Generalized character sums associated to regular prehomogeneous vector spaces

Abstract

In this paper we consider the analogue of the Sato's functional equation for the prehomogeneous vector spaces over finite fields. The corresponding character sums depend on a relative invariant on such a space and an irreducible representation of the group of components of the stabilizer of a generic point. The proof is based on the Picard-Lefschetz formula in $l$-adique cohomology.