Questions tagged [rt.representation-theory]

Linear representations of algebras and groups, Lie theory, associative algebras, multilinear algebra.

2,406 questions with no upvoted or accepted answers
Filter by
Sorted by
Tagged with
52 votes
0 answers
988 views

Class function counting solutions of equation in finite group: when is it a virtual character?

Let $w=w(x_1,\dots,x_n)$ be a word in a free group of rank $n$. Let $G$ be a finite group. Then we may define a class function $f=f_w$ of $G$ by $$ f_w(g) = |\{ (x_1,\dots, x_n)\in G^n\mid w(x_1,\dots,...
Frieder Ladisch's user avatar
43 votes
0 answers
2k views

Why are there so few quaternionic representations of simple groups?

Having spent many hours looking through the Atlas of Finite Simple Groups while in Grad school, I recall being rather intrigued by the fact that among the sporadic groups, only one (McLaughlin as I ...
ARupinski's user avatar
  • 5,181
37 votes
0 answers
1k views

Groups whose complex irreducible representations are finite dimensional

By a complex irreducible representation of a group $G$, I mean a simple $\mathbb CG$-module. So my representations need not be unitary and we are working in the purely algebraic setting. It is easy ...
Benjamin Steinberg's user avatar
36 votes
0 answers
865 views

Chern character of a Representation

Let $G$ be a finite group. Under the identification of the representation ring $R_{\mathbb{C}}(G)$ with the equivariant K-theory $KU^0_G(\ast)$ of the point, followed by Atiyah-Segal completion-...
Urs Schreiber's user avatar
31 votes
0 answers
893 views

Is this representation of Go (game) irreducible?

This post is freely inspired by the basic rules of Go (game), usually played on a $19 \times 19$ grid graph. Consider the $\mathbb{Z}^2$ grid. We can assign to each vertex a state "black" ($b$), "...
Sebastien Palcoux's user avatar
29 votes
0 answers
1k views

Linking formulas by Euler, Pólya, Nekrasov-Okounkov

Consider the formal product $$F(t,x,z):=\prod_{j=0}^{\infty}(1-tx^j)^{z-1}.$$ (a) If $z=2$ then on the one hand we get Euler's $$F(t,x,2)=\sum_{n\geq0}\frac{(-1)^nx^{\binom{n}2}}{(x;x)_n}t^n,$$ on the ...
T. Amdeberhan's user avatar
24 votes
0 answers
770 views

Revising the proof of CFSG

This is an oft-quoted excerpt from John Thompson's article "Finite Non-Solvable Groups": “... the classification of finite simple groups is an exercise in taxonomy. This is obvious to the ...
semisimpleton's user avatar
24 votes
0 answers
698 views

What is the status of a result of Kontsevich and Rosenberg?

In their influential paper Noncommutative Smooth Spaces (https://arxiv.org/abs/math/9812158), Kontsevich and Rosenberg define the notion of a noncommutative projective space. In Section 3.3 they ...
Adam Nyman's user avatar
23 votes
0 answers
561 views

When does a representation admit a spin structure?

Let $G$ be a finite group, and let $V$ be an $n$-dimensional real representation of $G$. Think of $V$ as given by a homomorphism $$ \rho_V\colon G\to O(n).$$ Write $\chi_V$ for the character of $V$. ...
Charles Rezk's user avatar
  • 26.6k
22 votes
0 answers
800 views

Combinatorics of Quantum Schubert Polynomials

Let $S_n$ be the symmetric group. Let $s_i$ denote the adjacent transposition $(i \ i+1)$. For any permutation $w\in S_n$, an expression $w=s_{i_1}s_{i_2}\cdots s_{i_p}$ of minimal possible length is ...
Alex R.'s user avatar
  • 4,902
21 votes
0 answers
458 views

Is there a "direct" proof of the Galois symmetry on centre of group algebra?

Let $G$ be a finite group, and $n$ an integer coprime to $|G|$. Then we have the following map, which is clearly not a morphism of groups in general: $$g\mapsto g^n.$$ This induces a linear ...
Chris H's user avatar
  • 1,854
21 votes
0 answers
463 views

What are the indecomposable $U_q\mathfrak{sl}(2)$-modules?

Let $\mathfrak g=\mathfrak{sl}(2)$. Let $\zeta$ be a primitive root of unity of even order. Say $\zeta=e^{2\pi i/6}$, for concreteness. Let $U_q\mathfrak g$ be Lusztig's integral form of the ...
André Henriques's user avatar
21 votes
0 answers
896 views

Cauchy matrices with elementary symmetric polynomials

$\newcommand{\vx}{\mathbf{x}}$ Let $e_k(\vx)$ denote the elementary symmetric polynomial, defined for $k=0,1,\ldots,n$ over a vector $\vx=(x_1,\ldots,x_n)$ by \begin{equation*} e_k(\vx) := \sum_{1 \...
Suvrit's user avatar
  • 28.4k
20 votes
0 answers
440 views

Which classes in $\mathrm{H}^4(B\mathrm{Exceptional}; \mathbb{Z})$ are classical characteristic classes?

Let $G$ be a compact connected Lie group. Recall that $\mathrm{H}^4(\mathrm{B}G;\mathbb{Z})$ is then a free abelian group of finite rank. Let us say that a class $c \in \mathrm{H}^4(\mathrm{B}G;\...
Theo Johnson-Freyd's user avatar
20 votes
0 answers
754 views

Should the Dynkin diagrams of types $A_1$ and $B_2$ be labelled $C_1$ and $C_2$?

The labels $A$--$G$ attached to connected Dynkin diagrams are of course arbitrary, the result of historical accidents. In order to avoid repetitions, the four infinite families $A_\ell, B_\ell, C_\...
Jim Humphreys's user avatar
19 votes
0 answers
544 views

Large values of characters of the symmetric group

For $g$ an element of a group and $\chi$ an irreducible character, there are two easy bounds for the character value $\chi(g)$: First, the bound $|\chi(g)|\leq \chi(1)$ by the dimension of the ...
Will Sawin's user avatar
  • 135k
19 votes
0 answers
363 views

Is there a classification of reflection groups over division rings?

I asked a version of this question in Math StackExchange about a week ago but I've received no feedback so far, so following the advice I received on meta I decided to post it here. Details The ...
pregunton's user avatar
  • 976
18 votes
0 answers
353 views

Can Rep(G) tell us whether G is discrete?

Given a locally compact group $G$, let $$\mathrm{Rep}(G)$$ be its category of unitary representations. The objects of that category are strongly continuous unitary representations of $G$ on Hilbert ...
André Henriques's user avatar
18 votes
0 answers
521 views

A cohomology class associated with a complex representation of a group

$\newcommand\CC{\mathbb C}\newcommand\ZZ{\mathbb Z}\newcommand\ad{\mathsf{ad}}\newcommand\Ext{\operatorname{Ext}}$ Suppose that $G$ is a finite group and that it acts on a finite dimensional complex ...
Mariano Suárez-Álvarez's user avatar
18 votes
0 answers
510 views

Applications of the surjectivity of Brauer's decomposition map over arbitrary fields?

Recently I've been going over some of Serre's reformulation of Brauer theory with a student, following the influential treatment in Part III of Serre's lectures (revised 1971 French edition) later ...
Jim Humphreys's user avatar
18 votes
0 answers
888 views

local equivalence of loop group representations

Let $G$ be a compact, simple, connected, simply connected (cscsc) Lie group, and let its smooth loop group $LG:=C^\infty(S^1,G)$. Given an interval $I\subset S^1$, we have the local loop group $$ L_IG ...
André Henriques's user avatar
17 votes
0 answers
981 views

Symmetries of local systems on the punctured sphere

Let $X=S^2\setminus D$, for $D\subset S^2$ some finite set of points, say with $|D|=n\geq 1$. The category of locally constant sheaves of $\mathbb{C}$-vector spaces on $X$ (equivalently, complex ...
Daniel Litt's user avatar
  • 22.2k
17 votes
0 answers
343 views

Row of the character table of symmetric group with most negative entries

The row of the character table of $S_n$ corresponding to the trivial representation has all entries positive, and by orthogonality clearly it is the only one like this. Is it true that for $n\gg 0$, ...
Sam Hopkins's user avatar
  • 22.7k
17 votes
0 answers
516 views

Your favourite alternative proof of Borel–Weil–Bott

There is a really nice proof of Borel–Weil–Bott, essentially using parabolic induction (see Proof of Borel-Weil-Bott Theorem, Lurie - A proof of the Borel–Weil–Bott theorem or Demazure - A very simple ...
17 votes
0 answers
594 views

Who first noticed the duality for finite groups?

A.A.Kirillov in section 12.3 of his "Elements of the Theory of Representations" writes that the first "symmetric" duality theory for non-commutative groups was the theory for finite groups. In short ...
Sergei Akbarov's user avatar
17 votes
0 answers
684 views

When is the determinant an $8$-th power?

I am working over $\mathbb{R}$ (though most of the story goes over any field). I am looking for linear spaces of matrices such that the restriction of the determinant to this spaces can be written (...
Libli's user avatar
  • 7,210
17 votes
0 answers
678 views

Monstrous Langlands-McKay or what is bijection between conjugacy classes and irreducible representation for sporadic simple groups?

Context: The number of conjugacy classes equals to the number of irreducuble representations (over C) for any finite group. Moreover for the symmetric group and some other groups there is "good ...
Alexander Chervov's user avatar
17 votes
0 answers
971 views

What to do with results you found but cannot prove(outside your research area)?

Not sure if MathOverflow is still a place to discuss such things, but I'll give it a try. Tell me an alternative site, in case it is wrong here. I translated a representation-theory/combinatorial ...
Mare's user avatar
  • 25.8k
17 votes
0 answers
457 views

Quasi-classical limit of representation theory

I am looking for a good reference on a general phenomenon of quasi-classical limit in representation theory, which relates "large" representations to measures on (co-adjoint orbits of) the associated ...
Leonid Petrov's user avatar
17 votes
0 answers
903 views

Combinatorial identity involving the Coxeter numbers of root systems

The setup is: $R$ = irreducible (reduced) root system; $D$ = connected Dynkin diagram of $R$, with nodes numbered $1,2,...,r$; $\hat D$ = extended Dynkin diagram, nodes numbered $0,1,2,...,r$; $\...
Jeffrey Adams's user avatar
16 votes
0 answers
545 views

Identity involving Schur polynomials, binomial coefficients and contents of partition

Let $C_{\lambda,\mu}$ be the coefficients defined as $$ s_\lambda\left(\frac{x_1}{1-x_1},...,\frac{x_N}{1-x_N}\right)=\sum_{\mu\supset \lambda}C_{\lambda\mu}s_\mu(x_1,...,x_N),$$ where $s$ are the ...
Marcel's user avatar
  • 2,510
16 votes
0 answers
739 views

Is there a "natural" proof of the equality $4^2=2^4$?

This question, or rather any answer that it might receive, would probably belong to the realm of Awfully sophisticated proof for simple facts. Still, I claim that I have quite serious motivation for ...
მამუკა ჯიბლაძე's user avatar
16 votes
0 answers
375 views

Representation categories and homology

Let $G$ be a finite group. Let $\mathcal{C}=Rep-G$ be the rigid $\mathbb{C}$-linear symmetric monoidal category of finite dimensional complex representations of $G$. Can we recover some homological ...
Ehud Meir's user avatar
  • 4,969
16 votes
0 answers
805 views

Capelli determinant = Duflo ( determinant) - was it known ?

Question briefly. Was this fact known: Capelli determinant = Duflo (determinant) ? (This is an equality of the two central elements in universal enveloping of Lie algebra $gl_n$). I googled a lot ...
Alexander Chervov's user avatar
16 votes
0 answers
533 views

Does a symplectic group act on a tensor power of a spin representation?

$\DeclareMathOperator\Spin{Spin}\DeclareMathOperator\Sp{Sp}$More specifically, let $S_k$ be the spin representation of $\Spin(2k+1)$. Then is there are action of $\Sp(2r-2)$ on $\bigotimes^{2r}S_k$ ...
Bruce Westbury's user avatar
16 votes
0 answers
525 views

Comparing the Kazhdan-Lusztig and Steinberg pre-orders

Both Kazhdan-Lusztig and Steinberg have defined pairs of preorders on $S_n$. Kazhdan and Lusztig's preorders come from their basis: We write $x\leq_L y$ if any left ideal spanned by K-L basis ...
Ben Webster's user avatar
  • 43.9k
16 votes
0 answers
604 views

Division fields of abelian varieties over function fields

Let $k$ be a finitely generated field (for example a finite field or a number field) and $K/k$ a finitely generated regular extension with $trdeg(K/k)=1$. Let $A/K$ be a principally polarized abelian ...
Sebastian Petersen's user avatar
16 votes
0 answers
985 views

representation theoretic interpretation of Jack polynomials

Monomial symmetric polynomials on $n$ variables $x_1, \ldots x_n$ form a natural basis of the space $\mathcal{S}_n$ of symmetric polynomials on $n$ variables and are defined by additive symmetrization ...
John Jiang's user avatar
  • 4,354
15 votes
0 answers
481 views

Applications of character sheaves

There are many important recent works (for example, by Lusztig, Bezrukavnikov-Finkelberg-Ostrik, Ben-Zvi-Nadler, Boyarchenko-Drinfeld, Lusztig-Yun, Vilonen-Xue) on character sheaves (which are certain ...
Yellow Pig's user avatar
  • 2,490
15 votes
0 answers
403 views

The Monster Moonshine Module from the engineering or algorithmic point of view

From what I understand (see, e.g., this question), the Monster Moonshine Module is a kind if "third generation" (or "second quantization"?) after the Golay code (with automorphism group $M_{24}$) and ...
Gro-Tsen's user avatar
  • 29.9k
15 votes
0 answers
2k views

PT Symmetry and the Riemann Hypothesis

Recently there have been articles in Quanta, in Science Alert, and at phys.org among others, on possible recent progress toward the Hilbert-Polya conjecture, which implies the Riemann Hypothesis. The ...
Stopple's user avatar
  • 10.8k
14 votes
0 answers
472 views

Is the monster group maximal in SO(196883)?

$\DeclareMathOperator\SO{SO}$The smallest degree of a nontrivial complex representation of the monster group $ M $ is $ 196883 $. This irrep has Schur indicator $ 1 $, so the image must lie in the ...
Ian Gershon Teixeira's user avatar
14 votes
0 answers
868 views

Local proof of Grothendieck-Riemann-Roch theorem

There is a theorem by Feigin and Tsygan(Theorem 1.3.3 here) which they call "Riemann-Roch" theorem. Given a smooth morphism $f:S\to N$ of relative dimension $n$ and a vector bundle $E/S$ of ...
SashaP's user avatar
  • 7,027
14 votes
0 answers
410 views

Does the category of G-spectra know G?

I was recently in the situation of having access to the category of $G$-modules (for some group $G$ which I had forgotten), as just a category, i.e. no monoidal structure, together with the forgetful ...
Vivek Shende's user avatar
  • 8,663
13 votes
0 answers
438 views

Is there a simple proof that representations of GL(n,k) are determined by their restriction to diagonal matrices?

Let $k$ be a field of characteristic zero. The general linear group $\mathrm{GL}(n,k)$ has a subgroup $\mathrm{D}(n,k)$ consisting of invertible diagonal matrices. These are linear algebraic groups ...
John Baez's user avatar
  • 21.3k
13 votes
0 answers
269 views

Representation theory of Kac-Moody algebras in positive characteristic

I have been trying to learn about the representation theory of Kac-Moody algebras in positive characteristic. However, my usual reference for the subject (Infinite dimensional Lie algebras by Kac) ...
Arthur's user avatar
  • 1,379
13 votes
0 answers
204 views

Hidden grading on $kS_n$

Brundan and Kleshchev showed that if $k$ is a field of characteristic $p$, then the group ring $kS_n$ of the symmetric group $S_n$ admits an integer grading which is nontrivial in the sense that it is ...
Richard Hepworth's user avatar
13 votes
0 answers
187 views

Relationship between crystal root operators and usual $e_i, f_i$?

Suppose I am working in a symmetrizable Kac–Moody Lie algebra $\mathfrak{g}$. Let $e_1,\dotsc,e_n,f_1,\dotsc,f_n$ denote the usual Chevalley generators of $\mathfrak{g}$. Let $V$ be a highest weight ...
ArB's user avatar
  • 688
13 votes
0 answers
379 views

Bernstein-Zelevinsky classification: viewing a representation as a subrepresentation or a quotient

$\DeclareMathOperator{\GL}{GL}$ $\DeclareMathOperator{\Ind}{Ind}$I have a question on the details of the Bernstein-Zelevinsky classification. This classification allows us to obtain irreducible ...
D_S's user avatar
  • 6,100
13 votes
0 answers
257 views

Group homology $\mathrm{SL}_2$ acting on $\mathrm{Sym}^g$

Let $k$ be a field. We write $\mathrm{Sym}^g(k^2)$ for the $g$-th symmetric power of the (a?) standard representation of $\mathrm{GL}_2(k)$ ($g\geq 0$ an integer). Here I consider $\mathrm{Sym}^g(k^2)$...
tkr's user avatar
  • 408

1
2 3 4 5
49