The action of the symmetric group on a generalized partition semilattice (Q1977371): Difference between revisions

Given an integer \(k\), the poset \(\Pi_{n,k}\) consists of all non-empty intersections of hyperplanes \(x_i=x_j+r\) for \(i,j\in\{1,\dots,n\}\), ordered by reverse inclusion so that \(\Pi_{n,0}=\Pi_n\) is the partition lattice which has been well studied by Hanlon and Stanley in particular, some of whose results have been extended in this paper. Since the symmetric group \(S_n\) acts on \(\Pi_{n,k}\) by permuting coordinates, then \(\tau\in S_n\) determines a subposet \(\Pi^\tau_{n,k}\) of elements left fixed by (the action of) \(\tau\) for which the Möbius function \(\mu_\tau=\mu_\tau(\Pi^\tau_{k,n})\) is determined to be 0 unless \(\tau\) is a product of \(d\) cycles of length \(d/n\) when it equals \[ \mu_\tau=\mu\left({n\over d}\right)\left(-{n\over d}\right)^{d-1}{(k+1)d-1\choose d-1}(d-1)!, \] \(\mu\) the ordinary (integral) Möbius function. Hence \((-1)^{n-1}\mu_\tau\) as a function of \(\tau\) is the character of the action of \(S_n\) on the homology of \(\Pi_{n,k}\). If \(\Psi_{n,k}\) is this character times the sign character, then if \(\tau\) is an \(n\)-cycle of \(S_n\) with cyclic group \(C_n\) generated by \(\tau\), then after inducing them up to \(S_n\), \(\Psi_{n,0}\) is induced by \(\chi(\tau)=e^{2\pi i/n}\) and for \(k>0\) there is a nonnegative integer sum of such characters which equals \(\Psi_{n,k}\) in analogy with and via a careful extension and refinement of the earlier approach.