Generalized characters of the symmetric group

Normalized irreducible characters of the symmetric group S(n) can be understood as zonal spherical functions of the Gelfand pair (S(n)×S(n),diagS(n)). They form an orthogonal basis in the space of the functions on the group S(n) invariant with respect to conjugations by S(n). In this paper we consider a different Gelfand pair connected with the symmetric group, that is an “unbalanced” Gelfand pair (S(n)×S(n−1),diagS(n−1)). Zonal spherical functions of this Gelfand pair form an orthogonal basis in a larger space of functions on S(n), namely in the space of functions invariant with respect to conjugations by S(n−1). We refer to these zonal spherical functions as normalized generalized characters of S(n). The main discovery of the present paper is that these generalized characters can be computed on the same level as the irreducible characters of the symmetric group. The paper gives a Murnaghan-Nakayama type rule, a Frobenius type formula, and an analogue of the determinantal formula for the generalized characters of S(n).     

Majorization of characters of the symmetric group

Suppose λ and χ are different irreducible characters of the symmetric group S_m. If the partition of m to which λ corresponds majorizes the partition to which χ corresponds, then $\text{λ(τ)}\text{λ(e)}\text{>}\text{χ(τ)}\text{χ(e)}$, where τ is a transposition and e is the identity.     

Recurrences for characters of the symmetric group

Recurrences for irreducible and Kostka characters of the symmetric group are derived here in a purely combinatorial treatment.     

Projective characters of the infinite generalized symmetric group

We consider the infinite generalized symmetric group S(∞)?? _m ^∞ , introduce its covering $\tilde B_m $ , and describe all indecomposable characters on the group $\tilde B_m $ .     

An explicit formula for the characters of the symmetric group

We give an explicit expression of the normalized characters of the symmetric group in terms of the “contents” of the partition labelling the representation.     

Stable decompositions for some symmetric group characters arising in braid group cohomology

We prove that certain permutation characters for the symmetric group Σn decompose in a manner that is independent of n for large n. This result is a key ingredient in the recent work of T. Church and B. Farb, who obtain a “representation stability” theorem for the character of Σn acting on the cohomology Hp(Pn,C) of the pure braid group Pn.     

A central limit theorem for extremal characters of the infinite symmetric group

The asymptotic behavior of the lengths of the first rows and columns in the random Young diagrams corresponding to extremal characters of the infinite symmetric group is studied. We consider rows and columns with linear growth in n and prove a central limit theorem for their lengths in the case of distinct Thoma parameters. We also prove a more precise statement relating the growth of rows and columns of Young diagrams to a simple independent random sampling model.     

Dimensions of skew-shifted young diagrams and projective characters of the infinite symmetric group

We study a factorial of Schur's P-functions. In terms of these functions, we obtain an explicit formula for the dimension of a skew shifted Young diagram. The main application of this formula is a new derivation of the Nazarov's classification of indecomposable projective characters of an infinite symmetric group.Translated fromZapiski Nauchnykh Seminarov POMI, Vol. 240, 1997, pp. 115–135.Supported by the Soros International Educational Program, grant 2093c.     

Block characters of the symmetric groups

A block character of a finite symmetric group is a positive definite function which depends only on the number of cycles in a permutation. We describe the cone of block characters by identifying its extreme rays, and find relations of the characters to descent representations and the coinvariant algebra of ${\mathfrak{S}}_{n}$ . The decomposition of extreme block characters into the sum of characters of irreducible representations gives rise to certain limit shape theorems for random Young diagrams. We also study counterparts of the block characters for the infinite symmetric group ${\mathfrak{S}}_{\infty}$ , along with their connection to the Thoma characters of the infinite linear group GL _∞(q) over a Galois field.     

On the symmetric square Unstable twisted characters

We provide a purely local computation of the (elliptic) twisted (by “transpose-inverse”) character of the representationπ=I(1) of PGL(3) over ap-adic field induced from the trivial representation of the maximal parabolic subgroup. This computation is independent of the theory of the symmetric square lifting of [IV] of automorphic and admissible representations of SL(2) to PGL(3). It leads — see [FK] — to a proof of the (unstable) fundamental lemma in the theory of the symmetric square lifting, namely that corresponding spherical functions (on PGL(2) and PGL(3)) are matching: they have matching orbital integrals. The new case in [FK] is the unstable one. A direct local proof of the fundamental lemma is given in [V].     

Spin characters of generalized symmetric groups

In 1911 Schur computed the spin character values of the symmetric group using two important ingredients: the first one later became famously known as the Schur Q-functions and the second one was certain creative construction of the projective characters on Clifford algebras. In the context of the McKay correspondence and affine Lie algebras, the first part was generalized to all wreath products by the vertex operator calculus in Frenkel et al. (Duke Math J 111:51–96, 2002) where a large part of the character table was produced. The current paper generalizes the second part and provides the missing projective character values for the wreath product of the symmetric group with a finite abelian group. Our approach relies on Mackey–Wigner’s little groups to construct irreducible modules. In particular, projective modules and spin character values of all classical Weyl groups are obtained.     

Modular group rings of the finitary symmetric group

The paper discusses approaches to constructing two-sided ideals of the modular group algebra of finitary symmetric group. In memory of Professor S. A. Amitsur     

The group algebra of the infinite symmetric group

The rational group algebra of the infinite symmetric group is studied using Young diagrams. Maximal and prime ideals are characterized and the maximal condition on ideals is proved. Research supported by the National Research Council of Canada.     

Upper bound on the characters of the symmetric groups

Let C be a conjugacy class in the symmetric group S _n , and λ be a partition of n. Let f ^λ be the degree of the irreducible representation S ^λ , χ ^λ (C)– the character of S ^λ at C, and r ^λ (C)– the normalized character χ ^λ (C) f ^λ . We prove that there exist constants b > 0 and 1 > q > 0 such that for n > 4, for every conjugacy class C in S _n and every irreducible representation S ^λ of S _n ∣r ^λ (C)∣≦ ( max {q,λ ₁ n, λ ₁ ′ n}) ^{b ⋅ supp(C)} where supp (C) is the number of non-fixed digits under the action of a permutation in C, λ ₁ is the size of the largest part in λ, and λ ₁ ′ is the number of parts in λ. The proof is obtained by enumeration of rim hook tableaux, the Hook formula and probabilistic arguments. Combinatorial, algebraic and statistical applications follow this result. In particular, we estimate the rate of mixing of random walks on the alternating groups with respect to conjugacy classes. Oblatum 14-III-1995 & 30-X-1995