Unipotent ideals for spin and exceptional groups

Abstract

In the monograph [27], we define the notion of a unipotent representation of a complex reductive group. The representations we define include, as a proper subset, all special unipotent representations in the sense of [4] and form the (conjectural) building blocks of the unitary dual. In [27] we provide combinatorial formulas for the infinitesimal characters of all unipotent representations of linear classical groups. In this paper, we establish analogous formulas for spin and exceptional groups, thus completing the determination of the infinitesimal characters of all unipotent ideals. Using these formulas, we prove an old conjecture of Vogan: all unipotent ideals are maximal. For G a real reductive Lie group (not necessarily complex), we introduce the notion of a unipotent representation attached to a rigid nilpotent orbit (in the complexified Lie algebra of G). Like their complex group counterparts, these representations form the (conjectural) building blocks of the unitary dual. Using the atlas software (and the work of [2]) we show that if G is a real form of a simple group of exceptional type, all such representations are unitary.