English

A Probabilistic Approach to Conjugacy Classes in the Finite Symplectic and Orthogonal Groups

Group Theory 2007-05-23 v2 Probability

Abstract

Markov chains are used to give a purely probabilistic way of understanding the conjugacy classes of the finite symplectic and orthogonal groups in odd characteristic. As a corollary of these methods one obtains a probabilistic proof of Steinberg's count of unipotent matrices and generalizations of formulas of Rudvalis and Shinoda.

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Cite

@article{arxiv.math/0003010,
  title  = {A Probabilistic Approach to Conjugacy Classes in the Finite Symplectic and Orthogonal Groups},
  author = {Jason Fulman},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:math/0003010},
  year   = {2007}
}

Comments

Revised version; to appear in J. Algebra. Same results. We fix a possibly misleading typo, replacing u by u^2 in some normalization constants