The main purpose of this thesis is to calculate the integral cohomology ring of the symmetric square of quaternionic projective space, which has been an open problem since computations with symmetric squares were first proposed in the 1930's. The geometry of this particular case forms an essential part of the thesis, and unexpected results concerning two universal Pin(4) bundles are also included. The cohomological computations involve a commutative ladder of long exact sequences, which arise by decomposing the symmetric square and the corresponding Borel space in compatible ways. The geometry and the cohomology of the configuration space of unordered pairs of distinct points in quaternionic projective space, and of the Thom space MPin(4), also feature, and seem to be of independent interest.

In 1976, Springer defined a correspondence making a link between the irreducible ordinary (characteristic zero) representations of a Weyl group and the geometry of the associated nilpotent variety. In this thesis, we define a modular Springer correspondence (in positive characteristic), and we show that the decomposition numbers of a Weyl group (for example the symmetric group) are particular cases of decomposition numbers for equivariant perverse sheaves on the nilpotent variety. We calculate explicitly the decomposition numbers associated to the regular and subregular classes, and to the minimal and trivial classes. We determine the correspondence explicitly in the case of the symmetric group, and show that James's row and column removal rule is a consequence of a smooth equivalence of nilpotent singularities obtained by Kraft and Procesi. The first chapter contains generalities about perverse sheaves with Z_l and F_l coefficients.