C. Andre and N. Yan introduced the idea of a supercharacter theory to give a tractable substitute for character theory in wild groups such as the unipotent uppertriangular group $U_n(F_q)$. In this theory superclasses are certain unions of conjugacy classes, and supercharacters are a set of characters which are constant on superclasses. This paper gives a character formula for a supercharacter evaluated at a superclass for pattern groups and more generally for algebra groups.
We construct supercharacter theories for a collection of unipotent matrix groups and produce a Hopf monoid from the supercharacters. These supercharacter theories are coarser than those defined by Diaconis--Isaacs for algebra groups and have supercharacters and superclasses indexed by nonnesting labeled set partitions. We compute the supercharacter tables and describe the product and coproduct of the Hopf monoid combinatorially. We also show that this Hopf monoid is free.
Even with the introduction of supercharacter theories, the representation theory of many unipotent groups remains mysterious. This paper constructs a family of supercharacter theories for normal pattern groups in a way that exhibit many of the combinatorial properties of the set partition combinatorics of the full uni-triangular groups, including combinatorial indexing sets, dimensions, and computable character formulas. Associated with these supercharacter theories is also a family of polytopes whose integer lattice points give the theories geometric underpinnings.
Let $U_n$ denote the group of $n\times n$ unipotent upper-triangular matrices over a fixed finite field $\FF_q$, and let $U_\cP$ denote the pattern subgroup of $U_n$ corresponding to the poset $\cP$. This work examines the superclasses and supercharacters, as defined by Diaconis and Isaacs, of the family of normal pattern subgroups of $U_n$. After classifying all such subgroups, we describe an indexing set for their superclasses and supercharacters given by set partitions with some auxiliary data. We go on to establish a canonical bijection between the supercharacters of $U_\cP$ and certain $\…
Let $U_n(q)$ denote the upper triangular group of degree $n$ over the finite field $\F_q$ with $q$ elements. It is known that irreducible constituents of supercharacters partition the set of all irreducible characters $\Irr(U_n(q)).$ In this paper we present a correspondence between supercharacters and pattern subgroups of the form $U_k(q)\cap {}^wU_k(q)$ where $w$ is a monomial matrix in $GL_k(q)$ for some $k<n.$
Column closed pattern subgroups $U$ of the finite upper unitriangular groups $U_n(q)$ are defined as sets of matrices in $U_n(q)$ having zeros in a prescribed set of columns besides the diagonal ones. We explain Jedlitschky's construction of monomial linearisation and apply this to $C U$ yielding a generalisation of Yan's coadjoint cluster representations. Then we give a complete classification of the resulting supercharacters, by describing the resulting orbits and determining the Hom-spaces between orbit modules.
The character theory of finite groups has numerous basic questions that are often already quite involved: enumerating of irreducible characters, their character formulas, point-wise product decompositions, and restriction/induction between groups. A supercharacter theory is a framework for simplifying the character theory of a finite group, while ideally not losing all important information. This paper studies one such theory that straddles the gap between retaining valuable group information while reducing the above fundamental questions to more combinatorial lattice constructions.
In order to find a tractable theory to substitute for the wild character theory of the group of $n\times n$ unipotent upper-triangular matrices over a finite field $\mathbb{F}_q$, André and Yan introduced the notion of supercharacter theory. In this paper, we construct a supercharacter theory from an arbitrary set $S$ of normal subgroups of $G$. We call such supercharacter theory the normal supercharacter theory generated by $S$. It is shown that normal supercharacter theories are integral, and a recursive formula for supercharacters of the normal supercharacter theory is provided. The normal …
It is proved the the restriction of any supercharacter of a finite group of triangular type on its subgroup is a sum of supercharacters with nonnegative integer coefficients. We define superinduction and prove the analog of the Frobenius formula for supercharacters.
We construct a supercharacter theory for the group of invertible elements of a reduced algebra. For the case of the triangular group, we obtain the formula for values of supercharacters on superclasses.
We construct the supercharacter theory for the finite groups of triangular type. Its special case is the supercharacter theory for algebra groups of P.Diaconis and I.M.Isaacs. The supercharacter analog of the A.A. Kirillov formula for irreducible characters is proved.
We construct two supercharacter theories (in the sense of P. Diaconis and I.M. Isaacs) for the parabolic subgroups in orthogonal and symplectic groups. For each supercharacter theory, we obtain a supercharacter analog of the A.A.Kirillov formula for irreducible characters of finite unipotent groups.
The supercharacter theory of algebra groups gave us a representation theoretic realization of the Hopf algebra of symmetric functions in noncommuting variables. The underlying representation theoretic framework comes equipped with two canonical bases, one of which was completely new in terms of symmetric functions. This paper simultaneously generalizes this Hopf structure by considering a larger class of groups while also restricting the representation theory to a more combinatorially tractable one. Using the normal lattice supercharacter theory of pattern groups, we not only gain a third cano…
From a recent paper, we recall the Hopf monoid structure on the supercharacters of the unipotent uppertriangular groups over a finite field. We give cancelation free formula for the antipode applied to the bases of class functions and power sum functions, giving new cancelation free formulae for the standard Hopf algebra of supercharacters and symmetric functions in noncommuting variables. We also give partial results for the antipode on the supercharacter basis, and explicitly describe the primitives of this Hopf monoid.
It is well-known that the representation theory of the finite group of unipotent upper-triangular matrices $U_n$ over a finite field is a wild problem. By instead considering approximately irreducible representations (supercharacters), one obtains a rich combinatorial theory analogous to that of the symmetric group, where we replace partition combinatorics with set-partitions. This paper studies the supercharacter theory of a family of subgroups that interpolate between $U_{n-1}$ and $U_n$. We supply several combinatorial indexing sets for the supercharacters, supercharacter formulas for these…
Ferdinand Georg Frobenius is generally considered the creator of character theory of finite groups. This achievement came from the study of the group determinant, which is the determinant of a matrix coming from the regular representation. In this paper, we generalize several of Frobenius' results about the group determinant and use them find a new formulation of supercharacter theory in terms of factorizations of the group determinant.
Diaconis and Isaacs define a supercharacter theory for algebra groups over a finite field by constructing certain unions of conjugacy classes called superclasses and certain reducible characters called supercharacters. This work investigates the properties of algebra subgroups $H\subset G$ which are unions of some set of the superclasses of $G$; we call such subgroups supernormal. After giving a few useful equivalent formulations of this definition, we show that products of supernormal subgroups are supernormal and that all normal pattern subgroups are supernormal. We then classify the set of …
The theory of supercharacters, recently developed by Diaconis-Isaacs and Andre, can be used to derive the fundamental algebraic properties of Ramanujan sums. This machinery frequently yields one-line proofs of difficult identities and provides many novel formulas. In addition to exhibiting a new application of supercharacter theory, this article also serves as a blueprint for future work since some of the abstract results we develop are applicable in much greater generality.
We construct a family of orthogonal characters of an algebra group which decompose the supercharacters defined by Diaconis and Isaacs. Like supercharacters, these characters are given by nonnegative integer linear combinations of Kirillov functions and are induced from linear supercharacters of certain algebra subgroups. We derive a formula for these characters and give a condition for their irreducibility; generalizing a theorem of Otto, we also show that each such character has the same number of Kirillov functions and irreducible characters as constituents. In proving these results, we obse…
It is well-known that the representation theory of the finite group of unipotent upper-triangular matrices $U_n$ over a finite field is a wild problem. By instead considering approximately irreducible representations (supercharacters), one obtains a rich combinatorial theory analogous to that of the symmetric group, where we replace partition combinatorics with set-partitions. This paper studies Diaconis--Isaacs' concept of superinduction in pattern groups. While superinduction shares many desirable properties with usual induction, it no longer takes characters to characters. We begin by findi…
We prove that Euler supercharacters for orthosymplectic Lie superalgebras can be obtained as a certain specialization of super Jacobi polynomials. A new version of Weyl type formula for super Schur functions and specialized super Jacobi polynomials play a key role in the proof.
We obtain an explicit formula for the mock theta function $Φ^{[m,s]}$ in the case when either $m$ or $s$ is a half of an odd integer by using the coroot lattice of $D(2,1;a)$. This enables us, together with the recurrence formula for $Φ^{[m,s]}$, to know $Φ^{[m,s]}$ for all $m$ and $s$. As its application, we deduce explicit formulas for the character and the supercharacter of N=3 modules obtained from the quantum Hamiltonian reduction of $\hat{osp}(3|2)$-modules.
We establish an explicit formula for the character of an irreducible finite-dimensional representation of $\mathfrak{gl}(m|n)$. The formula is a finite sum with integer coefficients in terms of a basis $\mathcal{E}_μ$ (Euler characters) of the character ring. We prove a simple formula for the behaviour of the ``superversion'' of $\mathcal{E}_μ$ in the $\mathfrak{gl}(m|n)$ and $\mathfrak{osp}(m|2n)$-case under the map $ds$ on the supercharacter ring induced by the Duflo-Serganova cohomology functor $DS$. As an application we get combinatorial formulas for superdimensions, dimensions and $\mathf…
Recent work has shown that the study of supercharacters on abelian groups provides a natural framework within which to study certain exponential sums of interest in number theory. Our aim here is to initiate the study of Gaussian periods from this novel perspective. Among other things, our approach reveals that these classical objects display dazzling visual patterns of great complexity and remarkable subtlety.
In the theory of generalized cluster algebras, we build the so-called cluster formula and $D$-matrix pattern. Then as applications, some fundamental conjectures of generalized cluster algebras are solved affirmatively.
We formulate a conjecture for the local parts of Weyl group multiple Dirichlet series attached to root systems of type D. Our conjecture is analogous to the description of the local parts of type A series given by Brubaker, Bump, Friedberg, and Hoffstein in terms of Gelfand--Tsetlin patterns. Our conjecture is given in terms of patterns for irreducible representations of even orthogonal Lie algebras developed by Littelmann.
