On unipotent and nilpotent pieces for classical groups

Abstract

We show that the definition of unipotent (resp. nilpotent) pieces for classical groups given by Lusztig (resp. Lusztig and the author) coincides with the combinatorial definition using closure relations on unipotent classes (resp. nilpotent orbits). Moreover we give a closed formula for a map from the set of unipotent classes (resp. nilpotent orbits) in characteristic 2 to the set of unipotent classes in characteristic 0 such that the fibers are the unipotent (resp. nilpotent) pieces.