{j+1}^{}}1)\mathrm{}(t1)}}`$
where the sum is over $`\lambda `$ such that $`\lambda \mu `$ is a vertical strip of size $`r`$.

Next we need some $`q`$-series identities (Lemma 2.6 and 2.7). For this we recall a result of Euler.

###### Lemma 2.5.

(Euler, page 19 of \[A\])

$$1+\underset{j=1}{\overset{\mathrm{}}{}}\frac{u^j}{(11/q)\mathrm{}(11/q^j)}=\underset{j=0}{\overset{\mathrm{}}{}}\frac{1}{1u/q^j}.$$

###### Lemma 2.6.

Let $`(1/q)_a`$ denote $`(11/q)\mathrm{}(11/q^a)`$. Then the expression $`_{r=0}^n\frac{(1)^{nr}(1/q)_nq^r}{(1/q)_r(1/q)_{nr}}`$ is equal to

$$\{\begin{array}{cc}q^n(11/q)(11/q^3)\mathrm{}(11/q^{n1})\hfill & \text{if }n\text{ even}\hfill \\ q^n(11/q)(11/q^3)\mathrm{}(11/q^n)\hfill & \text{if }n\text{ odd}\hfill \end{array}$$

###### Proof.

We consider a generating function for a slightly modified sum.

$`{\displaystyle \underset{n=0}{\overset{\mathrm{}}{}}}u^n{\displaystyle \underset{r=0}{\overset{n}{}}}{\displaystyle \frac{(1)^{nr}q^r}{(1/q)_r(1/q)_{nr}}}`$
$`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \underset{r=0}{\overset{\mathrm{}}{}}}{\displaystyle \frac{(1)^rq^r}{(1/q)_r}}{\displaystyle \underset{n=r}{\overset{\mathrm{}}{}}}{\displaystyle \frac{(1)^nu^n}{(1/q)_{nr}}}`$
$`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \underset{r=0}{\overset{\mathrm{}}{}}}{\displaystyle \frac{(1)^rq^r}{(1/q)_r}}{\displaystyle \underset{n=0}{\overset{\mathrm{}}{}}}{\displaystyle \frac{(1)^{n+r}u^{n+r}}{(1/q)_n}}`$
$`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \underset{r=0}{\overset{\mathrm{}}{}}}{\displaystyle \frac{u^rq^r}{(1/q)_r}}{\displaystyle \underset{n=0}{\overset{\mathrm{}}{}}}{\displaystyle \frac{(1)^nu^n}{(1/q)_n}}`$
$`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \underset{j=0}{\overset{\mathrm{}}{}}}{\displaystyle \frac{1}{1uq/q^j}}{\displaystyle \underset{j=0}{\overset{\mathrm{}}{}}}{\displaystyle \frac{1}{1+u/q^j}}`$
$`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{1}{1uq}}{\displaystyle \underset{j=0}{\overset{\mathrm{}}{}}}{\displaystyle \frac{1}{1u^2/q^{2j}}}`$
$`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{1}{1uq}}\left({\displaystyle \underset{j0}{}}{\displaystyle \frac{u^{2j}}{(11/q^2)(11/q^4)\mathrm{}(11/q^{2j})}}\right).`$
The fourth and sixth equalities have used Lemma 2.5.

The coefficient of $`u^n`$ in this generating function is

$`q^n{\displaystyle \underset{s=0}{\overset{n/2}{}}}{\displaystyle \frac{1}{q^{2s}(11/q^2)\mathrm{}(11/q^{2s})}}`$
$`=`$ $`q^n{\displaystyle \frac{1}{(11/q^2)\mathrm{}(11/q^{2n/2})}}`$
where the equality is proved by induction. Note that this establishes the lemma since the generating function was for the sought sum divided by $`(1/q)_n`$. ∎

###### Lemma 2.7.

(\[A\], page 37) Let $`(1/q)_a`$ denote $`(11/q)\mathrm{}(11/q^a)`$. Then $`_{r=0}^n(1)^r\frac{(1/q)_n}{(1/q)_r(1/q)_{nr}}`$ is equal to

$$\{\begin{array}{cc}(11/q)(11/q^3)\mathrm{}(11/q^{n1})\hfill & \text{if }n\text{ even}\hfill \\ 0\hfill & \text{if }n\text{ odd}\hfill \end{array}$$

Now we establish an identity for Hall-Littlewood polynomials which is at the heart of this paper.

###### Theorem 2.8.

$$\underset{\lambda }{}\frac{c_\lambda (t)P_\lambda (x;t)}{t^{o(\lambda )/2+|\lambda |/2}}=\underset{i1}{}\frac{1+x_i/t}{1+x_i}\underset{ij}{}\frac{1x_ix_j}{1x_ix_j/t}$$

where the sum is over partitions $`\lambda `$ in which all $`\mathrm{𝑒𝑣𝑒𝑛}`$ parts occur with $`\mathrm{𝑒𝑣𝑒𝑛}`$ multiplicity.

###### Proof.

Throughout we replace $`t`$ by $`1/q`$. Write the right-hand side as

$$\underset{i}{}(1+x_iq)(1x_i)\underset{i}{}\frac{1}{1qx_i^2}\underset{i<j}{}\frac{1x_ix_j}{1qx_ix_j}.$$

By Lemma 2.3, this is

$$\underset{i}{}(1+x_iq)(1x_i)\underset{\mu }{}q^{|\mu |/2}P_\mu (x;1/q)$$

where the sum is over $`\mu `$ with all parts even.

Next let us consider the coefficient of $`P_\tau (x;1/q)`$ in

$$\underset{i}{}(1x_i)\underset{\mu }{}q^{|\mu |/2}P_\mu (x;1/q)$$

where the sum is over $`\mu `$ with all parts even. Note that $`_i(1x_i)=_{r0}(1)^re_r(x)`$ where the $`e_r(x)`$ are the elementary symmetric functions. The Pieri-type rule (Lemma 2.4) says that the effect of multiplying by $`e_r`$ is to add a size $`r`$ vertical strip with weights depending on the vertical strip. Observe that from $`\tau `$ there is a unique way of removing a vertical strip so as to get a partition with all parts even-one simply reduces the odd parts by 1. Hence the coefficient of $`P_\tau (x;1/q)`$ in

$$\underset{i}{}(1x_i)\underset{\mu }{}q^{|\mu |/2}P_\mu (x;1/q)$$

(where the sum is over $`\mu `$ with all parts even) is equal to $`(1)^{o(\tau )}q^{\frac{|\tau |o(\tau )}{2}}`$.

Thus we need to find the coefficient of $`P_\lambda (x;1/q)`$ in

$$\underset{i}{}(1+x_iq)\underset{\tau }{}(1)^{o(\tau )}q^{\frac{|\tau |o(\tau )}{2}}P_\tau (x;1/q)$$

where the sum is over all partitions $`\tau `$. Since $`_i(1+x_iq)=_{r0}q^re_r(x)`$, we can again use the Pieri-type rule (Lemma 2.4). Here however there are many possible ways of removing vertical strips from $`\lambda `$ since there are no restrictions on $`\tau `$. In fact using the notation that $`(1/q)_a=(11/q)\mathrm{}(11/q^a)`$, one sees by Lemma 2.4 that the sought coefficient of $`P_\lambda `$ is precisely

$`{\displaystyle \underset{jodd}{}}{\displaystyle \underset{r=0}{\overset{m_j(\lambda )}{}}}q^r{\displaystyle \frac{(1/q)_{m_j(\lambda )}}{(1/q)_r(1/q)_{m_j(\lambda )r}}}(1)^{m_j(\lambda )r}q^{\frac{[jm_j(\lambda )r(m_j(\lambda )r)]}{2}}`$
$`{\displaystyle \underset{jeven}{}}{\displaystyle \underset{r=0}{\overset{m_j(\lambda )}{}}}q^r{\displaystyle \frac{(1/q)_{m_j(\lambda )}}{(1/q)_r(1/q)_{m_j(\lambda )r}}}(1)^rq^{\frac{[jm_j(\lambda )r(r)]}{2}}`$
$`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \underset{jodd}{}}q^{(j1)m_j(\lambda )/2}{\displaystyle \underset{r=0}{\overset{m_j(\lambda )}{}}}q^r{\displaystyle \frac{(1/q)_{m_j(\lambda )}}{(1/q)_r(1/q)_{m_j(\lambda )r}}}(1)^{m_j(\lambda )r}`$
$`{\displaystyle \underset{jeven}{}}q^{jm_j(\lambda )/2}{\displaystyle \underset{r=0}{\overset{m_j(\lambda )}{}}}{\displaystyle \frac{(1/q)_{m_j(\lambda )}}{(1/q)_r(1/q)_{m_j(\lambda )r}}}(1)^r.`$
By Lemma 2.7, this vanishes if some even part of $`\lambda `$ has odd multiplicity. Otherwise by Lemmas 2.6 and 2.7 is it equal to

$`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \underset{\genfrac{}{}{0pt}{}{jodd}{m_j(\lambda )even}}{}}q^{(j1)m_j(\lambda )/2}q^{m_j(\lambda )}(11/q)(11/q^3)\mathrm{}(11/q^{m_j(\lambda )1})`$
$`{\displaystyle \underset{\genfrac{}{}{0pt}{}{jodd}{m_j(\lambda )odd}}{}}q^{(j1)m_j(\lambda )/2}q^{m_j(\lambda )}(11/q)(11/q^3)\mathrm{}(11/q^{m_j(\lambda )})`$
$`{\displaystyle \underset{\genfrac{}{}{0pt}{}{jeven}{m_j(\lambda )even}}{}}q^{jm_j(\lambda )/2}(11/q)(11/q^3)\mathrm{}(11/q^{m_j(\lambda )1})`$
$`=`$ $`c_\lambda (1/q)q^{o(\lambda )/2+|\lambda |/2},`$
as desired. ∎

The following identity of Kawanaka (\[Ka\]) will also be needed. As his proof used Green’s functions and work of Lusztig on symmetric spaces, we give a combinatorial proof using the same method as the proof of Theorem 2.8. One lemma (essentially a reformulation of Lemma 2.6) will be used.

###### Lemma 2.9.

Let $`(1/q)_a`$ denote $`(11/q)\mathrm{}(11/q^a)`$. Then the expression $`_{r=0}^n\frac{(1)^r(1/q)_n}{q^r(1/q)_r(1/q)_{nr}}`$ is equal to

$$\{\begin{array}{cc}(11/q)(11/q^3)\mathrm{}(11/q^{n1})\hfill & \text{if }n\text{ even}\hfill \\ (11/q)(11/q^3)\mathrm{}(11/q^n)\hfill & \text{if }n\text{ odd}\hfill \end{array}$$

###### Proof.

Observe that

$`{\displaystyle \underset{r=0}{\overset{n}{}}}{\displaystyle \frac{(1)^r(1/q)_n}{q^r(1/q)_r(1/q)_{nr}}}`$
$`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{1}{q^n}}{\displaystyle \underset{r=0}{\overset{n}{}}}{\displaystyle \frac{(1)^rq^{nr}(1/q)_n}{(1/q)_r(1/q)_{nr}}}`$
$`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{1}{q^n}}{\displaystyle \underset{r=0}{\overset{n}{}}}{\displaystyle \frac{(1)^{nr}q^r(1/q)_n}{(1/q)_{nr}(1/q)_r}}.`$
Now apply Lemma 2.6. ∎

###### Theorem 2.10.

(\[Ka\])

$$\underset{\lambda }{}t^{\frac{o(\lambda )|\lambda |}{2}}c_\lambda (t)P_\lambda (x;t)=\underset{ij}{}\frac{1x_ix_j}{1x_ix_j/t}$$

where the sum is over all partitions where the odd parts occur with even multiplicity.

###### Proof.

Throughout we replace $`t`$ by $`1/q`$. Write the right-hand side as

$$\underset{i}{}(1+x_i)(1x_i)\underset{i}{}\frac{1}{1qx_i^2}\underset{i<j}{}\frac{1x_ix_j}{1qx_ix_j}.$$

¿From the proof of Theorem 2.8, one sees that this is equal to

$$\underset{i}{}(1+x_i)\underset{\tau }{}(1)^{o(\tau )}q^{\frac{|\tau |o(\tau )}{2}}P_\tau (x;1/q)$$

where the sum is over all partitions $`\tau `$. Since $`_i(1+x_i)=_{r0}e_r(x)`$, we can use the Pieri-type rule (Lemma 2.4). What emerges is that the coefficient of $`P_\lambda (x;t)`$ is equal to

$`{\displaystyle \underset{jodd}{}}{\displaystyle \underset{r=0}{\overset{m_j(\lambda )}{}}}{\displaystyle \frac{(1/q)_{m_j(\lambda )}}{(1/q)_r(1/q)_{m_j(\lambda )r}}}(1)^{m_j(\lambda )r}q^{\frac{[jm_j(\lambda )r(m_j(\lambda )r)]}{2}}`$
$`{\displaystyle \underset{jeven}{}}{\displaystyle \underset{r=0}{\overset{m_j(\lambda )}{}}}{\displaystyle \frac{(1/q)_{m_j(\lambda )}}{(1/q)_r(1/q)_{m_j(\lambda )r}}}(1)^rq^{\frac{[jm_j(\lambda )r(r)]}{2}}`$
$`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \underset{jodd}{}}q^{(j1)m_j(\lambda )/2}{\displaystyle \underset{r=0}{\overset{m_j(\lambda )}{}}}{\displaystyle \frac{(1/q)_{m_j(\lambda )}}{(1/q)_r(1/q)_{m_j(\lambda )r}}}(1)^{m_j(\lambda )r}`$
$`{\displaystyle \underset{jeven}{}}q^{jm_j(\lambda )/2}{\displaystyle \underset{r=0}{\overset{m_j(\lambda )}{}}}{\displaystyle \frac{(1/q)_{m_j(\lambda )}}{q^r(1/q)_r(1/q)_{m_j(\lambda )r}}}(1)^r.`$
By Lemma 2.7, this vanishes if some odd part of $`\lambda `$ has odd multiplicity. Otherwise by Lemmas 2.7 and 2.9 is it equal to

$`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \underset{\genfrac{}{}{0pt}{}{jeven}{m_j(\lambda )even}}{}}q^{jm_j(\lambda )/2}(11/q)(11/q^3)\mathrm{}(11/q^{m_j(\lambda )1})`$
$`{\displaystyle \underset{\genfrac{}{}{0pt}{}{jeven}{m_j(\lambda )odd}}{}}q^{jm_j(\lambda )/2}(11/q)(11/q^3)\mathrm{}(11/q^{m_j(\lambda )})`$
$`{\displaystyle \underset{\genfrac{}{}{0pt}{}{jodd}{m_j(\lambda )even}}{}}q^{(j1)m_j(\lambda )/2}(11/q)(11/q^3)\mathrm{}(11/q^{m_j(\lambda )1})`$
$`=`$ $`c_\lambda (1/q)q^{o(\lambda )/2+|\lambda |/2},`$
as desired. ∎

## 3. Enumeration of $`g`$ such that $`gg^\tau =h`$ for $`h`$ Unipotent

This section finds a formula for the number of $`g`$ such that $`gg^\tau =h`$ when $`h`$ is unipotent. This approach uses nothing about models of irreducible representations of $`GL(n,q)`$ and generalizes the approach used by Macdonald \[M\] for the case when $`h`$ is the identity. We also use one of our identities about Hall-Littlewood polynomials from Section 2. A different approach to the case of $`h`$ unipotent is given in Section 4 (though we do use the fact from this section that the answer has the same form for odd and even characteristic).

To proceed we require two lemmas.

###### Lemma 3.1.

Let $`N(q;d)`$ denote the number of monic degree $`d`$ irreducible polynomials with coefficients in $`F_q`$ and non-0 constant term. Then

$$\underset{d1}{}(1u^d)^{N(q;d)}=\frac{1u}{1uq}.$$

###### Proof.

Rewriting the sought equation as

$$\frac{1}{1u}\underset{d1}{}(1u^d)^{N(q;d)}=\frac{1}{1uq}$$

the result follows from unique factorization in the ring $`F_q[x]`$. Indeed the coefficient of $`u^n`$ on the right hand side is $`q^n`$, the total number of monic degree $`n`$ polynomials with coefficients in $`F_q`$. The left hand side says that each such polynomial factors uniquely into irreducible pieces. ∎

In Lemma 3.2 $`s_\lambda (x)`$ denotes the Schur function.

###### Lemma 3.2.

(\[M\], page 76)

$$\underset{\lambda }{}s_\lambda =\underset{i}{}\frac{1}{1x_i}\underset{i<j}{}\frac{1}{1x_ix_j}$$

where the sum is over all partitions $`\lambda `$.

Theorem 3.3 uses the fact that the representation theory of $`GL(n,q)`$ can be understood entirely in terms of symmetric function theory. A full account of this can be found in Chapter 4 of \[M\].

###### Theorem 3.3.

Let $`h`$ be a unipotent element in $`GL(n,q)`$ of type $`\mu `$ (thus its Jordan blocks have sizes equal to the part sizes of $`\mu `$). Then the proportion of $`g`$ in $`GL(n,q)`$ such that $`gg^\tau `$ is conjugate to $`h`$ is $`0`$ unless all even parts of $`\mu `$ have even multiplicity. If all even parts of $`\mu `$ have even multiplicity, then the proportion is

$$\frac{1}{q^{n(\mu )+\frac{n}{2}\frac{o(\mu )}{2}}_i(11/q^2)\mathrm{}(11/q^{2m_i(\mu )/2})}.$$

###### Proof.

For this proof we assume familiarity with Chapter 4 of \[M\] and adhere to his notation. Thus $`M_n`$ denotes the nonzero elements of the algebraic closure of $`F_q`$ which are fixed by the $`nth`$ power of the Frobenius map and $`L_n`$ is the character group of $`M_n`$. Also $`\mathrm{\Theta }`$ is the set of primitive $`F`$-orbits $`\theta `$ in $`_nL_n`$ and $`deg(\theta )`$ is the $`n`$ such that $`\theta `$ is a primitive orbit in $`L_n`$. The irreducible representations of $`GL(n,q)`$ are parameterized by all ways of associating partitions $`\lambda (\theta )`$ to each element of $`\mathrm{\Theta }`$ in such a way that $`_{\theta \mathrm{\Theta }}deg(\theta )|\lambda _\theta |=n`$.

Let $`p_\lambda (x)=_{r1}(_ix_i^r)^{m_r(\lambda )}`$ be the $`\lambda `$ power sum symmetric function and let $`z(\tau )`$ denote the centralizer size of an element of conjugacy class type $`\tau `$ in a symmetric group on $`|\tau |`$ symbols. Let $`\omega ^\lambda (\tau )`$ denote the character of the symmetric group parameterized by $`\lambda `$ on the conjugacy class parameterized by $`\tau `$. Chapter 4 of \[M\] implies that the character value of an irreducible representation of type $`\{\lambda (\theta )\}`$ on a unipotent element of type $`\mu `$ is $`q^{n(\mu )}`$ multiplied by the coefficient of $`P_\mu (x;1/q)`$ in the symmetric function

$`{\displaystyle \underset{\theta \mathrm{\Theta }}{}}{\displaystyle \underset{\tau }{}}{\displaystyle \frac{1}{z_\tau }}\omega ^{\lambda (\theta )}(\tau ){\displaystyle \underset{r1}{}}((1)^{rdeg(\theta )1}p_{rdeg(\theta )}(x))^{m_r(\tau )}`$
$`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \underset{\theta \mathrm{\Theta }}{}}{\displaystyle \underset{\tau }{}}{\displaystyle \frac{1}{z_\tau }}\omega ^{\lambda (\theta )}(\tau )(1)^{l(\tau )}{\displaystyle \underset{r1}{}}p_r((x)^{deg(\theta )})^{m_r(\tau )}`$
$`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \underset{\theta \mathrm{\Theta }}{}}{\displaystyle \underset{\tau }{}}{\displaystyle \frac{1}{z_\tau }}\omega ^{\lambda (\theta )}(\tau )(1)^{l(\tau )+|\tau |}{\displaystyle \underset{r1}{}}p_r((x)^{deg(\theta )+1})^{m_r(\tau )}.`$
Observe that $`(1)^{l(\tau )+|\tau |}`$ is the sign of a permutation with conjugacy class corresponding to the partition $`\tau `$. As $`s_\lambda (x)=_\tau \frac{1}{z_\tau }\omega ^\lambda (\tau )p_\tau (x)`$ and tensoring the irreducible representation of $`S_n`$ corresponding to $`\lambda `$ by the sign representation simply switches $`s_\lambda (x)`$ to $`s_\lambda ^{}(x)`$, the above expression simplifies to

$$\underset{\theta \mathrm{\Theta }}{}s_{\lambda (\theta )^{}}((x_1)^{deg(\theta )},(x_2)^{deg(\theta )},\mathrm{}).$$

Thus the sum over all irreducible characters $`\chi `$ of $`GL(n,q)`$ of their values on $`h`$ is $`q^{n(\mu )}`$ multiplied by the coefficient of $`P_\mu (x;1/q)`$ in the symmetric function

$$\underset{d1}{}\left(\underset{\lambda }{}s_\lambda ^{}((x_1)^{deg(\theta )},(x_2)^{deg(\theta )},\mathrm{})\right)^{N(q;d)},$$

where $`N(q;d)`$ denotes the number of irreducible degree $`d`$ polynomials over the field $`F_q`$ with non-zero constant term (these are in bijection with degree $`d`$ elements $`\theta `$ of $`\mathrm{\Theta }`$). Invoking Lemma 3.2, and using the fact that summing over all $`\lambda `$ is the same as summing over all $`\lambda ^{}`$, this simplifies to

$`{\displaystyle \underset{d}{}}\left({\displaystyle \underset{i}{}}(1+(x_i)^d)^1{\displaystyle \underset{i<j}{}}(1x_i^dx_j^d)^1\right)^{N(q;d)}`$
$`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \underset{d}{}}\left({\displaystyle \underset{i}{}}{\displaystyle \frac{1(x_i)^d}{1x_i^{2d}}}{\displaystyle \underset{i<j}{}}(1x_i^dx_j^d)^1\right)^{N(q;d)}.`$
Using Lemma 3.1, this becomes

$`{\displaystyle \underset{i}{}}{\displaystyle \frac{1x_i^2}{1+x_i}}{\displaystyle \frac{1+x_iq}{1x_i^2q}}{\displaystyle \underset{i<j}{}}{\displaystyle \frac{1x_ix_j}{1x_ix_jq}}`$
$`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{1+x_iq}{1+x_i}}{\displaystyle \underset{ij}{}}{\displaystyle \frac{1x_ix_j}{1x_ix_jq}}.`$
It follows from Theorem 2.8 that $`q^{n(\mu )}`$ multiplied by the coefficient of $`P_\mu (x;1/q)`$ in this symmetric function is $`0`$ unless all even parts of $`\mu `$ have even multiplicity and is

$$c_\mu (1/q)q^{n(\mu )+|\mu |/2+o(\mu )/2}$$

if all even parts of $`\mu `$ have even multiplicity. Hence this is precisely the number of $`g`$ such that $`gg^\tau `$ is equal to a given unipotent element of type $`\mu `$. To determine the proportion of $`g`$ (random in $`GL(n,q))`$ such that $`gg^\tau `$ is unipotent of type $`\mu `$, one need only divide this by the $`GL(n,q)`$ centralizer size of a unipotent element of type $`\mu `$, which is known (see page 191 of \[M\]) to be $`q^{2n(\mu )+|\mu |}_i(1/q)_{m_i(\mu )}`$. The result follows. ∎

Corollary 3.4 is immediate from Theorem 3.3.

###### Corollary 3.4.

Let $`h`$ be a unipotent element of type $`\lambda `$ (thus the Jordan block sizes are the parts of $`\lambda `$). Then the number of $`g`$ such that $`gg^\tau =h`$, viewed as a function of $`q`$, has the same form in odd and even characteristic.

## 4. General Enumeration of $`g`$ such that $`gg^\tau =h`$

The purpose of this section is to derive a formula for the number of $`g`$ in $`GL(n,q)`$ such that $`gg^\tau =h`$ where $`h`$ is a fixed element of $`GL(n,q)`$. As mentioned in the introduction, the number of such $`g`$ is equal to

$$\underset{\chi Irr(GL(n,q))}{}\chi (h).$$

In particular, viewed as a function of $`h`$ this number is constant on conjugacy classes.

In fact (as noted in \[Go1\]) this number is 0 unless $`h`$ is a real (i.e. conjugate to its inverse) element of $`GL(n,q)`$. Indeed, $`(gg^\tau )^1=g^{}g^1`$ and $`(gg^\tau )^{}=g^1g^{}`$. Thus $`(gg^\tau )^1`$ and $`(gg^\tau )^{}`$ are conjugate. The result now follows since any element in $`GL(n,q)`$ (in particular $`gg^\tau `$) is conjugate to its transpose.

To begin we translate the problem of counting $`g`$ so that $`gg^\tau =h`$ into a problem about Hall-Littlewood polynomials. The following result of Klyachko \[Kl\] (see \[IS\] for an algebraic proof) simplifies our task. Given groups $`HG`$ and a character $`\chi `$ of $`H`$, the symbol $`\chi _H^G`$ will denote the induced character. We also recall a product $``$ which allow one to take a character $`u_1`$ of $`GL(k,q)`$ together with a character $`u_2`$ of $`GL(nk,q)`$ and get a character of $`GL(n,q)`$. Let $`P_{k,nk}`$ be the parabolic subgroup of $`GL(n,q)`$ consisting of elements $`g`$ equal to

$$\left(\begin{array}{cc}g_{11}& g_{12}\\ 0& g_{22}\end{array}\right),$$

where $`g_{11}GL(k,q)`$ and $`g_{22}GL(nk,q)`$. Then $`u(g)=u_1(g_{11})u_2(g_{22})`$ is a class function on $`P_{k,nk}`$ and inducing it to $`GL(n,q)`$ gives a character of $`GL(n,q)`$, denoted by $`u_1u_2`$.

###### Theorem 4.1.

(\[Kl\]) Let $`\gamma _k`$ be the Gelfand-Graev character of $`GL(k,q)`$. Let $`\sigma _{2l}=1_{Sp(2l,q)}^{GL(2l,q)}`$ denote the character of $`GL(2l,q)`$ obtained by inducing the trivial character from $`Sp(2l,q)`$. Then $`_{k+2l=n}\gamma _k\sigma _{2l}`$ is equal to the sum of all irreducible characters of $`GL(n,q)`$, each occurring exactly once.

To apply Theorem 4.1, one needs to know three things: a formula for $`\gamma _k`$, a formula for $`\sigma _{2l}`$, and how to compute the product $``$ using Hall polynomials. Fortunately, all of this information is available.

At this point we remind the reader the conjugacy classes of $`GL(n,q)`$ are parameterized by sets of partitions $`\{\lambda _\varphi \}`$ (one for each monic irreducible polynomial $`\varphi `$) satisfying $`|\lambda _z|=0`$ and $`_\varphi deg(\varphi )|\lambda _\varphi |=n`$. The conjugacy data for real elements satisfies further restrictions. Namely there is an involution on monic irreducible polynomials with non-zero constant term sending a polynomial $`\varphi `$ to $`\overline{\varphi }=\frac{z^{deg(\varphi )}\varphi (z)}{\varphi (0)}`$. The $`\varphi `$ invariant under this involution are called self-conjugate. Real elements are precisely those which satisfy the additional constraint that $`\lambda _\varphi =\lambda _{\overline{\varphi }}`$.

For the remainder of this section, we use the notation:

$$A(\varphi ,\lambda _\varphi ,i)=\{\begin{array}{cc}|U(m_i(\lambda _\varphi ),q^{deg(\varphi )/2})|\hfill & if\varphi =\overline{\varphi }\hfill \\ |GL(m_i(\lambda _\varphi ),q^{deg(\varphi )})|^{1/2}\hfill & if\varphi \overline{\varphi }\hfill \end{array}$$

We remind the reader that $`|GL(n,q)|=q^{n^2}(1/q)_n`$ and that the size of $`U(n,q)`$ is $`(1)^n|GL(n,q)|`$. We define $`B(\varphi ,\lambda _\varphi )`$ as

$$\{\begin{array}{cc}q^{deg(\varphi )[_{h<i}hm_h(\lambda _\varphi )m_i(\lambda _\varphi )+\frac{1}{2}_i(i1)m_i(\lambda _\varphi )^2]}_iA(\varphi ,\lambda _\varphi ,i)\hfill & \varphi z\pm 1\hfill \\ q^{n(\lambda _{z+1})+\frac{|\lambda _{z+1}|}{2}+\frac{o(\lambda _{z+1})}{2}}_i(1\frac{1}{q^2})\mathrm{}(1\frac{1}{q^{2m_i(\lambda _{z+1})/2}})\hfill & \varphi =z+1\hfill \\ q^{n(\lambda _{z1})+\frac{|\lambda _{z1}|}{2}\frac{o(\lambda _{z1})}{2}}_i(1\frac{1}{q^2})\mathrm{}(1\frac{1}{q^{2m_i(\lambda _{z1})/2}})\hfill & \varphi =z1\hfill \end{array}$$

and where $`x`$ is the largest integer not exceeding $`x`$. In characteristic 2 we use the convention that the polynomial $`z+1`$ does not exist-one uses formulas for $`z1`$ instead.

###### Theorem 4.2.

For $`g`$ random in $`GL(n,q)`$, the chance that $`gg^\tau `$ has rational canonical form data $`\{\lambda _\varphi \}`$ is $`0`$ unless

1. $`\lambda _\varphi =\lambda _{\overline{\varphi }}`$ for all $`\varphi `$
2. All even parts of $`\lambda _{z1}`$ have even multiplicity.
3. All odd parts of $`\lambda _{z+1}`$ have even multiplicity.

If these conditions hold, then the chance is

$$\underset{\varphi }{}\frac{1}{B(\varphi ,\lambda _\varphi )}.$$

###### Proof.

Note that the first condition must hold since as explained at the beginning of this section, $`gg^\tau `$ is real. Suppose first that the characteristic is odd. We apply Theorem 4.1. The Gelfand-Graev character $`\gamma _k`$ is well known. For a simple proof in the case of $`GL(k,q)`$ see \[HZ\] where it is shown that if $`dim(fix(h_1))`$ denotes the dimension of the fixed space of an element $`h_1`$ in $`GL(k,q)`$, the Gelfand-Graev character of $`GL(k,q)`$ evaluated at $`h_1`$ is $`0`$ if $`h_1`$ is not unipotent and is equal to

$$(1)^{kdim(fix(h_1))}(q^{dim(fix(h_1))}1)\mathrm{}(q1)$$

if $`h_1`$ is unipotent. In the case when $`h_1`$ is unipotent, let $`\mu `$ denote the partition of $`k`$ equal to $`\lambda _{z1}(h_1)`$. It is straightforward to see that $`dim(fix(h_1))`$ is equal to $`l(\mu )`$, the number of parts of $`\mu `$.

The value of $`1_{Sp(2l,q)}^{GL(2l,q)}(h_2)`$ is also known; by the general formula for induced characters \[Se\] it is simply $`\frac{1}{|Sp(2l,q)|}`$ multiplied by the number of elements in $`GL(2l,q)`$ which conjugate $`h_2`$ to something in $`Sp(2l,q)`$. This in turn is $`\frac{|C_{GL(2l,q)}(h_2)|}{|Sp(2l,q)|}`$ multiplied by the number of elements in $`Sp(2l,q)`$ with rational canonical form equal to that of $`h_2`$ (i.e. elements conjugate to $`h_2`$ in $`GL(2l,q)`$). The centralizer sizes in general linear groups are well known (see for instance page 191 of \[M\]): if an element $`h_2`$ has conjugacy data $`\{\lambda _\varphi \}`$, the centralizer size is

$$\underset{\varphi }{}q^{2n(\lambda _\varphi )+|\lambda _\varphi |}\underset{i}{}(1/q)_{m_i(\lambda _\varphi )}.$$

If $`h_2`$ is not real, no elements of $`Sp(2l,q)`$ have the rational canonical form of $`h_2`$. Otherwise, from formulas in \[Wal\], one sees (as in \[F2\] or \[Ka\]) that the number of elements in $`Sp(2l,q)`$ with the same rational canonical form as $`h_2`$ is

$$\frac{|Sp(2l,q)|q^{n(\lambda _{z1})\frac{|\lambda _{z1}|}{2}\frac{o(\lambda _{z1})}{2}}}{_i(11/q^2)\mathrm{}(11/q^{2\frac{m_i(\lambda _{z1})}{2}})_{\varphi z1}B(\varphi ,\lambda _\varphi )}.$$

Section 4.3 of \[M\] explains how to compute the product $``$ using Hall polynomials. Applying this to the expression $`_{k+2l=n}\gamma _k\sigma _{2l}`$ from Theorem 4.1, it follows that the proportion of $`g`$ such that $`gg^\tau `$ is conjugate to a (real) element $`h`$ with rational canonical form data $`\{\lambda _\varphi \}`$ is equal to

$`{\displaystyle \frac{1}{q^{2n(\lambda _{z1})+|\lambda _{z1}|}_i(1/q)_{m_i(\lambda _{z1})}}}{\displaystyle \underset{\genfrac{}{}{0pt}{}{k,l}{k+2l=n}}{}}{\displaystyle \underset{|\mu |=k}{}}{\displaystyle \underset{|\nu |=2l}{}}g_{\mu ,\nu }^{\lambda _{z1}}(q)`$
$`(1)^{kl(\mu )}(q^{l(\mu )}1)\mathrm{}(q1)`$
$`{\displaystyle \frac{q^{2n(\nu )+|\nu |}_i(1/q)_{m_i(\nu )}}{q^{n(\nu )+\frac{|\nu |}{2}+\frac{o(\nu )}{2}}_i(11/q^2)\mathrm{}(11/q^{2m_i(\nu )/2})_{\varphi z1}B(\varphi ,\lambda _\varphi )}},`$
where all odd parts of $`\nu `$ occur with even multiplicity. This in turn is equal to

$`{\displaystyle \frac{1}{q^{2n(\lambda _{z1})+|\lambda _{z1}|}_i(1/q)_{m_i(\lambda _{z1})}}}{\displaystyle \underset{\mu }{}}{\displaystyle \underset{\nu }{}}g_{\mu ,\nu }^{\lambda _{z1}}(q)`$
$`(1)^{|\mu |l(\mu )}(q^{l(\mu )}1)\mathrm{}(q1){\displaystyle \frac{q^{n(\nu )+\frac{|\nu |}{2}\frac{o(\nu )}{2}}c_\nu (1/q)}{_{\varphi z1}B(\varphi ,\lambda _\varphi )}}`$
where $`c(\nu )`$ is as in Section 2 and the sum is over all partitions $`\mu ,\nu `$ with the condition that all odd parts of $`\nu `$ occur with even multiplicity.

Applying Lemma 2.1, this is equal to the coefficient of $`P_{\lambda _{z1}}(x;1/q)`$ in

$`{\displaystyle \frac{1}{q^{n(\lambda _{z1})+|\lambda _{z1}|}_i(1/q)_{m_i(\lambda _{z1})}}}{\displaystyle \underset{\mu }{}}{\displaystyle \frac{P_\mu (x;1/q)}{q^{n(\mu )}}}(1)^{|\mu |l(\mu )}`$
$`(q^{l(\mu )}1)\mathrm{}(q1){\displaystyle \underset{\nu }{}}P_\nu (x;1/q){\displaystyle \frac{q^{\frac{|\nu |}{2}\frac{o(\nu )}{2}}c_\nu (1/q)}{_{\varphi z1}B(\varphi ,\lambda _\varphi )}}`$
where all odd parts of $`\nu `$ occur with even multiplicity. Applying Lemma 2.2 (with the substitutions $`t=1/q`$, $`y=q`$, and replacing all $`x_i`$ by their negatives), this simplifies to the coefficient of $`P_{\lambda _{z1}}(x;1/q)`$ in

$`{\displaystyle \frac{1}{q^{n(\lambda _{z1})+|\lambda _{z1}|}_i(1/q)_{m_i(\lambda _{z1})}}}{\displaystyle \underset{i1}{}}{\displaystyle \frac{1+x_iq}{1+x_i}}`$
$`{\displaystyle \underset{\nu }{}}P_\nu (x;1/q){\displaystyle \frac{q^{\frac{|\nu |}{2}\frac{o(\nu )}{2}}c_\nu (1/q)}{_{\varphi z1}B(\varphi ,\lambda _\varphi )}}.`$
Using Theorem 2.10 this reduces to

$$\frac{1}{q^{n(\lambda _{z1})+|\lambda _{z1}|}_i(1/q)_{m_i(\lambda _{z1})}}\underset{i1}{}\frac{1+x_iq}{1+x_i}\underset{ij}{}\frac{1x_ix_j}{1x_ix_jq}\frac{1}{_{\varphi z1}B(\varphi ,\lambda _\varphi )}.$$

The theorem now follows (for odd characteristic) from Theorem 2.8.

To deduce the result in even characteristic, begin as in odd characteristic. The only change in even characteristic is with the dependence of the formula on $`\lambda _{z1}`$–more precisely, the formula for the number of elements in $`Sp(2l,q)`$ with the same rational canonical form as $`h_2`$ is not obviously given by the expression stated in the odd characteristic case (in fact as we shall see later in Section 5, the two formulas are the same-but as this is somewhat painful to see directly from \[Wal\] we do not use it in this proof). However from Corollary 3.4 in Section 3 (which does not use this theorem in its proof), one sees that the number of $`g`$ such that $`gg^\tau `$ is equal to a unipotent element of type $`\lambda `$ in $`GL(|\lambda |,q)`$ depends on $`q`$ in a way independent of the characteristic. Hence Theorem 4.2 is valid in even characteristic. ∎

Next we note some corollaries of Theorem 4.2. More consequences appear in Section 6 and 7.

###### Corollary 4.3.

1. Suppose that $`n`$ is even. Let $`C`$ be a conjugacy class of $`GL(n,q)`$ with the property that $`\lambda _{z1}`$ is empty (i.e. the eigenvalue 1 does not occur). Then the chance that $`gg^\tau C`$ for $`g`$ random in $`GL(n,q)`$ is equal to the chance that a random element of $`Sp(n,q)`$ has $`GL(n,q)`$ conjugacy class equal to $`C`$.
2. Suppose that $`n`$ is odd. Let $`C`$ be a conjugacy class of $`GL(n,q)`$ with the property that $`|\lambda _{z1}|=1`$ (i.e. the eigenvalue 1 occurs with multiplicity 1). Then the chance that $`gg^\tau C`$ for $`g`$ random in $`GL(n,q)`$ is equal to the chance that a random element of $`Sp(n1,q)`$ has $`GL(n1,q)`$ conjugacy class data $`\{\lambda _\varphi \}`$ equal to that of $`C`$ except for $`\lambda _{z1}`$ which is made empty.

###### Proof.

Both parts follows from Theorem 4.2 and Wall’s formulas \[Wal\] for conjugacy class sizes in finite symplectic groups. (In fact part 1 of the corollary is essentially true because of Klyachko’s result (Theorem 4.1) together with the fact that the Gelfand-Graev character of $`GL(n,q)`$ vanishes off of unipotent elements; the full power of the symmetric function calculations used to prove Theorem 4.2 is not needed). ∎

Corollary 4.4 shows that the proportion of regular semisimple elements $`gg^\tau `$ is equal to a corresponding proportion in the symplectic groups (which was studied in \[GL\] and \[FNP\]) and will be crucial for our work on derangements. See for instance the examples in Section 10.

###### Corollary 4.4.

1. The proportion of elements $`gGL(2n,q)`$ such that $`gg^\tau `$ is regular semisimple is equal to the proportion of elements in $`Sp(2n,q)`$ which are regular semisimple.
2. The proportion of elements $`gGL(2n+1,q)`$ such that $`gg^\tau `$ is regular semisimple is equal to the proportion of elements in $`Sp(2n,q)`$ which are regular semisimple.

###### Proof.

The element $`gg^\tau GL(n,q)`$ is regular semisimple precisely when its characteristic polynomial is squarefree. Note that since the element $`gg^\tau `$ is real, this implies that if $`n`$ is even the eigenvalue 1 does not occur, and if $`n`$ is odd, the eigenvalue 1 occurs with multiplicity 1. Moreover an element of a symplectic group is regular semisimple precisely when its characteristic polynomial is square free; this implies that the eigenvalue 1 does not occur. Now use Corollary 4.3. ∎

## 5. Character Sums and Unipotent Symplectic Elements

The main purpose of this section is to use character theory of $`GL(n,q)`$ to compute the proportion of elements of $`Sp(2n,q)`$ which are unipotent and have given rational canonical form in $`GL(2n,q)`$. In the case of odd characteristic this can be (and has been) alternatively computed directly from formulas of Wall \[Wal\] (see \[F2\] or \[Ka\]). We shall see that the formula which arises is independent of whether the characteristic is odd or even. As one corollary the results of \[F2\], \[F3\] on random elements of finite symplectic groups are applicable in even characteristic as well. We shall also be able to write down an expression for the number of elements (not necessarily unipotent) of $`Sp(2n,q)`$ which have given rational canonical form data $`\{\lambda _\varphi \}`$.

To begin, we recall a result of \[IS\], \[BKS\]. We use the notation that $`1_{Sp(2n,q)}^{GL(2n,q)}`$ denotes the character of $`GL(2n,q)`$ obtained by inducing the trivial character of $`Sp(2n,q)`$. All other notation conforms to that of Section 3. Note that the partitions $`\lambda `$ in our notation are dual to those in the notation of \[IS\], \[BKS\].

###### Theorem 5.1.

(\[BKS\],\[IS\]) $`1_{Sp(2n,q)}^{GL(2n,q)}`$ is equal to the sum over all irreducible characters of $`GL(2n,q)`$ which satisfy the constraint that $`\lambda (\theta )^{}`$ has all parts even for all $`\theta \mathrm{\Theta }`$.

As mentioned above, Theorem 5.2 is known in odd characteristic, by a very different method of proof.

###### Theorem 5.2.

The proportion of elements $`h`$ of $`Sp(2n,q)`$ which are unipotent and have $`GL(2n,q)`$ rational canonical form of type $`\mu `$ is $`0`$ unless all odd parts of $`\mu `$ occur with even multiplicity. If all odd parts of $`\mu `$ occur with even multiplicity, it is

$$\frac{1}{q^{n(\mu )+n+\frac{o(\mu )}{2}}_i(11/q^2)\mathrm{}(11/q^{2\frac{m_i(\mu )}{2}})}.$$

###### Proof.

As explained in the proof of Theorem 4.2, $`1_{Sp(2n,q)}^{GL(2n,q)}(h)`$ is equal to $`C_{GL(2n,q)}(h)`$ multiplied by the proportion of elements of $`Sp(2n,q)`$ with rational canonical form equal to that of $`h`$.

Next we evaluate $`1_{Sp(2n,q)}^{GL(2n,q)}`$ by applying the technique of Theorem 3.3 to the result of Theorem 5.1. We conclude that $`1_{Sp(2n,q)}^{GL(2n,q)}(h)`$ is equal to $`q^{n(\mu )}`$ multiplied by the coefficient of $`P_\mu (x;1/q)`$ in

$$\underset{d1}{}\left(\underset{\genfrac{}{}{0pt}{}{\lambda }{allpartseven}}{}s_\lambda ((x_1)^{deg(\theta )},(x_2)^{deg(\theta )},\mathrm{})\right)^{N(q;d)},$$

where $`N(q;d)`$ denotes the number of irreducible degree $`d`$ polynomials over the field $`F_q`$ with non-zero constant term.

By the Schur function case ($`t=0`$) of Lemma 2.3 and then Lemma 3.1, this simplifies to $`q^{n(\mu )}`$ multiplied by the coefficient of $`P_\mu (x;1/q)`$ in

$`{\displaystyle \underset{d1}{}}\left({\displaystyle \underset{i1}{}}(1x_i^{2d})^1{\displaystyle \underset{i<j}{}}(1x_i^dx_j^d)^1\right)^{N(q;d)}`$
$`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \underset{i1}{}}{\displaystyle \frac{1x_i^2}{1qx_i^2}}{\displaystyle \underset{i<j}{}}{\displaystyle \frac{1x_ix_j}{1qx_ix_j}}`$
$`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \underset{ij}{}}{\displaystyle \frac{1x_ix_j}{1qx_ix_j}}.`$
The result now follows from Lemma 2.10, and the well-known formula (already used several times in this paper)

$$|C_{GL(2n,q)}(h)|=q^{2n+2n(\mu )}\underset{i}{}(1/q)_{m_i(\lambda )}.$$

We next give a second proof of Theorem 5.2. This proof uses Wall’s work and earlier results in this paper, but not Theorem 5.1.

###### Proof.

(Second proof) In odd characteristic this follows from Wall’s formulas. Thus it is enough to show that the formula for the number of unipotent elements $`h`$ with given partition $`\lambda _{z1}`$ is (as a function of $`q`$) independent of the characteristic. We prove this by induction on $`n`$. By Corollary 3.4, we know that the number of elements $`g`$ of $`GL(n,q)`$ with $`gg^\tau `$ conjugate to $`h`$ is (as a function of $`q`$) independent of the characteristic. Looking back at the proof of Theorem 4.2, one sees that the formula for the number of elements $`g`$ with $`gg^\tau `$ conjugate to $`h`$ is a sum over pairs of partitions $`\mu ,\nu `$ where the $`\nu `$ term involves the number of elements of $`Sp(2|\nu |,q)`$ which are unipotent of type $`\nu `$, and the $`\mu `$ term is in a form independent of the characteristic. Moreover, precisely one term in this sum corresponds to $`|\nu |=2n`$–namely when $`\nu =\lambda _{z1}`$, and all other terms involve $`\nu `$ of smaller size so by induction have the same form as a function of $`q`$ in either odd or even characteristic. This proves the result. ∎

In general, we have the follow result, which is immediate from Theorem 5.2 and results of \[Wal\].

###### Corollary 5.3.

Using the notation before the proof of Theorem 4.2 and the convention that in even characteristic the polynomial $`z+1`$ does not exist, the chance (in either odd or even characteristic) that $`g`$ a random element of $`Sp(2n,q)`$ has rational canonical form data $`\{\lambda _\varphi \}`$ is $`0`$ unless $`\lambda _\varphi =\lambda _{\overline{\varphi }}`$ for all $`\varphi `$ and $`\lambda _{z\pm 1}`$ have all odd parts occur with even multiplicity. If $`\lambda _\varphi =\lambda _{\overline{\varphi }}`$ for all $`\varphi `$, and $`\lambda _{z\pm 1}`$ have all odd parts occur with even multiplicity, the chance is

$$\frac{1}{q^{n(\lambda _{z1})+\frac{|\lambda _{z1}|}{2}+\frac{o(\lambda _{z1})}{2}}_i(11/q^2)\mathrm{}(11/q^{2\frac{m_i(\lambda _{z1})}{2}})}\underset{\varphi z1}{}\frac{1}{B(\varphi ,\lambda _\varphi )}.$$

## 6. Minimum Centralizer Sizes

The purpose of this section is to obtain a lower bound on the centralizer size of elements of $`G^+(n,q)`$. In fact we restrict consideration to elements in the coset $`GL(n,q)\tau `$, since centralizer sizes of elements of $`G^+(n,q)`$ in $`GL(n,q)`$ are at most double the $`GL(n,q)`$ centralizer size of elements in $`GL(n,q)`$ (and the paper \[FG3\] lower bounded the minimum centralizer sizes of elements in $`GL(n,q)`$). The bound in this section is crucial to our study of derangements in \[FG2\].

The bound of this section is derived as a consequence of Theorem 4.2. In Section 8, we give a different approach using the theory of bilinear forms.

Two lemmas are required.

###### Lemma 6.1.

(\[NP\]) Suppose that $`q2`$. Then $`_{i1}(1\frac{1}{q^i})1\frac{1}{q}\frac{1}{q^2}`$.

###### Lemma 6.2.

1. Let $`\lambda `$ be a partition in which all even parts have even multiplicity. Then

$$q^{n(\lambda _{z1})+\frac{|\lambda |}{2}\frac{o(\lambda )}{2}}\underset{i}{}(11/q^2)\mathrm{}(11/q^{2m_i(\lambda )/2})q^{|\lambda |/2}(11/q^21/q^4).$$
2. Let $`\lambda `$ be a partition in which all odd parts have even multiplicity. Then

$$q^{n(\lambda _{z1})+\frac{|\lambda |}{2}+\frac{o(\lambda )}{2}}\underset{i}{}(11/q^2)\mathrm{}(11/q^{2m_i(\lambda )/2})q^{|\lambda |/2}(11/q^21/q^4).$$

###### Proof.

Consider the first assertion. From \[F2\] it is known that

$$\underset{|\lambda |=n}{}\frac{1}{q^{n(\lambda )+\frac{|\lambda |}{2}\frac{o(\lambda )}{2}}_i(11/q^2)\mathrm{}(11/q^{2m_i(\lambda )/2})}$$

(the sum is over all partitions of size $`n`$ in which all even parts have even multiplicity) is the coefficient of $`u^n`$ in $`\frac{1+u}{_{j1}(1u^2/q^{2j1})}`$. From Lemma 2.5 this coefficient is

$$\frac{1}{q^{n/2}(11/q^2)\mathrm{}(11/q^{2n/2})}.$$

Hence any particular term in this sum is at most

$$\frac{1}{q^{n/2}(11/q^2)\mathrm{}(11/q^{2n/2})},$$

so the result follows from Lemma 6.1.

The proof of the second assertion is similar, using the fact from \[F2\] that

$$\underset{|\lambda |=n}{}\frac{1}{q^{n(\lambda )+\frac{|\lambda |}{2}+\frac{o(\lambda )}{2}}_i(11/q^2)\mathrm{}(11/q^{2m_i(\lambda )/2})}$$

(the sum is over all partitions of size $`n`$ in which all odd parts have even multiplicity) is the coefficient of $`u^n`$ in $`\frac{1}{_{j1}(1u^2/q^{2j1})}`$. ∎

Now the main result of this section can be proved.

###### Theorem 6.3.

The $`GL(n,q)`$ centralizer size of an element in the coset $`GL(n,q)\tau `$ is at least $`(11/q^21/q^4)^2q^{n/2}\left(\frac{11/q}{4elog_q(n)}\right)^{1/2}`$.

###### Proof.

Let $`g\tau `$ be an element of $`G^+(n,q)`$ whose square is equal to $`hGL(n,q)`$. Let $`s(h)`$ denote the number of elements of in the coset $`GL(n,q)\tau `$ whose square is $`h`$. Note that if $`zC_{GL(n,q)}(h)`$, then $`(zg\tau z^1)^2=h`$. Thus

$`s(h)`$ $``$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{|C_{GL(n,q)}(h)|}{|C_{GL(n,q)}(g\tau )C_{GL(n,q)}(h)|}}`$
$``$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{|C_{GL(n,q)}(h)|}{|C_{GL(n,q)}(g\tau )|}}.`$
Hence $`C_{GL(n,q)}(g\tau )`$ is at least the reciprocal of the proportion of elements $`x`$ in $`GL(n,q)`$ such that $`xx^\tau `$ is conjugate to $`h`$. Thus Theorem 4.2 implies that

$$C_{GL(n,q)}(g\tau )\underset{\varphi }{}B(\varphi ,\lambda _\varphi )$$

where $`B(\varphi ,\lambda _\varphi )`$ is defined before Theorem 4.2 and $`\{\lambda _\varphi \}`$ is the conjugacy class data of $`h`$.

Let $`2m`$ be the degree of the part of the characteristic polynomial of $`h`$ which is relatively prime to $`(z1)^2`$. It follows from \[FG3\] that

$$\underset{\varphi z\pm 1}{}B(\varphi ,\lambda _\varphi )q^m\left(\frac{11/q}{4elog_q(2m)}\right)^{1/2}.$$

Note that Lemma 6.2 implies that

$$B(z1,\lambda _{z1})B(z+1,\lambda _{z+1})(11/q^21/q^4)^2q^{|\lambda _{z1}|/2+|\lambda _{z+1}|/2}.$$

The result follows since $`m+\frac{|\lambda _{z1}|}{2}+\frac{|\lambda _{z+1}|}{2}=\frac{n}{2}`$. ∎

## 7. Generating Functions, Asymptotics, and Random Partitions

This section consists of some important corollaries of Theorem 4.2. Corollary 7.1 gives a cycle index generating function. The cycle index is a very useful tool for studying properties of random matrices and sometimes allows one to obtain results out of reach by other methods; see the survey \[F1\] or \[F3\]. It is used in our work on the derangement problem (see \[FG2\] and also Section 10 of this paper).

In Corollary 7.1, the $`x_{\varphi ,\lambda }`$ are variables. Recall that $`B(\varphi ,\lambda )`$ was defined in Section 4. Although one can write down a single generating function, it is more useful for asymptotic purposes to treat separately the cases that $`n`$ is odd or even. Indeed, the size of the partition $`\lambda _{z1}(gg^\tau )`$ is equal to $`n`$ modulo 2.

###### Corollary 7.1.

Let $`e=0`$ if the characteristic is even and $`e=1`$ if the characteristic is odd. In the equations below, $`\varphi `$ denotes a monic irreducible polynomial over $`F_q`$ the $`\{\varphi ,\overline{\varphi }\}`$ denote conjugate (unordered) pairs of non-selfconjugate monic irreducible polynomials.

1. $`1+{\displaystyle \underset{n1}{}}{\displaystyle \frac{u^{2n}}{|GL(2n,q)|}}{\displaystyle \underset{gGL(2n,q)}{}}{\displaystyle \underset{\varphi }{}}x_{\varphi ,\lambda _\varphi (gg^\tau )}`$
$`=`$ $`\left({\displaystyle \underset{\genfrac{}{}{0pt}{}{|\lambda |even}{ievenm_ieven}}{}}{\displaystyle \frac{x_{z1,\lambda }u^{|\lambda |}}{q^{n(\lambda )+\frac{|\lambda |}{2}\frac{o(\lambda )}{2}}_i(11/q^2)\mathrm{}(11/q^{2\frac{m_i(\lambda )}{2}})}}\right)`$
$`\left({\displaystyle \underset{\genfrac{}{}{0pt}{}{\lambda }{ioddm_ieven}}{}}{\displaystyle \frac{x_{z+1,\lambda }u^{|\lambda |}}{q^{n(\lambda )+\frac{|\lambda |}{2}+\frac{o(\lambda )}{2}}_i(11/q^2)\mathrm{}(11/q^{2\frac{m_i(\lambda )}{2}})}}\right)^e`$
$`{\displaystyle \underset{\genfrac{}{}{0pt}{}{\varphi =\overline{\varphi }}{\varphi z\pm 1}}{}}\left({\displaystyle \underset{\lambda }{}}{\displaystyle \frac{x_{\varphi ,\lambda }u^{|\lambda |deg(\varphi )}}{B(\varphi ,\lambda )}}\right){\displaystyle \underset{\genfrac{}{}{0pt}{}{\{\varphi ,\overline{\varphi }\}}{\varphi \overline{\varphi }}}{}}\left({\displaystyle \underset{\lambda }{}}{\displaystyle \frac{x_{\varphi ,\lambda }x_{\overline{\varphi },\lambda }u^{2|\lambda |deg(\varphi )}}{B(\varphi ,\lambda )B(\overline{\varphi },\lambda )}}\right)`$
2. $`1+{\displaystyle \underset{n0}{}}{\displaystyle \frac{u^{2n+1}}{|GL(2n+1,q)|}}{\displaystyle \underset{gGL(2n+1,q)}{}}{\displaystyle \underset{\varphi }{}}x_{\varphi ,\lambda _\varphi (gg^\tau )}`$
$`=`$ $`\left({\displaystyle \underset{\genfrac{}{}{0pt}{}{|\lambda |odd}{ievenm_ieven}}{}}{\displaystyle \frac{x_{z1,\lambda }u^{|\lambda |}}{q^{n(\lambda )+\frac{|\lambda |}{2}\frac{o(\lambda )}{2}}_i(11/q^2)\mathrm{}(11/q^{2\frac{m_i(\lambda )}{2}})}}\right)`$
$`\left({\displaystyle \underset{\genfrac{}{}{0pt}{}{\lambda }{ioddm_ieven}}{}}{\displaystyle \frac{x_{z+1,\lambda }u^{|\lambda |}}{q^{n(\lambda )+\frac{|\lambda |}{2}+\frac{o(\lambda )}{2}}_i(11/q^2)\mathrm{}(11/q^{2\frac{m_i(\lambda )}{2}})}}\right)^e`$
$`{\displaystyle \underset{\genfrac{}{}{0pt}{}{\varphi =\overline{\varphi }}{\varphi z\pm 1}}{}}\left({\displaystyle \underset{\lambda }{}}{\displaystyle \frac{x_{\varphi ,\lambda }u^{|\lambda |deg(\varphi )}}{B(\varphi ,\lambda )}}\right){\displaystyle \underset{\genfrac{}{}{0pt}{}{\{\varphi ,\overline{\varphi }\}}{\varphi \overline{\varphi }}}{}}\left({\displaystyle \underset{\lambda }{}}{\displaystyle \frac{x_{\varphi ,\lambda }x_{\overline{\varphi },\lambda }u^{2|\lambda |deg(\varphi )}}{B(\varphi ,\lambda )B(\overline{\varphi },\lambda )}}\right)`$

###### Proof.

Consider the first part. Note that $`|\lambda _{z1}(gg^\tau )|`$ must be even (since $`|\lambda _{z+1}|`$ is even and all self-conjugate polynomials other than $`z\pm 1`$ have even degree). The coefficient of $`u^{2n}_\varphi x_{\varphi ,\lambda _\varphi }`$ on the left-hand side is the proportion of elements $`g`$ in $`GL(2n,q)`$ such that $`gg^\tau `$ has rational canonical form data $`\{\lambda _\varphi \}`$. By Theorem 4.2, this is also the coefficient of $`u^{2n}_\varphi x_{\varphi ,\lambda _\varphi }`$ on the right-hand side. The second assertion is similar. ∎

Next we give some asymptotic consequences of the cycle index for the theory of random partitions. First we note that the theory of random partitions is quite interesting (see the surveys \[F1\] or \[Ok\]). The paper \[F2\] defined a probability measure on the set of all partitions with the property that all odd parts occur with even multiplicity by the formula

$$M_{Sp,u}(\lambda )=\underset{i=1}{\overset{\mathrm{}}{}}(1\frac{u^2}{q^{2i1}})\frac{u^{|\lambda |}}{q^{n(\lambda )+\frac{|\lambda |}{2}+\frac{o(\lambda )}{2}}_i(11/q^2)\mathrm{}(11/q^{2\frac{m_i(\lambda )}{2}})}$$

where $`u`$ is a parameter. It also defined a probability measure on the set of all partitions with the property that all even parts occur with even multiplicity by the formula

$$M_{O,u}(\lambda )=\frac{_{i=1}^{\mathrm{}}(1\frac{u^2}{q^{2i1}})}{1+u}\frac{u^{|\lambda |}}{q^{n(\lambda )+\frac{|\lambda |}{2}\frac{o(\lambda )}{2}}_i(11/q^2)\mathrm{}(11/q^{2\frac{m_i(\lambda )}{2}})}$$

where $`u`$ is a parameter. Note that in both of these definitions, the size of $`\lambda `$ is not fixed.

In fact for asymptotic purposes, it is useful to refine the measure $`M_{O,u}`$ into two measures $`M_{O,u,even}`$ and $`M_{O,u,odd}`$. The measure $`M_{O,u,even}`$ is supported on all partitions of even size in which all even parts occur with even multiplicity and is defined there as

$$\underset{i=1}{\overset{\mathrm{}}{}}(1\frac{u^2}{q^{2i1}})\frac{u^{|\lambda |}}{q^{n(\lambda )+\frac{|\lambda |}{2}\frac{o(\lambda )}{2}}_i(11/q^2)\mathrm{}(11/q^{2\frac{m_i(\lambda )}{2}})}.$$

The measure $`M_{O,u,odd}`$ is supported on all partitions of odd size in which all even parts occur with even multiplicity and is defined there as

$$\underset{i=1}{\overset{\mathrm{}}{}}(1\frac{u^2}{q^{2i1}})\frac{u^{|\lambda |1}}{q^{n(\lambda )+\frac{|\lambda |}{2}\frac{o(\lambda )}{2}}_i(11/q^2)\mathrm{}(11/q^{2\frac{m_i(\lambda )}{2}})}.$$

In fact, as we shall now see, these random partitions are related to the study of $`gg^\tau `$ where $`g`$ is random in $`GL(n,q)`$. Fixing a polynomial $`\varphi `$ and choosing $`g`$ random, the partition $`\lambda _\varphi (gg^\tau )`$ is a random partition. In fact with $`\varphi ,q`$ fixed and $`n\mathrm{}`$ (with the value of $`n`$ modulo 2 specified) and $`g`$ random in $`GL(n,q)`$, the partition $`\lambda _\varphi (gg^\tau )`$ has a limit distribution which can be identified. Moreover, except for the fact that $`\lambda _\varphi =\lambda _{\overline{\varphi }}`$, these partitions will be asymptotically independent, which is useful for asymptotic calculations. To prove this, a combinatorial lemma is required.

###### Lemma 7.2.

Let $`f=1`$ in even characteristic and $`f=2`$ in odd characteristic.

$`1u^2`$ $`=`$ $`\left({\displaystyle \underset{i1}{}}(1u^2/q^{2i1})\right)^f{\displaystyle \underset{\genfrac{}{}{0pt}{}{\varphi =\overline{\varphi }}{\varphi z\pm 1}}{}}{\displaystyle \underset{i1}{}}(1+u^{deg(\varphi )}/(1)^iq^{ideg(\varphi )/2})`$
$`{\displaystyle \underset{\genfrac{}{}{0pt}{}{\{\varphi ,\overline{\varphi }\}}{\varphi \overline{\varphi }}}{}}{\displaystyle \underset{i1}{}}(1u^{2deg(\varphi )}/q^{ideg(\varphi )}),`$
where the final product is over conjugate (unordered) pairs of non selfconjugate monic irreducible polynomials.

###### Proof.

This equation is the reciprocal of the equation obtained by setting all variables (other than $`u`$) equal to 1 in the index of the symplectic groups \[F3\]. ∎

Now the main theorem can be stated. The use of auxiliary randomization (i.e. randomizing the variable $`n`$) is a mainstay of statistical mechanics known as the grand canonical ensemble. The second part of Theorem 7.3 is an example of the principle of equivalence of ensembles: as $`n`$ gets large the system for fixed $`n`$ (microcanonical ensemble) behaves like the grand canonical ensemble. We say that an infinite collection of random varialbes is independent if any finite subcollection is.

###### Theorem 7.3.

1. Fix $`u`$ with $`0<u<1`$. Then choose a random even natural number $`N`$ with the probability of getting $`2n`$ equal to $`(1u^2)u^{2n}`$. Choose $`g`$ uniformly at random in $`GL(2n,q)`$ and let $`\mathrm{\Lambda }_\varphi (gg^\tau )`$ be the partition corresponding to the polynomial $`\varphi `$ in the rational canonical form of $`gg^\tau `$. Then as $`\varphi `$ varies, aside from the fact that $`\mathrm{\Lambda }_\varphi =\mathrm{\Lambda }_{\overline{\varphi }}`$, these random variables are independent with probability laws the same as those for the symplectic groups in Theorem 1 of \[F2\] except for the polynomial $`z1`$ which has the distribution $`M_{O,u,even}`$.
2. Fix $`u`$ with $`0<u<1`$. Then choose a random odd natural number $`N`$ with the probability of getting $`2n+1`$ equal to $`(1u^2)u^{2n}`$. Choose $`g`$ uniformly at random in $`GL(2n+1,q)`$ and let $`\mathrm{\Lambda }_\varphi (gg^\tau )`$ be the partition corresponding to the polynomial $`\varphi `$ in the rational canonical form of $`gg^\tau `$. Then as $`\varphi `$ varies, aside from the fact that $`\mathrm{\Lambda }_\varphi =\mathrm{\Lambda }_{\overline{\varphi }}`$, these random variables are independent with probability laws the same as those for the symplectic groups in Theorem 1 of \[F2\] except for the polynomial $`z1`$ which has the distribution $`M_{O,u,odd}`$.
3. Choose $`g`$ uniformly at random in $`GL(2n,q)`$ and let $`\mathrm{\Lambda }_\varphi (gg^\tau )`$ be the partition corresponding to the polynomial $`\varphi `$ in the rational canonical form of $`gg^\tau `$. Let $`q`$ be fixed and $`n\mathrm{}`$. Then as $`\varphi `$ varies, aside from the fact that $`\mathrm{\Lambda }_\varphi =\mathrm{\Lambda }_{\overline{\varphi }}`$, these random variables are independent with probability laws the same as those for the symplectic groups in Theorem 1 of \[F2\] except for the polynomial $`z1`$ which has the distribution $`M_{O,1,even}`$.
4. Choose $`g`$ uniformly at random in $`GL(2n+1,q)`$ and let $`\mathrm{\Lambda }_\varphi (gg^\tau )`$ be the partition corresponding to the polynomial $`\varphi `$ in the rational canonical form of $`gg^\tau `$. Let $`q`$ be fixed and $`n\mathrm{}`$. Then as $`\varphi `$ varies, aside from the fact that $`\mathrm{\Lambda }_\varphi =\mathrm{\Lambda }_{\overline{\varphi }}`$, these random variables are independent with probability laws the same as those for the symplectic groups in Theorem 1 of \[F2\] except for the polynomial $`z1`$ which has the distribution $`M_{O,1,odd}`$.

###### Proof.

The method of proof is analogous to that used for the classical groups (see the survey \[F1\]). We treat the case of $`n`$ even as the case of $`n`$ odd is similar. For the first part, one multiplies the cycle index (Corollary 7.1) by the equation in Lemma 7.2. To prove the third assertion one uses the fact that if a Taylor series of a function $`f(u)`$ around 0 converges at $`u=1`$ then the $`n\mathrm{}`$ limit of the coefficient of $`u^n`$ in $`\frac{f(u)}{1u}`$ is equal to $`f(1)`$. ∎

Remark: Since the measure $`M_{O,u}`$ arises for the orthogonal groups (Theorem 2 of \[F2\]), Theorem 7.3 is a precise sense in which $`gg^\tau `$ for $`g`$ random in $`GL(n,q)`$ is a hybrid of orthogonal and symplectic groups. Note also that there is a minor misstatement in Theorem 2 of \[F2\]: the partitions $`\lambda _{z1}`$ and $`\lambda _{z+1}`$ do indeed asymptotically both have the distribution $`M_{O,1}`$ and are asymptotically independent of partitions corresponding to other polynomials, but they are not asymptotically independent of each other.

## 8. Bilinear Forms and Conjugacy Classes

Throughout this section the field $`F`$ of definition of $`G=GL(n,F)`$ and $`G^+=G,\tau `$ is arbitrary.

We note that the conjugacy classes in the coset of $`G\tau `$ in $`G^+`$ are in bijection with the orbits of $`G`$ acting on $`G`$ by $`ag=aga^{}`$. We will say two matrices are congruent if they are in the same $`\mathrm{GL}`$ orbit under this action.

This is a classical problem studied by many (see the bibliography – in particular, see Gow \[Go1\], \[Go2\], \[Go3\]). We can view $`g`$ as defining a nondegenerate bilinear form on $`V:=F^n`$ (via $`(u,v)=u^{}gv`$). Then the orbits of $`G`$ are precisely the congruence classes of nondegenerate bilinear forms. We let $`O_g=O_g(V)`$ denote the stabilizer of $`g`$ in this action (this is precisely $`C_G(g\tau )`$, the elements in $`G`$ which commute with $`g\tau `$).

We make some remarks about this problem and relate it to the results in the earlier part of the article. It is convenient to use both points of view (the group theoretic and linear algebra).

We first make some simple observations. Note that $`(g\tau )^2=gg^\tau `$.

###### Lemma 8.1.

Let $`gG`$ and set $`h=gg^\tau `$.

1. $`(xgx^{})(xgx^{})^\tau =xhx^1`$;
2. $`g^1hg=h^\tau `$.

So we can replace $`g`$ by a congruent element (and so change $`h`$ by conjugation) so that $`h`$ has a nice form – for example, we can we may assume that $`h`$ is in block diagonal form with the diagonal blocks corresponding to the primary decomposition for $`h`$ (i.e. the characteristic polynomial of the $`i`$th block is a power of the irreducible polynomial $`f_i`$ of degree $`d_i`$). Let $`V_i`$ denote the corresponding subspace.

Moreover, since $`h`$ is conjugate to $`h^\tau `$ and so to $`h^1`$ (any element in $`G`$ is conjugate to its transpose), we may assume that either the set of roots of $`f_i`$ is closed under inverses (we say $`f_i`$ is a self dual polynomial) or that the roots of $`f_j`$ are the inverses of the roots of $`f_i`$.

Lemma 8.1 implies that conjugating $`h`$ by $`g`$ sends $`h`$ to $`h^\tau `$ which is still in block diagonal form. Since $`h^\tau `$ is conjugate to $`h^1`$, $`g`$ must send a block so its inverse block. In other words, $`g`$ preserves each block corresponding to a self inverse $`f_i`$ and interchanges the blocks corresponding to the paired blocks. This implies:

###### Lemma 8.2.

$`V`$ is an orthogonal direct sum of spaces where the characteristic polynomial of $`h`$ is either a power of a self inverse irreducible polynomial or is a power of $`f_1f_2`$ where $`f_1`$ is irreducible with a root $`\alpha `$ and $`f_2`$ is the minimal polynomial of $`\alpha ^1`$. Moreover, this orthogonal decomposition is unique (up to order).

So $`V`$ is an orthogonal direct sum of the blocks (or paired blocks) and there is no loss in assuming that either there is a single block or precisely two paired blocks. We now assume that is the case and consider these summands.

We deal with this last case. Then $`n=2m`$. Replacing $`g`$ by an equivalent element, allows us to assume that $`h=\mathrm{diag}(B,B^\tau )`$ where the characteristic polynomial of $`B`$ is a power of one of the two irreducible factors (and the other factor corresponds to $`B^\tau `$). This is essentially the primary decomposition for $`h`$ – specifying the relationship between the two blocks. Since $`g`$ interchanges the two blocks, we see that all solutions to $`gg^\tau =h`$ are of the form:

$$g=\left(\begin{array}{cc}0& A\\ D^\tau & 0\end{array}\right),$$

where $`AD=B`$ and $`A`$ (so also $`D`$) commutes with $`B`$.

In particular, a straightforward computation shows that all solutions to $`gg^\tau =h`$ are in the same $`C_G(h)`$ orbit. Thus, we may replace $`g`$ and assume that $`A=B`$ and $`D=I`$.

Once we have made this simplification, we see that since $`O_g`$ centralizes $`h`$, $`O_g=\{\mathrm{diag}(C,C^\tau )|BC=CB\}`$. Let

$$J=\left(\begin{array}{cc}0& I\\ I& 0\end{array}\right).$$

Then $`h`$ preserves the alternating form defined by $`J`$ and $`O_g=C_{\mathrm{Sp}(J)}(h)C_{GL_m(F)}(B)`$. In particular, we see that (over an algebraically closed field) $`O_g`$ is connected and has dimension at least $`m`$ (the rank of $`\mathrm{Sp}(J)`$ and every centralizer has dimension at least $`m`$). Indeed for a generic $`g`$, we see that $`O_g`$ is a maximal torus in this symplectic group.

Note also that all nondegenerate alternating forms preserved by $`h`$ are in a single $`C_G(h)`$ orbit (for $`B`$ and $`B^\tau `$ have no fixed points on $`^2`$) and so any such form must be of the form

$$\left(\begin{array}{cc}0& X^{}\\ X& 0\end{array}\right),$$

and so in the orbit of $`C_G(h)`$. Moreover, the argument above showed that $`C_S(h)`$ was independent of the choice of the symplectic group containing $`h`$.

Next consider the case where $`f`$ is irreducible of degree $`n=2m`$ and the roots of $`f`$ are closed under inverses. By passing to a (finite) Galois extension of $`F`$, we can reduce to the previous case (if $`F`$ is separably closed, every irreducible polynomial has a single root and so since we are excluding $`\pm 1`$ as possible roots, we have split $`f`$ appropriately). By a general descent argument (or arguing as in \[Go3\]) since $`O_g`$ is a product of $`GL^{}s`$ modulo its unipotent radical, we see that in this case, being equivalent over an extension field implies equivalence over the original field (in particular over a finite field, we just apply Lang’s theorem). We can always choose our alternating form to be defined over $`F`$ (if $`F`$ is infinite, use a density argument or just take an $`F`$-basis for the fixed points on the exterior square and a generic linear combination over $`F`$ will be nondegenerate; if $`F`$ is finite, we saw that over the algebraic closure, these form a single $`C_G(h)`$ orbit with a stabilizer being $`C_S(h)C_{\mathrm{GL}(m)}(h)`$). So as in the previous case, for any symplectic group $`S`$ containing $`h`$ (defined over $`F`$), $`O_g=C_S(h)`$.

We record these observations (see also \[Go3\] and \[Wat\]).

###### Theorem 8.3.

Suppose that $`h:=(g\tau )^2`$ has minimal polynomial relatively prime to $`z^21`$. Then $`n=2m`$ is even. There exist nondegenerate $`h`$-stable alternating forms defined over $`F`$. Moreover for any such form with corresponding symplectic group $`S`$, we have:

1. $`O_g=C_S(h)`$ is connected (over the algebraic closure).
2. If $`xx^\tau `$ is conjugate to $`h`$, then $`x`$ and $`g`$ are congruent.
3. If $`g,xG`$ and $`g`$ and $`x`$ are congruent over $`\overline{F}`$, then they are congruent over $`F`$.
4. Any two solutions $`xx^\tau =h`$ are congruent via an element of $`C_G(h)`$;
5. $`g`$, $`g^{}`$ and $`g^1`$ are all congruent.

Thus, if $`gGL(n,F)`$ with $`h`$ as above, we see that there is a bijection between similarity classes of such $`h`$ and classes of bilinear forms. Since the first situation is well understood, so is the second.

Using the previous result, we can give another proof of Theorem 4.2 for such elements.

###### Corollary 8.4.

Let $`F`$ be a finite field and $`hG=\mathrm{GL}(n,F)`$ with the minimal polynomial of $`h`$ relatively prime to $`z^21`$. Assume that $`h`$ and $`h^1`$ are conjugate in $`\mathrm{GL}(n,F)`$. In particular, $`n`$ is even.

1. The number of solutions of $`gg^\tau =h`$ is $`|C_G(h):O_g|`$;
2. The probability that a random $`gG`$ satisfies $`gg^\tau `$ is conjugate to $`h`$ is equal to the probability that a random element of $`\mathrm{Sp}(n,F)`$ is conjugate to $`h`$.
3. The probability that a random $`gG`$ satisfies $`gg^\tau `$ is regular semisimple is the probability that a random element of $`\mathrm{Sp}(n,F)`$ is regular semisimple.
4. The probability that a random $`gG`$ satisfies $`gg^\tau `$ does not have eigenvalue $`\pm 1`$ is the probability that a random element of $`\mathrm{Sp}(n,F)`$ does not have $`\pm 1`$ as an eigenvalue.

###### Proof.

As we noted above, over the algebraic closure of $`F`$, the solutions to $`gg^\tau =h`$ are a single $`C_G(h)`$ orbit with connected stabilizer $`O_g`$. Over a finite field, we can just apply Lang’s theorem to conclude the same is true over $`F`$. This proves the first statement.

Thus, the number of solutions $`gg^\tau `$ conjugate to $`h`$ is $`|G:O_g|`$ and the probability that a random $`g`$ satisfies this is $`1/|O_g|=1/|C_S(h)|`$ as claimed.

Summing over regular semisimple $`hS`$ yields the third statement.

Summing over all such $`hS`$ yields the final statement. ∎

If $`n>1`$ is odd, we obtain a similar result. Let $`F`$ be a finite field of cardinality $`q`$. Assume that $`h`$ is conjugate to its inverse and has determinant $`1`$. Then $`1`$ is an eigenvalue for $`h`$. We may assume that $`h=\mathrm{diag}(h_0,1)`$ where $`h_0`$ is as in the previous result. So if $`gg^\tau =h`$, then $`g=\mathrm{diag}(g_0,1)`$ and $`O_g=O_{g_0}\times \mu _2`$ where $`\mu _2`$ is the group of second roots of unity in $`F`$. Moreover, we note that we could replace the symplectic group in the previous theorem by an orthogonal group (with essentially no change in proof). There is an issue of what form of the orthogonal group. However, in the case we are over a finite field with $`n`$ odd this is not a problem. Thus, we see that $`O_g=C_{O_n(F)}(h)`$.

We also see that the number of solutions to the equation to $`xx^\tau =h`$ is exactly $`q1`$ times the number of solutions to $`yy^\tau =h_0`$. Denote this last number by $`N(h_0)`$. Thus, the number of solutions to $`xx^\tau `$ being a conjugate of $`h`$ is $`|G:C_G(h)|(q1)N(h_0)`$.

Thus, the probability that a random $`x`$ is a solution to $`xx^\tau `$ conjugate to $`h`$ is $`(q1)N(h_0)/|C_G(h)|=N(h_0)/|C_{\mathrm{GL}(n1,q)}(h_0)|`$ is the probability that a random $`y\mathrm{GL}(n1,q)`$ is a solution to $`yy^\tau =h_0`$. Summarizing we have:

###### Corollary 8.5.

Let $`F`$ be a finite field and $`hG=\mathrm{GL}(n,F)`$ with $`h=\mathrm{diag}(h_0,1)`$ with the characteristic polynomial $`f`$ of $`h_0`$ relatively prime to $`z^21`$. Assume that $`h`$ and $`h^1`$ are conjugate in $`\mathrm{GL}(n,F)`$. In particular, $`n=2m+1`$ is odd.

1. $`O_g=C_{O_n(F)}(h)`$ for some orthogonal group $`O_n(F)`$ containing $`h`$;
2. The number of solutions of $`gg^\tau =h`$ is $`|C_G(h):O_g||\mu _2(F)|`$;
3. The probability that a random $`gG`$ satisfies $`gg^\tau `$ is conjugate to $`h`$ is equal to the probability that a random element of $`\mathrm{Sp}(n1,F)`$ is conjugate to $`h_0`$.
4. The probability that a random $`gG`$ satisfies $`gg^\tau `$ is regular semisimple is the probability that a random element of $`\mathrm{Sp}(n1,F)`$ is regular semisimple.
5. The probability that a random $`gG`$ satisfies $`gg^\tau `$ has characteristic polynomial $`(z1)w(z)`$ where $`w(z)`$ is relatively prime to $`z^21`$ is the probability that a random element of $`\mathrm{Sp}(n1,F)`$ has no eigenvalue $`\pm 1`$.

Note that many of the results stated above do not hold for all nondegenerate bilinear forms. Any two symmetric invertible matrices are congruent over an algebraically closed field of characteristic not $`2`$ but this is not the case for fields which are not quadratically closed.

We now point out some consequences over an algebraically closed field.

###### Lemma 8.6.

Let $`F`$ be an algebraically closed field. Set $`G:=\mathrm{GL}(n,F)`$ and $`E:=\{gG:gg^\tau \text{ has distinct eigenvalues}\}`$. Suppose that $`gE`$.

1. $`E`$ is a nonempty open subset of $`G`$;
2. Either $`n`$ is even and $`O_g`$ is a torus of dimension $`n/2`$ or $`n=2m+1`$ and $`O_g=T\times \mu _2`$ where $`T`$ is a torus of dimension $`m`$ and $`\mu _2`$ is the groups of second roots of unity in $`F`$.
3. There exists an involution $`xG`$ such that the $`1`$-eigenspace of $`x`$ has dimension $`n/2`$ with $`xgx^{}=g^{}`$.
4. Any solution $`x`$ to $`xgx^{}=g^{}`$ is an involution. Moreover, either $`x`$ or $`x`$ has fixed space of dimension $`n/2`$.

###### Proof.

$`E`$ is clearly open. Arguing as we have before, we see that $`V`$ is an orthogonal direct sum of subspaces of dimension $`2`$ plus a $`1`$-dimensional summand if $`n`$ is odd (each two dimensional summand is the span of $`h`$-eigenvectors corresponding to inverse eigenvalues – the $`1`$-dimensional summand is the fixed space of $`h`$).

To show it is nonempty thus reduces to the $`2\times 2`$ case, where it is clear. Again, the computation of $`O_g`$ reduces to checking the cases where $`n2`$. If $`n=1`$, then $`O_g=\mu _2`$ and if $`n=2`$, $`O_g`$ is a $`1`$-dimensional torus. Similarly, the last statement reduces to the case of $`n2`$. ∎

###### Corollary 8.7.

$`dimO_An/2`$ for any $`A`$.

###### Proof.

This is true on an open dense subvariety by the previous result. It is now standard to see the result holds on the closure (consider the subvariety $`(g,A)G\times M_n(F)`$ where $`gAg^{}=A`$; then $`O_A`$ is the fiber over $`A`$ of the projection onto the second fiber and has dimension $`[n/2]`$ on an open dense subset of $`M_n(F)`$, whence on all of $`M_n(F)`$). ∎

Next consider the case that the characteristic polynomial of $`h`$ is $`(z+1)^n`$ (assume that $`F`$ does not have characteristic $`2`$). We can view $`G^+`$ as a subgroup of $`GL(2n,F)`$ and can consider the Jordan decomposition of $`g\tau `$. Then $`g\tau =ug_1\tau =g_1\tau u`$ where $`u`$ is unipotent and $`(g_1\tau )^2=1`$; i.e. $`g_1`$ is a skew symmetric matrix. By passing to a congruent element, we may assume that $`g_1=J`$, some fixed skew symmetric matrix (and again $`n`$ is even – or use the fact that $`h`$ has determinant $`1`$). The fact that $`u`$ commutes with $`J\tau `$ is equivalent to the fact that $`u\mathrm{Sp}_J`$. So we see that such elements correspond to unipotent conjugacy classes in the symplectic group (and conversely since we are not in characteristic $`2`$, every such element is the square of $`g\tau `$ for some $`g`$).

So in this case, there is a bijection between unipotent conjugacy classes in the symplectic group and equivalence classes of such forms.

Finally, consider the case that the characteristic polynomial of $`h`$ is $`(z1)^n`$. If $`F`$ does not have characteristic $`2`$, we argue precisely as above and we see that we may take $`g\tau =ug_1\tau =g_1\tau u`$ where $`g_1`$ is a symmetric matrix and $`u`$ is a unipotent element in the orthogonal group corresponding to the symmetric bilinear form $`g_1`$. In particular, if $`F`$ is finite, there are two choices for the class of $`g_1`$ and then the unipotent classes in each of the corresponding orthogonal groups.

If $`F`$ has characteristic $`2`$, then $`g\tau `$ has order a power of $`2`$ and so $`g\tau `$ is contained in a maximal unipotent subgroup of $`G^+`$. All such are conjugate (essentially by Sylow’s theorem or its analog for linear groups) and so we see that we may assume that $`gU`$, a maximal unipotent subgroup of $`G`$ and $`\tau `$ normalizes $`U`$.

These observations will show that:

###### Lemma 8.8.

Assume that $`F`$ is a finite field. Write $`n=2m+\delta `$ with $`\delta `$ either $`0`$ or $`1`$. If $`h:=(g\tau )^2`$ has characteristic polynomial $`(z\pm 1)^n`$, then either $`O_g`$ has order divisible by $`q^m`$ or $`q`$ is odd, $`n=2`$ and $`|O_g|>q^m`$.

###### Proof.

If $`n=1`$, there is nothing to prove. So assume that $`n2`$.

First consider the case where $`F`$ has odd characteristic. Then $`O_g=C_H(h^2)`$ where $`H`$ is a symplectic or orthogonal group containing the unipotent element $`h^2`$. If $`H`$ is a symplectic group, then $`\delta =0`$ and $`H`$ has rank $`m`$. This result is well known for semisimple groups (either by inspection of the classes or by counting fixed points on unipotent subgroups – cf \[FG1\]). If $`H`$ is an orthogonal group, the same argument applies unless $`n=2`$ (the semisimple rank of $`H`$ is $`m`$). If $`n=2`$ and $`H`$ is an orthogonal group, then $`O_g`$ is $`O_2^ϵ(q)`$ and so has order greater than $`q`$ (but not divisible by $`q`$).

Now suppose that $`F`$ has characteristic $`2`$ (a variant of this approach would work in characteristic not $`2`$ as well). We may assume that $`g\tau `$ normalizes the standard unipotent subgroup $`U`$ and $`hU`$ (because any two Sylow $`2`$-subgroups of $`G^+`$ are conjugate).

We claim that $`C_U(g\tau )`$ has order divisible by $`q^m`$. It suffices to show that after passing to the algebraic closure that $`dimC_{\overline{U}}(g\tau )m`$ (here $`\overline{U}`$ is the maximal unipotent subgroup containing $`U`$ over the algebraic closure). This is because the fixed points of the $`q`$-Frobenius map on any connected unipotent group of dimension $`m`$ has $`q^m`$ elements. Let $`V=g\tau \overline{U}`$. This is a connected variety. Let $`s:VU`$ be the squaring map. It suffices to show that $`dimC_{\overline{U}}(g\tau u)m`$ for $`u`$ in an nonempty open subset of $`\overline{U}`$. If $`n=2`$, then the Sylow $`2`$-subgroup of $`G^+`$ is abelian and the result is clear. So assume that $`n>2`$. Suppose that $`n>2`$ is odd. Let $`R`$ be the set of regular unipotent elements in $`\overline{U}`$.

By Theorem 4.2, it follows that $`s^1(R)`$ is nonempty and so is a nonempty open subvariety. If $`g\tau u`$ is in this set, we claim that $`O_g=C_{\mathrm{GL}}(g\tau u)\overline{U}`$. The centralizer of $`(g\tau u)^2`$ is contained in $`T\overline{U}`$ where $`T`$ is the group of scalars. Note that $`C_T(g\tau u)=1`$, whence the claim. If $`n`$ is even, we replace $`R`$ by $`R_1`$, the set of elements in $`\overline{U}`$ that correspond to a partition of shape $`(n1,1)`$. Again by Theorem 4.2, the set of $`g\tau u`$ whose square is in $`R_1`$ is a nonempty open subvariety. For such an element, $`C_{\mathrm{GL}}(g\tau u)T\overline{U}`$ where $`T`$ is a $`2`$-dimensional torus. Moreover, $`T`$ has eigenspaces of dimension $`1`$ and $`n1`$, whence $`g\tau u`$ acts as inversion on $`T\overline{U}/\overline{U}`$ and so $`C_{\mathrm{GL}}(g\tau u)\overline{U}`$. So in either case, we have shown that there is a nonempty open subset of $`g\tau \overline{U}`$ whose centralizer is contained in $`\overline{U}`$. We have already observed that any centralizer in $`\mathrm{GL}`$ has dimension at least $`m`$, whence the result. ∎

These results immediately yield a completely different proof of the lower bound in Theorem 6.3:

###### Corollary 8.9.

Let $`F`$ be a finite field. Let $`g\mathrm{GL}(2m+\delta ,F)`$ with $`\delta =0`$ or $`1`$. The minimum size of $`O_g`$ is at least the smallest centralizer size of an element in $`|\mathrm{Sp}(2m,F)|`$, and hence at least $`(1\frac{1}{q^2}\frac{1}{q^4})^2q^m\left(\frac{11/q}{4elog_q(2m)}\right)^{1/2}`$.

###### Proof.

Set $`h=(g\tau )^2`$. We split $`V`$ as an orthogonal sum of $`V_i,1i3`$ – where $`h`$ is unipotent on $`V_1`$, $`h`$ is $`u`$ with $`u`$ unipotent on $`V_2`$ and the minimal polynomial of $`h`$ is relatively prime to $`(z^21)`$ on $`V_3`$. On $`V_2V_3`$, the previous result implies that $`|O_g|`$ is at least as big as the centralizer of some element in $`Sp(n_2+n_3,q)`$ (note that $`n_i:=dimV_i`$ is even for $`i1`$).

On $`V_1`$, we see that $`|O_g|q^{n_1/2}`$. If $`n_1`$ is even, take an element in $`Sp(n,q)`$ (note $`n`$ is even) that is regular unipotent of size $`n_1+n_2`$ and $`h`$ on $`V_3`$ and we see that this centralizer is no bigger than $`|O_g|`$. If $`n_2`$ is odd, take the element as above in $`\mathrm{Sp}(n1,q)`$ and conclude the same result.

The lower bound on centralizer sizes of elements in $`Sp(2m,q)`$ appears in \[FG3\]. ∎

## 9. Number of Conjugacy Classes

This section gives upper bounds for the number of $`G^+(n,q)`$ conjugacy classes in the coset $`GL(n,q)\tau `$ and also treats a variation (which we use in \[FG2\]) for $`SL(n,q)`$. Let us make some preliminary remarks about $`G^+(n,q)`$ to show that our bound has substance. It is well-known that $`GL(n,q)`$ has at most $`q^n`$ conjugacy classes, and so it follows that the number of conjugacy classes in $`G^+(n,q)`$ is at most $`2q^n`$. In fact we shall see that the number of classes in the coset $`GL(n,q)\tau `$ is at most $`28q^{n/2}`$. Throughout this section, we will let $`k(GL(n,q)\tau )`$ denote the number of $`G^+(n,q)`$ conjugacy classes in the coset $`GL(n,q)\tau `$.

In fact Gow \[Go3\] derived (in the language of bilinear forms) generating functions for the number of $`G^+(n,q)`$ conjugacy classes in the coset $`G(n,q)\tau `$. See Waterhouse \[Wat\] for a different proof of Proposition 9.1. They did not however, give explicit upper bounds.

###### Proposition 9.1.

(\[Go3\]) Let $`g(t)`$ be the generating function

$$g(t)=1+\underset{n1}{}t^nk(GL(n,q)\tau ).$$

Let $`f=1`$ if the characteristic is even and $`f=2`$ if the characteristic is odd. Then $`g(t)=_{i1}\frac{(1+t^i)^f}{1qt^{2i}}.`$

###### Lemma 9.2.

For $`q\sqrt{2}`$,

$$1\frac{1}{q}\frac{1}{q^2}+\frac{1}{q^5}+\frac{1}{q^7}\frac{1}{q^{12}}\frac{1}{q^{15}}<\underset{i1}{}(1\frac{1}{q^i})<11/q.$$

###### Proof.

This is proved along the same lines as Lemma 3.5 of \[NP\]. Namely the upper bound is obvious and the lower bound follows from Euler’s pentagonal number theorem (exposed in \[A\]), which states that

$`{\displaystyle \underset{i1}{}}(11/q^i)`$ $`=`$ $`1+{\displaystyle \underset{n1}{}}(1)^n(q^{n(3n1)/2}+q^{n(3n+1)/2})`$
$`=`$ $`11/q1/q^2+1/q^5+1/q^71/q^{12}1/q^{15}`$
$`+1/q^{22}+1/q^{26}\mathrm{}.`$
Since $`q\sqrt{2}`$, one has that the sum consisting of powers of $`q`$ higher than $`1/q^{26}`$ has magnitude less than $`1/q^{22}`$. ∎

###### Lemma 9.3.

(\[MR\]) The coefficient of $`t^n`$ in $`_{i1}\frac{1q^i}{1tq^i}`$ is at most $`q^n`$.

We remark that the generating function in Lemma 9.3 is the generating function for the number of conjugacy classes in $`GL(n,q)`$. Theorem 9.4 gives upper bounds on $`k(GL(n,q)\tau )`$.

###### Theorem 9.4.

1. $`k(GL(n,q)\tau )28q^{n/2}`$ if $`q`$ even.
2. $`k(GL(n,q)\tau )23q^{n/2}`$ if $`q`$ odd.

###### Proof.

Let us first consider $`k(GL(2n,q)\tau )`$ in the case that the characteristic is even. By Proposition \[Go3\], for the first part we seek the coefficient of $`t^{2n}`$ in $`_i\frac{1+t^i}{1qt^{2i}}`$. Writing this generating function as

$$\underset{i}{}\frac{1t^{2i}}{1qt^{2i}}\underset{i}{}\frac{1}{1t^i},$$

one sees from Lemma 9.3 and the fact that all coefficients in $`_i\frac{1+t^i}{1t^{2i}}`$ are positive that the sought coefficient is at most

$`q^n{\displaystyle \underset{m0}{}}{\displaystyle \frac{1}{q^m}}Coeff.t^{2m}in{\displaystyle \underset{i}{}}{\displaystyle \frac{1}{1t^i}}`$
$``$ $`q^n{\displaystyle \underset{i}{}}{\displaystyle \frac{1}{11/q^{i/2}}}.`$
The quantity $`_i\frac{1}{11/q^{i/2}}`$ is maximized (among legal $`q`$) for $`q=2`$. Then Lemma 9.2 implies that $`k(GL(2n,q)\tau )28q^n`$. The case $`k(GL(2n+1,q)\tau )`$ with even characteristic is similar.

For the second part, let us examine the case $`k(GL(2n,q)\tau )`$ where the characteristic is odd. Writing the generating function as

$$\underset{i1}{}\frac{1t^{2i}}{1qt^{2i}}\underset{i1}{}\frac{1+t^i}{1t^i}$$

the same argument shows that the sought coefficient is at most

$`q^n{\displaystyle \underset{m0}{}}{\displaystyle \frac{1}{q^m}}Coeff.t^{2m}in{\displaystyle \underset{i}{}}{\displaystyle \frac{1+t^i}{1t^i}}`$
$``$ $`q^n{\displaystyle \underset{i}{}}{\displaystyle \frac{1+1/q^{i/2}}{11/q^{i/2}}}.`$
The quantity $`_i\frac{1+1/q^{i/2}}{11/q^{i/2}}`$ is maximized (among legal $`q`$) for $`q=3`$. Rewriting this as $`_i\frac{11/q^i}{(11/q^{i/2})^2}`$ and applying Lemma 9.2 (once to upper bound the numerator and once to lower bound the denominator) establishes the upper bound of $`23q^n`$. The case $`k(GL(2n+1,q)\tau )`$ is similar. ∎

Next we determine the fixed $`q`$, large $`n`$ asymptotics of $`k(GL(n,q)\tau )`$.

###### Lemma 9.5.

(Darboux \[Od\]) Suppose that $`f(u)`$ is analytic for $`|u|<r,r>0`$ and has a finite number of simple poles on $`|u|=r`$. Letting $`w_j`$ denote the poles, and $`g_j(u)`$ be such that $`f(u)=\frac{g_j(u)}{1u/w_j}`$ and $`g_j(u)`$ is analytic near $`w_j`$, then as $`n\mathrm{}`$, the difference between the coefficient of $`u^n`$ in $`f(u)`$ and $`_j\frac{g_j(w_j)}{w_j^n}`$ goes to 0.

###### Proposition 9.6.

Suppose that $`q`$ is fixed. Let $`f=1`$ if the characteristic is even and $`f=2`$ if the characteristic is odd.

1. $$lim_n\mathrm{}\frac{k(GL(2n,q)\tau )}{q^n}=\frac{1}{2}\frac{_{i1}(1+\frac{1}{q^{i/2}})^f+_{i1}(1+\frac{(1)^i}{q^{i/2}})^f}{_{i1}(1\frac{1}{q^i})}$$
2. $$lim_n\mathrm{}\frac{k(GL(2n+1,q)\tau )}{q^n}=\frac{q^{.5}}{2}\frac{_{i1}(1+\frac{1}{q^{i/2}})^f_{i1}(1+\frac{(1)^i}{q^{i/2}})^f}{_{i1}(1\frac{1}{q^i})}$$

###### Proof.

Let us prove the first part, the second part being similar. ¿From Proposition 9.1, $`\frac{k(GL(2n,q)\tau )}{q^n}`$ is the coefficient of $`t^{2n}`$ in

$$g(\frac{t}{\sqrt{q}})=\frac{1}{1t^2}\underset{i1}{}\frac{(1+t^i/q^{i/2})^f}{1t^{2(i+1)}/q^i}.$$

The result now follows from Lemma 9.5. ∎

Although we do not need it, we include the following proposition for completeness.

###### Proposition 9.7.

1. $`k(G^+(n,q))=\frac{1}{2}k(GL(n,q))+\frac{3}{2}k(GL(n,q)\tau )`$.
2. For $`q`$ fixed and $`n`$ big, $`k(G^+(n,q))`$ is asymptotic is $`\frac{q^n}{2}`$.

###### Proof.

As explained in \[Go1\], a real conjugacy class of $`GL(n,q)`$ remains a conjugacy class in $`G^+(n,q)`$ and an inverse pair of non-real conjugacy classes of $`GL(n,q)`$ merges into a single conjugacy class in $`G^+(n,q)`$. Thus the elements of $`GL(n,q)`$ account for $`k(GL(n,q))/2`$ plus one half the number of real conjugacy classes of $`GL(n,q)`$. The first assertion now follows from \[Go3\], which shows that $`k(GL(n,q)\tau )`$ is the number of real conjugacy classes of $`GL(n,q)`$.

The second assertion follows from the first assertion, together with Proposition 9.6 and the fact from \[FG3\] that $`k(GL(n,q))`$ is asymptotic to $`q^n`$ for $`q`$ fixed. ∎

Next we treat $`<SL(n,q),\tau >`$ classes rather than $`<GL(n,q),\tau >`$ classes.

We consider the orbits of $`\mathrm{SL}(n,F)`$ on $`M_n(F)`$ under the action $`AgAg^{}`$. Clearly, $`\mathrm{SL}(n,F)`$ preserves determinant. Moreover, given any $`A`$, there is certainly is $`B`$ in the $`\mathrm{GL}`$-orbit of $`A`$ with $`det(B)=b^2det(A)`$ for any $`bF`$. So we restrict our attention to matrices with a fixed determinant (and all that matters is the square class of the determinant). So consider $`A\mathrm{GL}(n,F)`$ with $`det(A)=d`$ nonzero.

###### Lemma 9.8.

The set of matrices of determinant $`d0`$ that are $`GL`$ congruent to $`A`$ is a single $`\mathrm{SL}`$-orbit if $`O_A`$ contains an element of determinant $`1`$ and splits into two orbits otherwise (which are in bijection).

We note that for $`n`$ even a generic $`A`$ (i.e. $`AA^\tau `$ having distinct eigenvalues) satisfies $`O_A\mathrm{SL}(n,F)`$ ($`O_A`$ is a torus contained in a symplectic group). So in this case the $`\mathrm{GL}`$ orbit of $`A`$ intersect the set of matrices with $`det=d`$ splits into two orbits for $`\mathrm{SL}`$. If $`n`$ is odd, $`IO_A`$ for every $`A`$.

Thus, over a finite field:

###### Lemma 9.9.

Let $`F`$ be a finite field and $`n`$ a positive integer. Fix $`g\mathrm{GL}(n,F)`$.

1. If $`n`$ is odd, then the number of $`\mathrm{SL}(n,F)`$ conjugacy classes in the coset $`\mathrm{SL}(n,F)g\tau `$ is the number of $`\mathrm{GL}(n,F)`$ conjugacy classes in the coset $`\mathrm{GL}(n,F)\tau `$.
2. If $`n`$ is even, then the number of $`\mathrm{SL}(n,F)`$ conjugacy classes in the coset $`\mathrm{SL}(n,F)g\tau `$ is less than twice number of $`\mathrm{GL}(n,F)`$ conjugacy classes in the coset $`\mathrm{GL}(n,F)\tau `$.

We also see that the $`\mathrm{SL}(n,q),\tau `$ centralizer of $`g\tau `$ is either equal to the $`\mathrm{GL}(n,q),\tau `$ centralizer or has index $`2`$ in it (with equality in characteristic $`2`$ or generically when $`n`$ is even and always nonequality if $`qn`$ is odd). So the bounds from Section 6 are applicable. Also, the smallest centralizer size does not change when $`n`$ is even.

## 10. Some Examples with Derangements

In the series of papers beginning with \[FG1\], the authors have verified Shalev’s conjecture that the proportion of derangements in a simple group is bounded away from $`0`$ (by an absolute constant). This immediately implies the same result for $`G^+(n,q)`$. However, we give some examples to show that if we restrict our attention to the coset containing $`\tau `$ (which is relevant to images of rational points on curves over finite fields), this need not be the case. For a full treatment, see the forthcoming paper \[FG2\]. Our purpose here is to give some examples which are instant corollaries of results in earlier sections of this paper.

Set $`G=\mathrm{GL}(n,q)`$ and $`G^+=G,\tau `$. All our actions are projective actions and so we are really working in the quotient. In particular, for $`n=2`$, $`\tau `$ is an inner automorphism on $`\mathrm{PGL}(2,q)`$. We thus assume that $`n>2`$.

Example 1  Suppose that $`n>2`$ is even. Let $`\mathrm{\Omega }`$ be the set of $`1`$-dimensional spaces of alternating nondegenerate forms over $`F_q`$. This is a single $`G`$ orbit and is acted on by $`G^+`$ with stabilizer $`H`$ the normalizer of $`GSp(n,q)`$. Let $`S=Sp(n,q)<H`$.

Suppose that $`h:=(x\tau )^2`$ is a regular semisimple element. We have seen that $`C_G(x\tau )`$ is conjugate to a maximal torus of $`S`$.

Now suppose that $`q`$ is even. It is straightforward to see that we can solve $`(y\tau )^2=h`$ with $`y\tau `$ normalizing $`S`$ (because every semisimple element has odd order). Then $`x\tau `$ and $`y\tau `$ are conjugate, whence $`x\tau `$ has a fixed point on $`\mathrm{\Omega }`$. By Corollary 4.4 the probability that $`(x\tau )^2`$ is regular semisimple is equal to the probability that an element of $`Sp(n,q)`$ is regular semisimple, and hence approximately $`12/q`$ (\[GL\],\[FNP\]) when $`q`$ is big. So for large $`q`$, we see that the proportion of derangements in the coset of $`\tau `$ is at most approximately $`2/q`$ and goes to $`0`$ as $`q\mathrm{}`$ (independently of $`n`$).

We can say a bit more. Let $`F`$ be the algebraic closure of $`F_q`$. In characteristic $`2`$, the non semisimple regular elements in $`\mathrm{Sp}(n,F)`$ form a subvariety of codimension $`1`$ with $`2`$ components (one consisting of elements that commute with a long root element and one with a short root element). One computes that the generic element $`h`$ of the component consisting of elements that commute with a short root element has no eigenvalue $`1`$. By our earlier results, such elements are of the form $`gg^\tau `$. On the other hand, there is no solution $`xx^\tau =h`$ with $`xGSp(n,F)`$ (for $`\mathrm{Sp}(n,F)`$ is the centralizer of $`J\tau `$ for some skew symmetric matrix $`J`$ and so $`(s(J\tau ))^2=h`$ implies that $`h`$ is a square in $`GSp(n,F)`$ which is easily seen not to be the case). Thus, the elements in this component generically are derangements and so we see that the proportion of derangements is at least $`O(1/q)`$.

For a lower bound with $`q`$ fixed, note that if $`xx^\tau `$ is regular semisimple (i.e. square-free characteristic polynomial) except for having a non self-conjugate pair $`\{\varphi ,\overline{\varphi }\}`$ of degree 1 polynomials which each have Jordan type consisting of a single part of size 2, then $`x\tau `$ is a derangement. Now suppose that $`q>2`$ even is fixed. Then by Theorem 7.3, the $`n\mathrm{}`$ proportion of such elements is

$$\frac{q2}{2}\frac{1}{q^2(11/q)}\frac{rs_{Sp}(n,\mathrm{})}{1+\frac{1}{q1}}$$

(the factor $`\frac{q2}{2}`$ counts the number of possible pairs $`\{\varphi ,\overline{\varphi }\}`$). Here $`rs_{Sp}(n,\mathrm{})`$ is the fixed $`q`$ large $`n`$ limiting proportion of regular semisimple elements in $`Sp(n,q)`$, proved in \[FNP\] to lie between $`\frac{(q1)^2(q^2+2q+2)}{q^2(q+1)^2}`$ and $`\frac{q1}{q+1}`$ when $`q`$ is even. Hence the limiting proportion of such $`x\tau `$ is bounded away from $`0`$ for small $`q`$ and large $`n`$; moreover the lower bound is roughly $`\frac{1}{2q}`$ for $`q`$ not too small. For a lower bound for $`q=2`$, note that if $`xx^\tau `$ has a z-1 component of dimension 4 and has Jordan structure 3,1, then it cannot be in a symplectic group. By Theorem 7.3, the fixed $`q`$ large $`n`$ limiting probability that $`\lambda _{z1}(gg^\tau )`$ has size 4 with parts of size 1 and 3 is $`\frac{1}{q^2}_{i=1}^{\mathrm{}}(1\frac{1}{q^{2i1}})`$.

If $`q`$ is odd, then a similar analysis shows that if $`gg^\tau =h`$ is a regular semisimple element and is a nonsquare, then $`g\tau `$ is a derangement in this action. Since every maximal torus of $`\mathrm{Sp}(2n,q)`$ has even order, at most $`1/2`$ (and typically much less) of the elements of a maximal torus are squares. If $`q`$ is large, then almost all elements are regular semisimple and at least close to $`1/2`$ of them are nonsquares. Thus, the limiting proportion of derangements in the coset of $`\tau `$ is at least $`1/2`$ as $`q\mathrm{}`$.

For fixed $`q>3`$, again note that if $`xx^\tau `$ is regular semisimple except for having a non self-conjugate pair $`\{\varphi ,\overline{\varphi }\}`$ of degree 1 polynomials which each have Jordan type consisting of a single part of size 2, then $`x\tau `$ is a derangement. Then by Theorem 7.3, the $`n\mathrm{}`$ proportion of such elements is

$$\frac{q3}{2}\frac{1}{q^2(11/q)}\frac{rs_{Sp}(n,\mathrm{})}{1+\frac{1}{q1}}$$

(the factor $`\frac{q3}{2}`$ counts the number of possible pairs $`\{\varphi ,\overline{\varphi }\}`$). Here $`rs_{Sp}(n,\mathrm{})`$ is the fixed $`q`$ large $`n`$ limiting proportion of regular semisimple elements in $`Sp(n,q)`$, proved in \[FNP\] to lie between $`1\frac{3}{q}+\frac{5}{q^2}\frac{10}{q^3}`$ and $`1\frac{3}{q}+\frac{5}{q^2}\frac{6}{q^3}`$ when $`q`$ is odd. The case $`q=3`$ can be treated exactly as the case $`q=2`$. Hence the limiting proportion of such $`x\tau `$ is bounded away from $`0`$ for fixed $`q`$ and large $`n`$.

To summarize, we see that either the proportion of derangements in the coset $`G\tau `$ goes to $`0`$ (as $`2/q`$ does) in the case $`q`$ is even or is bounded away from $`0`$ if $`q`$ is odd. Actually when $`q`$ is odd we proved uniform boundedness away from $`0`$ for all but finitely many $`(n,q)`$; however uniform boundedness for all $`n,q`$ now follows by a result of Jordan that any transitive permutation group acting on a set of size $`n>1`$ has a derangement.

Example 2  The next example shows that for $`n>2`$ odd, there is an action with few derangements in the coset of $`\tau `$.

Let $``$ denote the set of $`g`$ such that $`h:=gg^\tau `$ has characteristic polynomial $`(z1)^ϵw(z)`$ where $`w(z)`$ is prime to $`z^21`$ and $`ϵ=0`$ if $`n`$ is even and $`1`$ if $`n`$ is odd. If $`n`$ is odd, $`h`$ is conjugate to $`\mathrm{diag}(h_0,1)`$. Let $`S=S_h`$ be a symplectic group containing $`h`$ (or $`h_0`$ if $`n`$ is odd).

###### Lemma 10.1.

Suppose that $`n>2`$ is odd. Let $`G^+`$ act on the set $`\mathrm{\Gamma }`$ of complementary point-hyperplane pairs. Then $`g`$ implies that $`g\tau `$ has a fixed point on $`\mathrm{\Gamma }`$.

###### Proof.

Set $`h=gg^\tau `$. We can embed $`hH:=GL(1,q)\times GL(n1,q)`$ and then we see that $`xx^\tau =h`$ has a solution with $`xH`$. Thus, $`x\tau `$ normalizes $`H`$ and so $`x\tau `$ has a fixed point, whence $`g\tau `$ does (as $`g\tau `$ is conjugate to $`\lambda x\tau `$ for some $`\lambda F_q`$). ∎

In particular, if $`gg^\tau `$ is semisimple regular, this implies that $`g`$ has a fixed point. The proportion of such $`g\tau `$ with square not being regular semisimple is roughly $`2/q`$ (for $`q`$ even) and $`3/q`$ for $`q`$ odd (see Lemma 4.2 and \[GL\] or \[FNP\]). So the proportion of derangements in the coset $`G\tau `$ goes to zero as $`q\mathrm{}`$ (independently of $`n`$). Also note from Theorem 7.3 that the fixed $`q`$, $`n\mathrm{}`$ proportion of elements in $``$ is $`_{j1}(1\frac{1}{q^{2j1}})^f`$ where $`f=2`$ if the characteristic is odd and $`f=1`$ if the characteristic is even. For $`q`$ not too small this is roughly $`1\frac{f}{q}`$.

For a lower bound in the case of fixed $`q`$, $`n\mathrm{}`$, note that if $`gg^\tau `$ has $`\lambda _{z1}`$ being one part of size 3 and the characteristic polynomial of $`gg^\tau `$ has no degree 1 factors other than $`z1`$, it must be a derangement on the set of complementary point-hyperplane pairs. By Theorem 7.3, the proportion of such elements is

$$\frac{1}{q(11/q^2)}\underset{j1}{}(1\frac{1}{q^{2j1}})^f(1\frac{1}{q^j})^{(q1f)/2}$$

where $`f=2`$ if the characteristic is odd and $`f=1`$ if the characteristic is even. Since $`q2`$, this is at least $`\frac{c}{q}`$ where $`c`$ is a constant which is easy to make explicit.

Example 3  We now consider other actions on pairs of subspaces. For convenience we assume that $`n>2`$ is even (a similar analysis suffices for $`n`$ odd other than the case above). Fix $`k<nk`$. Let $`\mathrm{\Omega }_k`$ be the set of complementary pairs of subspaces of dimension $`k`$ and $`nk`$. Let $`\mathrm{\Gamma }_k`$ be the set of flags of type $`k,nk`$ (i.e pairs of subspaces $`U_1U_2`$ where $`dimU_1=k`$ and $`dimU_2=nk`$). Note that $`G^+`$ acts on both of these sets and that $`G`$ acts transitively.

###### Lemma 10.2.

Assume that $`n`$ is even and $`g`$ and set $`h=gg^\tau `$. Assume also that $`h`$ is semisimple.

1. $`g\tau `$ has a fixed point on $`\mathrm{\Omega }_k`$ if and only if $`h`$ fixes a nondegenerate $`k`$-dimensional subspace (with respect to the alternating form defining $`S`$).
2. $`g\tau `$ has a fixed point on $`\mathrm{\Gamma }_k`$ if and only if $`h`$ fixes a totally singular $`k`$-dimensional subspace (with respect to the alternating form defining $`S`$).

###### Proof.

Consider the various actions and let $`H`$ be the stabilizer of a point in one of these representations.

If $`xx^\tau =h`$, then $`x\tau `$ and $`g\tau `$ are conjugate, so it suffices to show that such an $`x`$ exists with $`x`$ fixing a point precisely when $`h`$ satisfies the conditions.

Consider $`\mathrm{\Omega }_k`$. The stabilizer of a point is $`H,\tau `$ where $`H=GL(k)\times GL(nk)`$. If $`xH`$ and $`xx^\tau `$ is conjugate to $`H`$, then $`h`$ must be real on both $`k`$ and $`nk`$ dimensional space. This implies that $`h`$ fixes a nondegenerate $`k`$ dimensional subspace (with respect to any $`h`$-invariant alternating form).

Conversely, if $`h`$ does fix a nondegenerate subspace of dimension $`k`$, there is a conjugate of $`h`$ in $`H`$ real in both $`GL(k)`$ and $`GL(nk)`$, whence the result.

The proof of the second assertion is similar (note also that a semisimple element of $`\mathrm{Sp}`$ fixes a totally singular $`k`$-dimensional subspace implies that it fixes a nonsingular subspace of dimension $`2k`$). ∎

It is proved in \[FG4\] that for all but finitely many symplectic groups, the proportion of elements which are regular semisimple and derangements on totally singular or nondegenerate $`k`$-spaces is bounded away from 0 by an explicit absolute constant. From Jordan’s theorem mentioned in Example 1, it follows that the proportion of derangements in this example is uniformly bounded away from $`0`$.