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Journal of Algebra 228, 497–511 (2000) doi:10.1006/jabr.1999.8278, available online at http://www.idealibrary.com on

The Eigenvalue Distribution of a Random in Its Representation on Lines

Jason Fulman

View metadata, citationDepartment and similar of ,papers at core.ac.uk Stanford University, Building 380, MC 2125, brought to you by CORE Stanford, California 94305 provided by Elsevier - Publisher Connector E-mail: [email protected]

Communicated by Walter Feit

Received July 13, 1999

The eigenvalue distribution of a uniformly chosen random finite unipotent matrix in its action on lines is studied. We obtain bounds for the mean number of eigenvalues lying in a fixed arc of the unit circle and offer an approach to other asymptotics. For the case of all unipotent matrices, the proof gives a probabilis- tic interpretation to identities of Macdonald from symmetric function theory. For the case of upper triangular matrices over a finite field, connections between sym- metric function theory and a probabilistic growth algorithm of Borodin and Kirillov emerge. © 2000 Academic Press Key Words: ; symmetric functions; Hall–Littlewood polynomial.

1. INTRODUCTION

The subject of eigenvalues of random matrices is very rich. The eigen- value spacings of a complex chosen from Haar measure re- late to the spacings between the zeros of the [O, RS1, RS2]. For further recent work on random complex unitary matrices, see [DiS, R, So, W]. The references [Dy] and [Me] contain much of inter- est concerning the eigenvalues of a random matrix chosen from Dyson’s or- thogonal, unitary, and symplectic circular ensembles, for instance, connec- tions with the of nuclear energy levels. The papers [AD, BaiDeJ, Ok] and the references contained in them give exciting recent results relat- ing eigenvalue distributions of matrices to statistics of random such as the longest increasing subsequence.

497 0021-8693/00 $35.00 Copyright © 2000 by Academic Press All rights of reproduction in any form reserved. 498 jason fulman

Little work seems to have been done on the eigenvalue statistics of ele- ments chosen from finite groups. One recent step is Chapter 5 of Wieand’s thesis [W]. She studies the permutation eigenvalues of a of the symmetric in its representation on the set ”1;:::;n•. This note gives two natural q-analogs of Wieand’s work. For the first q-analog, let α ∈ GLn; q‘ be a random unipotent matrix. Letting V be the vector space on which α acts, we consider the eigenvalues of α in the permutation representation of GLn; q‘ on the lines of V .LetXθα‘ be the number of eigenvalues of α lying in a fixed arc 1;ei2πθ“; 0 <θ<1, of the unit circle. Bounds are obtained for the mean of Xθ (we suspect that as n →∞with q fixed, a normal limit theorem holds). A second q-analog which we analyze is the case when α is a randomly chosen unipotent upper over a finite field. A third interesting q-analog would be taking α uniformly chosen in GLn; q‘; however, this seems intractable. It would also be of interest to extend Wieand’s work to more general representations of the , using formulas of Stembridge [Ste]. The main method of this paper is to interpret identities of symmetric function theory in a probabilistic setting. Section 2 gives background and results in this direction. This interaction appears fruitful, and it is shown for instance that a probabilistic algorithm of Borodin and Kirillov describing the Jordan form of a random unipotent upper triangular matrix [Bo, Ki1] follows from the combinatorics of symmetric functions. This ties in with work on analogous algorithms for the unipotent conjugacy classes of finite classical groups [F1]. The applications to the eigenvalue problems described above appear in Section 3. We remark that quite different computations in symmetric function theory play the central role in the work of Diaconis and Shahshahani [DiS] on the eigenvalues of random complex classical matrices.

2. SYMMETRIC FUNCTIONS

To begin we describe some notation, asP on pages 2–5 of [Ma]. Let λ be a partition of a non-negative n = i λi into non-negative integral parts λ1 ≥ λ2 ≥···≥0. The notation ŽλŽ=n will mean that λ is a partition 0 of n.Letmiλ‘ be the number of parts of λ of size i, and let λ be the partition dual to λ in the sense that λ0 = m λ‘+m λ‘+···.Letnλ‘ be P i i i+1 the quantity i≥1i − 1‘λi. It is also useful to define the diagram associated 2 to λ as the set of points i; j‘∈Z such that 1 ≤ j ≤ λi. 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 the eigenvalue distribution 499

5441‘ is :::::

::::

::::

: L λi Let Gλ be an abelian p-group isomorphic to i Cycp ‘. We write G = λ if G is an abelian p-group isomorphic to G . Finally, let     λ  1 1 1 = 1 − ··· 1 − : r p r p p The rest of the paper will treat the case GLn; p‘ with p prime as op- posed to GLn; q‘. This reduction is made only to make the paper more accessible in places, allowing us to use the language of abelian p-groups rather than modules over power series rings. From Chapter 2 of Macdon- ald [Ma] it is clear that everything works for prime powers.

2.1. Unipotent Elements of GLn; p‘ It is well known that the unipotent conjugacy classes of GLn; p‘ are parametrized by partitions λ of n. A representative of the class λ is given by   M 000 λ1      0 Mλ 00  2    ;    00Mλ ···  3  000··· where Mi is the i ∗ i matrix of the form   110··· ··· 0      0110··· 0         0011··· 0      :    ··· ··· ··· ··· ··· ···        ··· ··· ··· 011   000··· 01 500 jason fulman

Lemmas 1–3 recall elementary facts about unipotent elements in GLn; p‘. Lemma 1. [Ma, p. 181; SS]. The number of unipotent elements in GLn; p‘ with conjugacy class type λ is ŽGLn; p‘Ž P Q : λ0 ‘2 1 p i  ‘ i p miλ‘ Chapter 3 of [Ma] defines Hall–Littlewood symmetric functions

Pλx1;x2;:::y t‘ which will be used extensively. There is an explicit formula for the Hall–Littlewood polynomials. Let the permutation w act on the x-variables by sending xi to xwi‘. There is also a coordinate-wise λ action of w on λ =λ1;:::;λn‘ and Sn is defined as the subgroup of Sn stabilizing λ in this action. For a partition λ =λ1;:::;λn‘ of length ≤ n, two formulas for the Hall–Littlewood polynomial restricted to n variables are: " # ! 1 X Y x − tx λ1 λn i j P x ;:::;x y t‘= w x ···xn λ 1 n Q Qm λ‘ r 1 i 1−t xi − xj i≥0 r=1 1−t w∈Sn i

X λ λ Y xi − txj = w x 1 ···x n  1 n x − x λ λ >λ i j w∈Sn/Sn i j Lemma 2. The probability that a unipotent element of GLn; p‘ has con- jugacy class of type λ is equal to either of

n 1 p  p ‘n 1. P 0 2 Q p λi‘  1 ‘ i p miλ‘ pn 1 ‘ P  1 ; 1 ; 1 ;···y 1 ‘ 2. p n λ p p2 p3 p pnλ‘ Proof. The first statement follows from Lemma 1 and Steinberg’s theo- rem that GLn; p‘ has pnn−1‘ unipotent elements. The second statement follows from the first and from elementary manipulations applied to Mac- donald’s principal specialization formula (page 337 of [Ma]). Full details appear in [F2]. One consequence of Lemma 2 is that in the p →∞limit, all mass is placed on the partition λ =n‘. Thus the asymptotics in this paper will focus on the more interesting case of the fixed p, n →∞limit. Lemma 3. X 1 1 P Q = λ0 ‘2 1 1 p i  ‘ pn ‘ λ`n i p miλ‘ p n the eigenvalue distribution 501

Proof. Immediate from Lemma 2. Lemmas 4 and 5 relate to the theory of Hall polynomials and Hall– Littlewood symmetric functions [Ma]. Lemma 4, for instance, is the duality property of Hall polynomials. Lemma 4. [Ma, p. 181.] For all partitions λ; µ; ν,

Ž”G1 ⊆ Gλ x Gλ/G1 = µ; G1 = ν•Ž=Ž”G1 ⊆ Gλ x Gλ/G1 = ν; G1 = µ•Ž:

Lemma 5. Let Gλ denote an abelian p-group of type λ and G1 a subgroup. Then for all types µ,

X ”ŽG1 ⊆ Gλ x G1 = µŽ• 1 1 P Q = P Q : λ0 ‘2 1 µ0 ‘2 1 1 p i  ‘ p i  ‘ pn−ŽµŽ ‘ λ`n i p miλ‘ i p miµ‘ p n−ŽµŽ Proof. Macdonald (page 220 of [Ma]), using Hall–Littlewood symmetric functions, establishes for any partitions µ; ν the equation

X Ž”G1 ⊆ Gλ x Gλ/G1 = µ; G1 = ν•Ž P Q λ0 ‘2 1 p i  ‘ λxŽλŽ=ŽµŽ+ŽνŽ i p miλ‘ 1 1 = P Q P Q : µ0 ‘2 1 ν0‘2 1 p i  ‘ p i  ‘ i p miµ‘ i p miν‘ Fixing µ, summing the left-hand side over all ν of size n −ŽµŽ, and applying Lemma 4 yields

X X Ž”G1 ⊆ Gλ x Gλ/G1 = µ; G1 = ν•Ž P Q λ0 ‘2 1 p i  ‘ λ ν i p miλ‘

X X Ž”G1 ⊆ Gλ x Gλ/G1 = ν; G1 = µ•Ž = P Q λ0 ‘2 1 p i  ‘ λ ν i p miλ‘

X Ž”G1 ⊆ Gλ x G1 = µ•Ž = P Q : λ0 ‘2 1 p i  ‘ λ i p miλ‘ Fixing µ, summing the right-hand side over all ν of size n −ŽµŽ, and apply- ing Lemma 3 gives that 1 X 1 P Q P Q µ0 ‘2 1 ν0‘2 1 p i  ‘ p i  ‘ i p miµ‘ ν`n−ŽµŽ i p miν‘ 1 1 = P Q ; µ0 ‘2 1 1 p i  ‘ pn−ŽµŽ ‘ i p miµ‘ p n−ŽµŽ proving the lemma. 502 jason fulman

2.2. Upper Triangular Matrices over a Finite Field Let T n; p‘ denote the set of upper triangular elements of GLn; p‘ with 1’s along the main . From the theory of wild quivers there is a provable sense in which the conjugacy classes of T n; p‘ have no simple classification. Nevertheless, as emerges from the work of Kirillov [Ki1, Ki2] and Borodin [Bo], it is interesting to study the Jordan form of elements of T n; p‘. As with the unipotent conjugacy classes of GLn; p‘, the possible Jordan forms correspond to partitions λ of n. Theorem 1 gives five expressions for the probability that an element of T n; p‘ has Jordan form of type λ. As is evident from the proof, most of the hard work at the heart of these formulas has been carried out by others. Nevertheless, at least one of these expressions is useful, and to the best of our knowledge none of these formulas has appeared elsewhere.

Pλ will denote the Hall–Littlewood polynomial of the previous subsection. By a standard Young tableau S of size ŽSŽ=n is meant an assignment of ”1;:::;n• to the dots of the partition such that each of ”1;:::;n• appears exactly once, and the entries increase along the rows and columns. For instance, 1356

247

89 is a standard Young tableau. Theorem 1. The probability that a uniformly chosen element of T n; p‘ has Jordan form of type λ is equal to each of the following:   p − 1‘nP 1 ; 1 ; 1 ;:::y 1 fix p‘ λ p p2 p3 p λ 1. , pnλ‘ where fixλp‘ is the number of complete flags of an n-dimensional vector space over a field of size p which are fixed by a unipotent element u of type λ. p − 1‘nP 1 ; 1 ; 1 ;:::y 1 Qλ p‘ λ p p2 p3 p 1‘n 2. , pnλ‘ λ where Q n p‘ is a Green’s polynomial as defined on page 247 of [Ma]. 1‘   P 3. p − 1‘nP 1 ; 1 ; 1 ;:::y 1 dimχµ‘K  1 ‘, λ p p2 p3 p µ µ;λ p where µ is a partition of n, dimχµ‘ is the dimension of the irreducible rep- resentation of Sn of type µ, and Kµ;λ is the Kostka–Foulkes polynomial as on page 239 of [Ma].   p − 1‘nP 1 ; 1 ; 1 ;:::y 1 chain p‘ λ p p2 p3 p λ 4. , pnλ‘ the eigenvalue distribution 503 where chainλp‘ is the number of maximal length chains of subgroups in an abelian p-group of type λ.    1 1 1 1 P Qn 1 5. P 1; ; ; ;:::y 1 − ∗ , λ p p2 p3 p S j=1 pm 3j ‘ ∗ where the sum is over all standard Young tableaux of shape λ, and m 3j‘ is the number of parts in the subtableau formed by ”1;:::;j• which are equal to the column number of j. Proof. For the first assertion, observe that complete flags correspond to cosets GLn; p‘/Bn; p‘ where Bn; p‘ is the subgroup of all invertible upper triangular matrices. Note that u ∈ GLn; p‘ fixes the flag gBn; p‘ exactly when g−1ug ∈ Bn; p‘. The unipotent elements of Bn; p‘ are pre- cisely T n; p‘. Thus the number of complete flags fixed by u is 1/p − 1‘nŽT n; p‘Ž‘Ž”g x g−1ug ∈ T n; p‘•Ž. It follows that the sought probability n is equal to p − 1‘ fixλp‘ multiplied by the probability that an element of GLn; p‘ is unipotent of type λ. The first assertion then follows from Lemma 1. The second part follows from the first part since, by page 187 of [Ma], λ Q1‘n p‘ is the number of complete flags of an n-dimensional vector space over a field of size p which are fixed by a unipotent element of type λ. The λ third part follows from the second part and a formula for Q1‘n p‘ on page P247 of [Ma]. The fourth part follows from the third part and a formula for dimχµ‘K  1 ‘ in [Kir]. For the fifth assertion, a result on page 197 µ µ;λ p of [Ma] gives that the number of maximal length chains of subgroups in an abelian p-group of type λ is equal to   pnλ‘ X Yn 1 1 − : 1 m∗3 ‘ 1 − ‘n j p S j=1 p Observing that for a partition λ of n,     1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 P 1; ; ; ; ···y = pnP ; ; ; ···y ; λ p p2 p3 p λ p p2 p3 p the result follows. As a corollary of Theorem 1, we recover the “Division Algorithm” of Borodin [Bo] and Kirillov [Kir], which gives a probabilistic way of growing partitions a dot at a time such that the chance of getting λ after n steps is equal to the chance that a uniformly chosen element of T n; p‘ has Jordan type λ. We include our proof as it uses symmetric functions, which aren’t mentioned in the literature on probability in the upper triangular matrices. We remark that a wonderful application of the division algorithm was found by Borodin [Bo], who proved asymptotic normality theorems for the lengths of the longest parts of the partition corresponding to a random element of T n; p‘ and even found the . We give another application in Section 3.2. 504 jason fulman

Corollary 1. [Bo, Kir]. Stopping the following procedure after n steps produces a partition distributed as the Jordan form of a random element of T n; p‘. Starting with the empty partition, at each step transition from a par- tition λ to a partition 3 by adding a dot to column i chosen according to the rules

λ0 • i = 1 with probability 1/p 1 λ0 λ0 • i = j>1 with probability 1/p j − 1/p j−1 .

Proof. For a standard Young tableau S, let 3jS‘ be the partition formed by the entries ”1;:::;j• of S. It suffices to prove that at step j the division algorithm goes from 3j−1 to 3j with probability   P 1; 1 ; 1 ; 1 ;:::y 1   3 p p2 p3 p 1 j   1 − ; m∗3 ‘ P 1; 1 ; 1 ; 1 ;:::y 1 p j 3j−1 p p2 p3 p because then the probability that the algorithm gives λ at step n =ŽλŽ is   n P 1; 1 ; 1 ; 1 ;:::y 1   X Y 3 p 2 3 p 1 j  p p  1 − ∗ 1 1 1 1 m 3j ‘ SxshapeS‘=λ j=1 P 1; ; ; ;:::y p 3j−1 p p2 p3 p     1 1 1 1 X Yn 1 = Pλ 1; ; ; ;:::y 1 − ∗ ; p p2 p3 p m 3j ‘ S j=1 p as desired from Part 5 of Theorem 1. The fact that the division algorithm goes from 3j−1 to 3j with probability   P 1; 1 ; 1 ; 1 ;:::y 1   3 p p2 p3 p 1 j   1 − m∗3 ‘ P 1; 1 ; 1 ; 1 ;:::y 1 p j 3j−1 p p2 p3 p follows, after algebraic manipulations, from Macdonald’s principle special- ization formula (page 337 of [Ma]) 1 1 1 1 Y 1 P 1; ; ; ;:::y ‘=pn+nλ‘ : λ 2 3 λ02 1 p p p p p i  ‘ i p miλ‘

The follow-up paper [F3] relates the of Jordan forms of elements of T n; p‘ to on Bratteli diagrams, giving an- other proof of Corollary 1. The author has been informed that the bound- aries of the branchings in [F3] are homeomorphic to those introduced by [Ke2] and studied by [KOO] as referenced there, and that the branchings the eigenvalue distribution 505 are multiplicative. Nevertheless, given the connection with T n; p‘, the for- mulation in [F3] should prove useful. We remark that Corollary 1 ties in with the algorithms of [F1] for growing random parititions distributed according to the n →∞law of the partition corresponding to the polynomial z − 1 in the Jordan form of a random element of GLn; p‘. The precise relationship is that if each coin in the algorithm on page 585 of [F1] is conditioned to come up heads exactly once, the resulting algorithm is that of Corollary 1.

3. APPLICATIONS

In this section we return to the problem which motivated this paper, studying the eigenvalues of unipotent matrices in the permutation repre- sentation on lines. Lemma 6 describes the cycle structure of the permuta- tion action of a unipotent element α of GLn; p‘ on lines in V in terms of the partition parametrizing the conjugacy class of α. Lemma 6. Let α be a unipotent element of GLn; p‘ with conjugacy class of type λ. Every orbit of the action of α on the set of lines in V has size pr for some r ≥ 0. The number of orbits of size pr is

λ0 +···+λ0 λ0 +···+λ0 p 1 pr − p 1 pr−1 if r ≥ 1 p − 1 λ0 p 1 − 1 if r = 0: p − 1 Proof. As discussed at the beginning of Section 2, the matrix α may be assumed to be   M 000 λ1      0 Mλ 00  2    ;    00Mλ ···  3  000··· where Mi is the i ∗ i matrix with 1’s along and right above the diagonal and 0’s elsewhere. Let Ei = Mi − Id, where Id is the . From this explicit form all eigenvalues of αm;m ≥ 0, are 1. Thus if αm fixes a line, it fixes it pointwise. Hence the number of lines fixed by αm is one less than the number of points it fixes, all divided by p − 1, and we are reduced to studying the action of α of non-zero vectors. It is easily proved a a−1 a m that Mi has order p , where p

x1;:::;xn‘ with some xi non-zero, and m is the smallest non-negative integer with this property, then m is a power of p. Thus all orbits of α on the lines of V have size pr for r ≥ 0. We next claim that αpr ;r ≥ 0, fixes a vector x ;:::;x ;x ;:::;x ;x ;:::;x ;:::;x ‘ 1 λ1 λ1+1 λ1+λ2 λ1+λ2+1 λ1+λ2+λ3 n if and only if

r x a = x a =···=x = 0 for i x λ >p: λ1+···+λi−1+p +1 λ1+···+λi−1+p +2 λ1+···+λi i

It suffices to prove this claim when λ has one part λ1 of size n. Observe P r  that the ith coordinate of αpr x ;:::;x ‘ is n p x . Thus αpr fixes the 1 n j=i j−i j r pr xi for i>n− p , but sends all other xi to xi + xi+pr . To summarize, α fixes x1; ···;xn‘ if and only if xpr +1 =···=xn = 0, as desired. This explicit description of fixed vectors (hence of fixed lines) of αpa yields the formula of the lemma for r ≥ 1, because the number of lines in an orbit of size pr is the difference between the number of lines fixed by αpr and the number of lines fixed by αpr−1 . The formula for the number of lines in an orbit of size 1 follows because there are a total of pn − 1‘/p − 1‘ lines.

3.1. Unipotent Elements of GLn; p‘ Let α be a uniformly chosen unipotent element of GLn; p‘. Each ele- ment of GLn; p‘ permutes the lines in V and thus defines a , which has complex eigenvalues. Each size pr orbit of α on lines gives pr eigenvalues, with one at each of the pr th roots of unity. For θ ∈0; 1‘, define a Xθ by letting Xθα‘ be the number of eigenvalues of α in the interval 1;e2πiθ“ on the unit circle. For r ≥ 1, define random variables Xr on the unipotent elements of GLn; p‘ by λ0 α‘+···+λ0 α‘ λ0 α‘+···+λ0 α‘ p 1 r − p 1 r−1 X α‘= : r p − 1

Clearly, Xr α‘=0ifr>n.Let†y‡ denote the greatest integer less than y. Lemma 6 implies that

X X r−1 +···+X r Xθ = X †θ‡+ p +1 p †pr θ‡: 1 pr r≥1 This relationship (analogous to one used in [W]) will reduce the computa- tion of the mean of Xθ to similar computations for the random variables

Xr , which will now be carried out. Let En denote the expected value with respect to the uniform distribution on the unipotent elements of GLn; p‘. the eigenvalue distribution 507

Theorem 2. For 1 ≤ r ≤ n,

r 1 1 p 1 − n−r+1 ‘···1 − n ‘ E X ‘= p p : n r p − 1 Proof. By Lemma 2,

pn 1 ‘ λ0 α‘+···+λ0 α‘ λ0 α‘+···+λ0 α‘ X p n p 1 r − p 1 r−1 E X ‘= P Q : n r λ0 ‘2 1 p i  ‘ p − 1 λ`n i p miλ‘ Observe that

λ0 +···+λ0 λ0 +···+λ0 p 1 r − p 1 r−1 pr − pr−1 is the number of subgroups of Gλ of type ν =r‘. This is because the r λ0 +···+λ0 λ0 +···+λ0 total number of elements of order p in Gλ is p 1 r − p 1 r−1 , and every subgroup of type ν =r‘ has pr − pr−1 generators. Therefore, using Lemma 5,   r r−1 X n 1 p − p Ž”G1 ⊆ Gλ x G1 =r‘•Ž E X ‘=p P Q n r λ0 ‘2 1 p p − 1 p i  ‘ n λ`n i p miλ‘     ! 1 pr − pr−1 1 1 = pn p p − 1 pr 1 − 1 ‘ pn−r  1 ‘ n p p n−r r 1 1 p 1 − n−r+1 ‘···1 − n ‘ = p p : p − 1

Corollary 2 uses Theorem 2 to bound the mean of Xθ.

θ n n Corollary 2. EnX ‘=θp − 1‘/p − 1‘−Op /n‘. Proof. Let ”y•=y −†y‡ denote the fractional part of a positive number θ y. Theorem 2 and the writing of X in terms of the Xr ’s imply that !   X X X r−1 +···+X r E Xθ‘=θE X − ”pr θ•E p +1 p n n i n pr i≥1 r≥1 n   p − 1 X X r−1 +···+X r = θ − ”pr θ•E p +1 p p − 1 n pr r≥1 n   p − 1 X X r−1 +···+X r ≥ θ − E p +1 p p − 1 n pr r≥1 508 jason fulman

pn − 1 ≥ θ p − 1   †log n‘‡‘ †log n‘‡ Xp ppr−1+1 +···+ppr pp p +1 +···+pn −  ‘−  : p − 1‘pr †logpn‘‡+1 r=1 p − 1‘p

We suppose for simplicity that n 6= ppr + 1 for some r (the case n = ppr + 1 is similar). Continuing,   †log n‘‡ pn − 1 Xp ppr +1 pn+1 E Xθ‘≥θ −   − n p − 1 p − 1‘2 n p − 1‘2n r=1 p†logpn‘‡−r+1   pn − 1 pn = θ − O : p − 1 n

The approach here appears to extend to the computation of higher mo- ments, but the computations are formidable. For example, one can show that if 1 ≤ r ≤ s ≤ n, then      pr+s−1 p 1 1 E X X ‘= 1 − ··· 1 − n r s p − 1 p − 1 pn−s−r+1 pn    # rX−1 1 1 + 1 − ··· 1 − : pn−a−s+1 pn a=0

3.2. Upper Triangular Matrices over a Finite Field Let α be a uniformly chosen element of T n; p‘. Recall that α is unipo- tent by the definition of T n; p‘. Each element of T n; p‘ permutes the lines in V and thus defines a permutation matrix, which has complex eigen- values. Each size pr orbit of α on lines gives pr eigenvalues, with one at each of the pr th roots of unity. For θ ∈0; 1‘, define a random variable Xθ by letting Xθα‘ be the number of eigenvalues of α in the interval 1;e2πiθ“ on the unit circle. For r ≥ 1, define random variables Xr on the unipotent elements of T n; p‘ by

λ0 α‘+···+λ0 α‘ λ0 α‘+···+λ0 α‘ p 1 r − p 1 r−1 X α‘= : r p − 1 Let †y‡ denote the greatest integer less than y. Lemma 6 implies that

X X r−1 +···+X r Xθ = X †θ‡+ p +1 p †pr θ‡: 1 pr r≥1 the eigenvalue distribution 509

As for the case of GLn; p‘ this relationship reduces the computation of θ the mean of X to similar computations for the random variables Xr . Let En denote the expected value with respect to the uniform distribution on the unipotent elements of T n; p‘. Theorem 3 shows that the expected value of Xr is surprisingly simple. As one sees from the case p = 2, the result is quite different from that of Theorem 2. Using the same technique one can compute higher moments.

Theorem 3. For 1 ≤ r ≤ n,   n E X ‘=p − 1‘r−1 : n r r

Proof. We proceed by joint induction on n and r, the base case n = r = 1 being clear. Let ProbS‘ denote the probability that the algorithm of Corollary 1 yields the standard Young tableau S after ŽSŽ steps. Let coln‘ be the column number of n in S. With all sums being over standard Young tableaux, observe that

0 0 X 0 0 λ +···+λr λ S‘+···+λr S‘ Enp 1 ‘= p 1 ProbS‘ SxŽSŽ=n X λ0 S‘+···+λ0 S‘ = p 1 r ProbS‘ SxŽSŽ=n;coln‘=1 X λ0 S‘+···+λ0 S‘ + p 1 r ProbS‘ SxŽSŽ=n;1r X λ0 S0‘+···+λ0 S0‘+1 0 1 = p 1 r ProbS ‘ λ0 S0‘ S0xŽS0Ž=n−1 p 1 Xr X λ0 S0‘+···+λ0 S0‘+1 0 1 1 + p 1 r ProbS ‘ − ‘ 0 0 0 0 λj S ‘ λ S ‘ j=2 S0xŽS0Ž=n−1 p p j−1 X X λ0 S0‘+···+λ0 S0‘ 0 1 1 + p 1 r ProbS ‘ − ‘ 0 0 0 0 λj S ‘ λ S ‘ j>r S0xŽS0Ž=n−1 p p j−1

0 0 0 0 0 0 λ +···+λr λ +···+λ λ +···+λr = pEn−1p 2 ‘+pEn−1p 1 r−1 − p 2 ‘ 0 0 0 0 λ +···+λr λ +···+λ +En−1p 1 − p 1 r−1 ‘ 0 0 0 0 λ +···+λ λ +···+λr =p − 1‘En−1p 1 r−1 ‘+En−1p 1 ‘ 510 jason fulman     n − 1 n − 1 =p − 1‘r−1 +p − 1‘r−1 r − 1 r   n =p − 1‘r−1 : r

Corollary 3 follows by using Theorem 3 and arguing along the lines of Corollary 2. Corollary 3.  pn − 1 Xn p − 1‘r−1 n pn − 1 θ − p r ≤ E Xθ‘≤θ : p − 1 r n p − 1 r=1

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

The author thanks for ongoing discussions about random matrices. This research was supported by an NSF postdoctoral fellowship.

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