All Questions
20 questions
54
votes
4
answers
5k
views
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 ...
- 805
32
votes
3
answers
3k
views
Order of products of elements in symmetric groups
Let $n \in \mathbb{N}$. Is it true that for any $a, b, c \in \mathbb{N}$ satisfying
$1 < a, b, c \leq n-2$ the symmetric group ${\rm S}_n$ has elements of order $a$ and $b$
whose product has order $...
- 19.6k
28
votes
1
answer
1k
views
Number of irreducible representations of a finite group over a field of characteristic 0
Let $G$ be a finite group and $K$ a field with $\mathbb{Q} \subseteq K \subseteq \mathbb{C}$.
For $K=\mathbb{C}$ the number of irreducible representations of $KG$ is equal to the number of conjugacy ...
- 26.5k
20
votes
1
answer
586
views
$q$-(and other)-analogs for counting index-$n$ subgroups in terms of Homs to $S_n$?
The following formula of astonishing beauty and power (imho):
$$ \sum_{n \ge 0} \frac{| \mathrm{Hom}(G,S_n) | }{n! } z^n = \exp\left( \sum_{n \ge 1} \frac{|\text{Index}~n~\text{subgroups of}~ G|}nz^...
- 24.9k
16
votes
1
answer
1k
views
Tensor power of the natural representation of Sn
The symmetric group $S_n$ acts over $V=\mathbb{R}^n$ by permuting the canonical basis.
So it acts over $V^{\otimes p}$ with a diagonal action (acts the same over each element of the tensor product).
...
- 583
16
votes
1
answer
804
views
Existence of a faithful irreducible representation using Möbius function
Let $G$ be a finite group, $L(G)$ its subgroup lattice and $\mu$ the Möbius function.
Consider the Euler totient of $G$ defined as follows:
$$ \varphi(G) = \sum_{H \le G}\mu(H,G) |H| $$
Let $X=\{M_1, \...
14
votes
3
answers
660
views
Which partitions realise group algebras of finite groups?
Fix an algebraically closed field $K$ (maybe of characteristic zero first for simplicity, like $\mathbb{C}$).
Given a partition $p=[a_1,...,a_m]$ of an integer $n$. We can identify $p$ with the ...
- 26.5k
13
votes
2
answers
1k
views
Number of commuting pairs (triples, n-tuples) in GL_n(F_q) (and other groups)?
Question 1 What is the number of pairs of commuting elements in GL_n(F_q) ?
I am aware of many results concerning commuting elements in Mat_n(F_q), but I am interested in GL i.e. non-degenerate ...
- 24.9k
10
votes
2
answers
2k
views
Number of faithful representations of a finite group
Is it known how many faithful linear representations a finite group G has on a complex vector space of given dimension? What if G is abelian?
I would even be interested in this special case: the ...
- 4,807
9
votes
1
answer
650
views
A stronger version of a problem of Kenneth Brown using representations
Let $G$ be a finite group and $\mathcal{L}(G)$ its subgroup lattice. Let $\mu$ be the Möbius function on $\mathcal{L}(G)$.
The reduced Euler characteristic of the order complex of the coset poset $\{ ...
8
votes
2
answers
576
views
Two statistics on the permutation group
Let $\mathfrak{S}_n$ be the permutation group on an $n$-element set. For each fixed $k\in\mathbb{N}$, consider the two sets
$$A_n(k)=\{\sigma\in\mathfrak{S}_n\vert\,\, \text{$\exists i,\,\, 1\leq i\...
- 43.2k
8
votes
0
answers
247
views
Computing the number of elementary abelian p-subgroups of rank 2 in $GL_{n}(\mathbb{F}_{p})$
Let $p$ be a prime number, and let $\mathbb{F}_{p}$ be a finite
field of order $p$. Let $GL_{n}(\mathbb{F}_{p})$ denote the general linear
group and $U_{n}$ denote the unitriangular group of $n\times ...
- 463
6
votes
1
answer
341
views
Sum of Young symmetrisers of a given shape
Preliminaries and notation:
Let $n\in \mathbb{Z}_{>0}$ and $\lambda=(\lambda_1,\lambda_2,\dots,\lambda_s)\vdash n$ be a partition. Given a Young diagram of shape $\lambda$, we can associate it ...
- 87
6
votes
0
answers
1k
views
Frobenius formula
I know two formulas by the name of Frobenius.
The first one computes the number
$$\mathcal{N}(G;C_1,\dotsc,C_k):=|\{(c_1,\dotsc,c_k)\in C_1 \times \cdots \times C_k\:|\:c_1\cdots c_k=1\}|,$$
where $...
- 711
6
votes
0
answers
88
views
Numbers where there is a unique group with integral character table
Call a number $n$ special in case there is a unique group of order n whose character table consists of only integers. This should be equivalent to the condition that the number of conjugacy classes ...
- 26.5k
5
votes
1
answer
264
views
Group not leaving subset invariant
Let $Y,X$ be two sets of size n,m. Let $Y\subset X$.
What is the maximal group(in size) $G< Sym(X)$ such that gY=Y imply that $g=1$?
Here I mean that the only permutation which permutes elements of ...
- 2,179
3
votes
0
answers
210
views
How many conjugacy classes of elementary abelian subgroups of order $p^2$ does $\operatorname{GL}_{4}(\Bbb Z / p\Bbb Z)$ have?
$\DeclareMathOperator\Hom{Hom}\DeclareMathOperator\GL{GL}\DeclareMathOperator\Aut{Aut}$Let $f\in \Hom((\Bbb Z/p\Bbb Z)^2,\GL_{4}(\Bbb Z / p\Bbb Z))$ be an injective homomorphism. What is the number of ...
- 463
3
votes
0
answers
215
views
scalar multiple of Young symmetrizer
The following is a lemma from Fulton and Harris' book -Representation theory,a first course (page 53):
Lemma: For all $x\in \mathbb{C}\mathfrak{S}_r$, $c_{\lambda}\cdot x\cdot c_{\lambda}= scalar \;...
- 181
1
vote
0
answers
72
views
Scalars by which symmetrizations of cyclic permutations act on Specht modules
Let $S_n$ be the symmetric group. Pick $a \in 2,\ldots,n$ and denote by $c_a \in \mathbb{C}[S_n]$ the symmetrization of the element $(12\ldots a)$ i.e. $c_a$ is the sum of cycles of type $a$.
Let $\...
- 163
0
votes
1
answer
283
views
Is any abelian subgroup of a semidirect product isomorphic to a direct product of abelian subgroups? [closed]
Let $H$ and $K$ be groups and $V$ an abelian subgroup of the semidirect
product $\ H\rtimes K$. Do there exist abelian subgroups $H^{\prime }\leq H$
\ and $K^{\prime }\leq K$ \ such that $V\cong H^{\...
- 463