Exotic symmetric space over a finite field, I

Abstract

Let V be a 2n dimensional vector space over an algebraically closed field of odd characteristic. Let G = GL(V) and H = Sp_{2n} be the symplectic group contained in G. We call X = G/H \times V the exotic symmetric space, since its "unipotent" part is isomorphic to Kato's exotic nilcone. Let W be the Weyl group of type C_n. Kato established the Springer correspondence between irreducible characters of W and H-orbits in the exotic nilcone, based on the Ginzburg theory of affine Hecke algebras. In this paper, we develpoe a theory of character sheaves on X, and give an alternate proof for the Springer correspondence based on the theroy of character sheaves.

56 pages, the proof of Proposition 4.8 revised, and typos corrected. The results unchanged