Since each group $G$ can be considered as a subgroup of the symmetric group, we might see the elements of $G$ as permutations $\pi$. Consider for each $\pi \in G$ the set: $$X(\pi) := \{ (i,\pi(i)) | 1 \le i \le n \}$$ Then the Jaccard kernel, which is positive definite, is: $$J(\pi,\pi'):= \frac{ |X(\pi) \cap X(\pi')|}{|X(\pi) \cup X(\pi')|}$$ We can consider the matrix $$M = (J(g,h)_{g,h \in G})$$ ordered somehow by an ordering of $G$. My question is if the characteristic polynomial $\chi_{M}(t)$ when factored in irreducible factors over $\mathbb{Q}$ gives some insight in the degrees of irreducible representations of $G$. For example: $G = D_8$ = Dihedral Group with 8 elements: Then $M$ is given by: $$\left(\begin{array}{rrrrrrrr} 1 & 0 & 0 & 0 & \frac{1}{3} & \frac{1}{3} & 0 & 0 \\ 0 & 1 & \frac{1}{3} & 0 & 0 & 0 & \frac{1}{3} & 0 \\ 0 & \frac{1}{3} & 1 & 0 & 0 & 0 & 0 & \frac{1}{3} \\ 0 & 0 & 0 & 1 & \frac{1}{3} & \frac{1}{3} & 0 & 0 \\ \frac{1}{3} & 0 & 0 & \frac{1}{3} & 1 & 0 & 0 & 0 \\ \frac{1}{3} & 0 & 0 & \frac{1}{3} & 0 & 1 & 0 & 0 \\ 0 & \frac{1}{3} & 0 & 0 & 0 & 0 & 1 & \frac{1}{3} \\ 0 & 0 & \frac{1}{3} & 0 & 0 & 0 & \frac{1}{3} & 1 \end{array}\right) $$ with characteristic polynomial: $$\chi_M(t) = (x - \frac{5}{3})^{2} \cdot (x - \frac{1}{3})^{2} \cdot (x - 1)^{4}$$ For $D_8$ we have: $$(1^2+1^2)+(1^2+1^2)+2^2 = 8 = 2+2+4$$ Is this just a coincidence or can it be proven? Here is some SAGEMATH code to play around with: def J(A,B): XA = set([ (x,A[x]) for x in range(len(A))]) XB = set([ (x,B[x]) for x in range(len(A))]) print(XA) print(XB) return QQ(len(XA.intersection(XB)))/QQ(len(XA.union(XB))) G = DihedralGroup(4) M = matrix([[ J(Permutation(x),Permutation(y)) for x in list(G)] for y in list(G)]) print(factor(M.charpoly()) Thanks for your help!