On the classification of indecomposable Ekedahl-Oort strata in unitary Shimura varieties, and related Newton polygons

Abstract: In this paper, we give a complete classification of indecomposable Ekedahl-Oort strata of Shimura varieties associated to the unitary group $\mathsf{GU}(a, b)$ over an odd inert prime. We show that each indecomposable stratum is one of four types: unitary unicycle, unitary bicycle, Serre unicycle, or Serre bicycle; the latter two types are named for a tensor construction of abelian varieties developed by Serre. We provide an algorithm that translates the description of a stratum in terms of words in the alphabet ${\texttt{f},\texttt{v}}$ to the corresponding Weyl group coset representative. Finally, using a $p$-adic lift, we construct a `tautological' point in each Ekedahl-Oort stratum, and compute its Newton polygon. As an application, we show that the indecomposable Ekedahl-Oort strata corresponding to unitary unicycles and Serre unicycles always intersect the supersingular locus.