Character sheaves on unipotent groups in positive characteristic: foundations

In this article we formulate and prove the main theorems of the theory of character sheaves on unipotent groups over an algebraically closed field of characteristic p>0. In particular, we show that every admissible pair for such a group G gives rise to an L-packet of character sheaves on G, and that, conversely, every L-packet of character sheaves on G arises from a (non-unique) admissible pair. In the appendices we discuss two abstract category theory patterns related to the study of character sheaves. The first appendix sketches a theory of duality for monoidal categories, which generalizes the notion of a rigid monoidal category and is close in spirit to the Grothendieck-Verdier duality theory. In the second one we use a topological field theory approach to define the canonical braided monoidal structure and twist on the equivariant derived category of constructible sheaves on an algebraic group; moreover, we show that this category carries an action of the surface operad. The third appendix proves that the "naive" definition of the equivariant constructible derived category with respect to a unipotent algebraic group is equivalent to the "correct" one.