Questions tagged [rt.representation-theory]

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

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Is Fourier analysis a special case of representation theory or an analogue?

I'm asking this question because I've been told by some people that Fourier analysis is "just representation theory of $S^1$." I've been introduced to the idea that Fourier analysis is related to ...
David Corwin's user avatar
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101 votes
3 answers
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Why do combinatorial abstractions of geometric objects behave so well?

This question is inspired by a talk of June Huh from the recent "Current Developments in Mathematics" conference. Here are two examples of the kind of combinatorial abstractions of geometric ...
Sam Hopkins's user avatar
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79 votes
12 answers
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Why are characters so well-behaved?

Last year I attended a first course in the representation theory of finite groups, where everything was over C. I was struck, and somewhat puzzled, by the inexplicable perfection of characters as a ...
Saul Glasman's user avatar
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78 votes
12 answers
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Why aren't representations of monoids studied so much?

It seems to me like every book on representation theory leaps into groups right away, even though the underlying ideas, such as representations, convolution algebras, etc. don't really make explicit ...
Mikola's user avatar
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77 votes
3 answers
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5/8 bound in group theory

The odds of two random elements of a group commuting is the number of conjugacy classes of the group $$ \frac{ \{ (g,h): ghg^{-1}h^{-1} = 1 \} }{ |G|^2} = \frac{c(G)}{|G|}$$ If this number exceeds ...
john mangual's user avatar
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74 votes
7 answers
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A learning roadmap for Representation Theory

As Akhil had great success with his question, I'm going to ask one in a similar vein. So representation theory has kind of an intimidating feel to it for an outsider. Say someone is familiar with ...
70 votes
10 answers
8k views

Is every finite group a group of "symmetries"?

I was trying to explain finite groups to a non-mathematician, and was falling back on the "they're like symmetries of polyhedra" line. Which made me realize that I didn't know if this was actually ...
Andrew McIntyre's user avatar
68 votes
20 answers
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Fun applications of representations of finite groups

Are there some fun applications of the theory of representations of finite groups? I would like to have some examples that could be explained to a student who knows what is a finite group but does not ...
67 votes
11 answers
12k views

What is significant about the half-sum of positive roots?

I apologize for the somewhat vague question: there may be multiple answers but I think this is phrased in such a way that precise answers are possible. Let $\mathfrak{g}$ be a semisimple Lie algebra (...
Justin Campbell's user avatar
66 votes
3 answers
4k views

Does linearization of categories reflect isomorphism?

Given a category $C$ and a commutative ring $R$, denote by $RC$ the $R$-linearization: this is the category enriched over $R$-modules which has the same objects as $C$, but the morphism module between ...
Tilman's user avatar
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63 votes
1 answer
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Feit-Thompson conjecture

The Feit-Thompson conjecture states: If $p<q$ are primes, then $\frac{q^p-1}{q-1}$ does not divide $\frac{p^q-1}{p-1}$. On page xiii of these proceedings of a conference at the University of ...
Mare's user avatar
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62 votes
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Why is the exterior algebra so ubiquitous?

The exterior algebra of a vector space V seems to appear all over the place, such as in the definition of the cross product and determinant, the description of the Grassmannian as a variety, the ...
Qiaochu Yuan's user avatar
61 votes
1 answer
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Double affine Hecke algebras and mainstream mathematics

This is something of a followup to the question "Kapranov's analogies", where a connection between Cherednik's double affine Hecke algebras (DAHA's) and Geometric Langlands program was mentioned. I ...
59 votes
8 answers
12k views

Why the Killing form?

I'm teaching a short summer course on algebraic groups and it's time to talk about the Killing form on the Lie algebra. The students are all undergrads of varying levels of inexperience, and I try to ...
Ryan Reich's user avatar
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58 votes
3 answers
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Is "semisimple" a dense condition among Lie algebras?

The "Motivation" section is a cute story, and may be skipped; the "Definitions" section establishes notation and background results; my question is in "My Question", and in brief in the title. Some ...
Theo Johnson-Freyd's user avatar
54 votes
4 answers
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How many square roots can a non-identity element in a group have?

Let $G$ be a finite group. Let $r_2\colon G \to \mathbb{N}$ be the square-root counting function, assigning to each $g\in G$ the number of $x\in G$ with $x^2=g$. Perhaps surprisingly, $r_2$ does not ...
alpmu's user avatar
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9 answers
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Nice proofs of the Poincaré–Birkhoff–Witt theorem

Let $\mathfrak{g}$ be a finite-dimensional Lie algebra over a field $k$, with an ordered basis $x_1 < x_2 < ... < x_n$. We define the universal enveloping algebra $U(\mathfrak{g})$ of $\...
user332's user avatar
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53 votes
5 answers
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Motivating the Casimir element

Weyl's theorem states that any finite-dimensional representation of a finite-dimensional semisimple Lie algebra is completely reducible. In my mind, the "natural" way to prove this result is by way ...
Timothy Chow's user avatar
53 votes
5 answers
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How much of the ATLAS of finite groups is independently checked and/or computer verified?

In a recent talk Finite groups, yesterday and today Serre made some comments about proofs that rely on the classification of finite simple groups (CFSG) and on the ATLAS of Finite Groups. Namely, he ...
David Roberts's user avatar
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53 votes
3 answers
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Why are parabolic subgroups called "parabolic subgroups"?

Over the years, I have heard two different proposed answers to this question. It has something to do with parabolic elements of $SL(2,\mathbb{R})$. This sounds plausible, but I haven't heard a really ...
Timothy Chow's user avatar
52 votes
5 answers
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Beautiful descriptions of exceptional groups

I'm curious about the beautiful descriptions of exceptional simple complex Lie groups and algebras (and maybe their compact forms). By beautiful I mean: simple (not complicated - it means that we need ...
zroslav's user avatar
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52 votes
2 answers
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Is there a good mathematical explanation for why orbital lengths in the periodic table are perfect squares doubled?

$\DeclareMathOperator\SO{SO}\newcommand{\R}{\mathbb{R}}\newcommand{\S}{\mathbb{S}}$The periodic table of elements has row lengths $2, 8, 8, 18, 18, 32, \ldots $, i.e., perfect squares doubled. The ...
Eugene Stern's user avatar
52 votes
0 answers
987 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
51 votes
7 answers
12k views

Why are the characters of the symmetric group integer-valued?

I remember one of my professors mentioning this fact during a class I took a while back, but when I searched my notes (and my textbook) I couldn't find any mention of it, let alone the proof. My best ...
zeb's user avatar
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51 votes
3 answers
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What to do now that Lusztig's and James' conjectures have been shown to be false?

Lusztig and James provided conjectures for dimensions of simple modules (or decomposition numbers) for algebraic groups and symmetric groups in characteristic $p$. These conjectures have been ...
Chris Bowman's user avatar
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50 votes
10 answers
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How is the physical meaning of an irreducible representation justified?

This is maybe not an entirely mathematical question, but consider it a pedagogical question about representation theory if you want to avoid physics-y questions on MO. I've been reading Singer's ...
Qiaochu Yuan's user avatar
50 votes
6 answers
10k views

How is representation theory used in modular/automorphic forms?

There is certainly an abundance of advanced books on Galois representations and automorphic forms. What I'm wondering is more simple: What is the basic connection between modular forms and ...
David Corwin's user avatar
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What role does the "dual Coxeter number" play in Lie theory (and should it be called the "Kac number")?

While trying to get some perspective on the extensive literature about highest weight modules for affine Lie algebras relative to "level" (work by Feigin, E. Frenkel, Gaitsgory, Kac, ....), I run into ...
Jim Humphreys's user avatar
49 votes
4 answers
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Intuition behind the definition of quantum groups

Being far from the field of quantum groups, I have nevertheless made in the past several (unsuccessful) attempts to understand their definition and basic properties. The goal of this post is to try to ...
asv's user avatar
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49 votes
2 answers
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Which philosophy for reductive groups?

I am just beginning to look further into trace formulas and automorphic forms in a quite general setting. For long I have noticed that the natural assumption on the group $G$ we work on is to be ...
Desiderius Severus's user avatar
48 votes
4 answers
5k views

How to constructively/combinatorially prove Schur-Weyl duality?

How is Schur-Weyl duality (specifically, the fact that the actions of the group ring $\mathbb{K}\left[ S_{n}\right] $ and the monoid ring $\mathbb{K}\left[ \left( \operatorname*{End}V,\cdot\...
darij grinberg's user avatar
45 votes
1 answer
13k views

Consequences of Geometric Langlands

So, lots of people work on the Geometric Langlands Conjecture, and there have been a few questions around here on it (admittedly, several of them mine). So here's another one, tagged community wiki ...
45 votes
2 answers
9k views

Open problems/questions in representation theory and around?

What are open problems in representation theory? What are the sources (books/papers/sites) discussing this? Any kinds of problems/questions are welcome - big/small, vague/concrete. Some estimation ...
45 votes
1 answer
4k views

Square roots of elements in a finite group and representation theory

Let $G$ be a finite group. In an an earlier question, Fedor asked whether the square root counting function $r_2:G\rightarrow \mathbb{N}$, which assigns to $g\in G$ the number of elements of $G$ that ...
Alex B.'s user avatar
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44 votes
7 answers
3k views

Character table does not determine group Vs Tannaka duality

From the example $D_4$, $Q$, we see that the character table of a group doesn't determine the group up to isomorphism. On the other hand, Tannaka duality says that a group $G$ is determined by its ...
user avatar
43 votes
2 answers
4k views

How much of character theory can be done without Schur's lemma or the Artin-Wedderburn theorem?

This is a somewhat imprecise question, as I am not sure how exactly how to formalise how to do mathematics "without" a certain key tool, but hopefully the intent of the question will still be clear. ...
Terry Tao's user avatar
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43 votes
3 answers
10k views

Feit-Thompson theorem: the Odd order paper

For reference, the Feit-Thompson Theorem states that every finite group of odd order is necessarily solvable. Equivalently, the theorem states that there exist no non-abelian finite simple groups of ...
Amitesh Datta's user avatar
43 votes
1 answer
3k views

What is the status of Arthur's book?

Arthur's long-awaited book project is now published (The endoscopic classification of representations: orthogonal and symplectic groups). However, in the book he takes some things for granted: The ...
Kimball's user avatar
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43 votes
0 answers
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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
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42 votes
10 answers
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The finite subgroups of SL(2,C)

Books can be written about the finite subgroups of $\mathrm{SL}(2,\mathbb C)$ (and their immediate family, like the polyhedral groups...) I am about to start writing notes for a short course about ...
Mariano Suárez-Álvarez's user avatar
42 votes
3 answers
2k views

Are there "real" vs. "quaternionic" conjugacy classes in finite groups?

The complex irreps of a finite group come in three types: self-dual by a symmetric form, self-dual by a symplectic form, and not self-dual at all. In the first two cases, the character is real-valued, ...
Allen Knutson's user avatar
42 votes
7 answers
6k views

How to think about parabolic induction.

In studying representations of a reductive group G, a standard technique is to use parabolic induction. The idea is that one studies such groups as a family (or perhaps in smaller families, like say ...
Kevin McGerty's user avatar
41 votes
6 answers
7k views

Why we need to study representations of matrix groups?

Why we need to study representations of matrix groups? For example, the group $\operatorname{SL}_2(\mathbb F_q)$, where $\mathbb F_q$ is the field with $q$ elements, is studied by Drinfeld. I think ...
Jianrong Li's user avatar
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41 votes
3 answers
3k views

Why is there such a close resemblance between the unitary representation theory of the Virasoro algebra and that of the Temperley-Lieb algebra?

For those who aren't familiar with the Virasoro or Temperley-Lieb algebras, I include some definitions: • The (universal envelopping algebra of the) Virasoro algebra is the $\star$-algebra $...
André Henriques's user avatar
40 votes
8 answers
10k views

Ubiquity of the push-pull formula

The push-pull formula appears in several different incarnations. There are, at least, the following: 1) If $f \colon X \to Y$ is a continous map, then for sheaves $\mathcal{F}$ on $X$ and $\mathcal{G}...
Andrea Ferretti's user avatar
40 votes
6 answers
4k views

What motivations for automorphic forms?

Automorphic forms are ubiquitous in modern number theory and stands as a mysterious Graal lying at the intersection of many fields, if not building valuable bridges between them. However, since this ...
40 votes
5 answers
9k views

Induction and Coinduction of Representations

I'd like to understand the general framework of induction and coinduction of representations. If G is a finite group and H a subgroup, I know that there is a restriction functor from representations ...
Evan Jenkins's user avatar
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40 votes
2 answers
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Why can't we take three loops?

Apologies for the vague title and soft question. According to Etingof, Igor Frenkel once suggested that there are three "levels" to Lie theory, which I guess could be given the following names: No ...
Qiaochu Yuan's user avatar
40 votes
2 answers
7k views

Current Status on Langlands Program

The Langlands Program was launched almost fifty years ago, and progress has been made gradually, much of it hard earned. Langlands himself wrote a survey on the functoriality conjecture in 1997, Where ...
Tian An's user avatar
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40 votes
1 answer
4k views

Roadmap to Geometric Representation Theory (leading to Langlands)?

I believe there has been at least one question similar to this one and yet I still think this particular question deserves to have a thread of its own. I'm becoming increasingly fascinated by stuff ...
Saal Hardali's user avatar
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