DT-invariants of quivers and the Steinberg character of GL_n

In this paper we give a simple description of DT-invariants of double quivers without potential as the multiplicity of the Steinberg character in some representation associated with the quiver. When the dimension vector is indivisible we use this description to express these DT-invariants as the Poincare polynomial of some singular quiver varieties. Finally we explain the connections with previous work of Hausel-Letellier-Villegas where DT-invariants are expressed as the graded multiplicities of the trivial representation of some Weyl group in the cohomology of some non-singular quiver varieties attached to an extended quiver.

Tensor products of unipotent characters of general linear groups over finite fields

We study multiplicities of unipotent characters in tensor products of unipotent characters of GL(n,q). We prove that these multiplicities are polynomials in q with non-negative integer coefficients. We study the degree of these polynomials and give a necessary and sufficient condition in terms of the representation theory of symmetric groups for these polynomials to be non-zero.

Positivity of Kac polynomials and DT-invariants for quivers

We give a cohomological interpretation of both the Kac polynomial and the refined Donaldson-Thomas- invariants of quivers. This interpretation yields a proof of a conjecture of Kac from 1982 and gives a new perspective on recent work of Kontsevich-Soibelman. This is achieved by computing, via an arithmetic Fourier transform, the dimensions of the isoytpical components of the cohomology of associated Nakajima quiver varieties under the action of a Weyl group. The generating function of the corresponding Poincare polynomials is an extension of Huas formula for Kac polynomials of quivers involving Hall-Littlewood symmetric functions. The resulting formulae contain a wide range of information on the geometry of the quiver varieties.

Arithmetic harmonic analysis on character and quiver varieties II

We study connections between the topology of generic character varieties of fundamental groups of punctured Riemann surfaces, Macdonald polynomials, quiver representations, Hilbert schemes on surfaces, modular forms and multiplicities in tensor products of irreducible characters of finite general linear groups.

Arithmetic harmonic analysis on character and quiver varieties

We present a conjecture generalizing the Cauchy formula for Macdonald polynomials. This conjecture encodes the mixed Hodge polynomials of the character varieties of representations of the fundamental group of a Riemann surface of genus g to GL_n(C) with fixed generic semi-simple conjugacy classes at k punctures. Using the character table of GL_n(F_q) we calculate the E-polynomial of these character varieties and confirm that it is as predicted by our main conjecture. Then, using the character table of gl_n(F_q), we calculate the E-polynomial of certain associated comet-shaped quiver varieties, the additive analogues of our character variety, and find that it is the pure part of our conjectured mixed Hodge polynomial. Finally, we observe that the pure part of our conjectured mixed Hodge polynomial also equals certain multiplicities in the tensor product of irreducible representations of GL_n(F_q). This implies a curious connection between the representation theory of GL_n(F_q) and Kac-Moody algebras associated with comet-shaped, typically wild, quivers.

Topology of character varieties and representations of quivers

In arXiv:0810.2076 we presented a conjecture generalizing the Cauchy formula for Macdonald polynomials. This conjecture encodes the mixed Hodge polynomials of the representation varieties of Riemann surfaces with semi-simple conjugacy classes at the punctures. We proved several results which support this conjecture. Here we announce new results which are consequences of those of arXiv:0810.2076.