Character Sheaves of Algebraic Groups Defined over Non-Archimedean Local Fields

Abstract

This paper concerns character sheaves of connected reductive algebraic groups defined over non-Archimedean local fields and their relation with characters of smooth representations. Although character sheaves were devised with characters of representations of finite groups of Lie type in mind, character sheaves are perfectly well defined for reductive algebraic groups over any algebraically closed field. Nevertheless, the relation between character sheaves of an algebraic group $G$ over an algebraic closure of a field $K$ and characters of representations of $G(K)$ is well understood only when $K$ is a finite field and when $K$ is the field of complex numbers. In this paper we consider the case when $K$ is a non-Archimedean local field and explain how to match certain character sheaves of a connected reductive algebraic group $G$ with virtual representations of $G(K)$. In the final section of the paper we produce examples of character sheaves of general linear groups and matching admissible virtual representations.